Talk:La petite mort

message: List_of_French_phrases_used_by_English_speakers#L - la petite mort - an orgasm; lit. the little death 
Le Petit Mort, Lumiere Records, ASIN: B000FJH14Y, Amazon
Le Petit Morte, 24 hour service station, ASIN: B0008GGLE0 , Amazon
La petite morte, Métailié , ISBN: 2864241382 , Amazon
La Petite Mort, Quai Voltaire, ISBN: 2912517222 , Amazon
La Petite Mort : Anthologie érotique de littérature fantastique, Albin Michel - L'Echo des Savanes, ISBN: 2226104496 , Amazon
Petites morts, Editions du Rouergue,  , Amazon
Grimion gant de cuir, tome 3 : La petite mort, Glénat , ISBN: 2723408248, Amazon
La petite mort: sex equated to death Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.(Critical Essay): An article from: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, Institute for Evolutionary Psychology, Amazon
French Wikipedia entry for Mort, " "la petite mort est un moment qui peut suivre l'orgasme et pendant lequel on peut paraître inconscient. "
Pathol8  "La petite mort Cette expression si française,  reprise parfois par des écrivains non francophones fait l'objet d'une question. ", "L’orgasme est appelé « petite mort »."
Gérard d'Houville – Petite morte "
Facettes de la petite mort 
Groupe La Petite Mort sur Info-Groupe.com 
Galerie La Petite Mort 
La Petite Mort (film) 
Atom 20:38, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  correct spelling 

message: "Medieval folk belief that only dwarves could experience orgasm, an act that would lead to their death"
If you can find a reference to corroborate that, go ahead and add it back.  I'm removing it for now, because it seems absurd to me, besides that it's unsupported.  Elliotbay 06:41, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The correct plural of "dwarf" is "dwarfs" unless you're writing about JRR Tolkien's fictional race.  It doesn't need capitalising either. 2.31.162.93 (talk) 10:40, 19 July 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dwarves 

message: Just to be clear, in French mort is feminine when it means "death" as a noun, and masculine when it refers to a dead person or victim of a murder. This is supported in my Larousse. La petite mort is clearly, to myself at least, the more accurate saying (meaning "the small death", rather than "the small dead boy")--Larineso 23:32, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  La mort 

message: Everything I've ever learned as this meaning a regret.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Losteem (talk • contribs) 04:40, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  This is wrong 

message: Does it mean little death, or is it really the small death?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.9.59.249 (talk) 21:03, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Same difference ? Little = small, pretty much. I suppose 'little' is more likely to mean 'partial', as in 'Every time we say goodbye, I die a little' (Cole Porter). I doubt he meant orgasm, though ! --195.137.93.171 (talk) 04:22, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

text: I have to say, for the most part there does not seem to be a significant difference, but some English Usage dictionaries, such as the Oxford's 2005 Practical English Usage will describe something like the following distinction: 
Small simply refers to size. It is the opposite of big or large
Could I have a small brandy, please?
You're too small to be a policeman.
The adjective little usually expresses some kind of emotion
Poor little thing – come here and let me look after you.
They've bought a pretty little house in the country.
So it seems that one is most likely to see this translated as “little death” given the emotional aspect and abstract comparison to any “larger” death. Enderandpeter (talk) 23:57, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Correct Translation? 

message: Reference 1 to the Psychoanalytic Quarterly (The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 21, 1952, No. 2. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 34:353) is incorrect. There is no reference to "post-orgasmic fainting spells" in either pages 34 or 353. Vol. 21 No. 2 is from pages 153-293. 128.143.167.232 (talk) 17:37, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Incorrect Reference 

message: all right, we know that "petite mort" means "little death" and is a euphemism for orgasm.  but how did this usage come about?  who used it first?  is it from literature?
Pgilman (talk) 18:13, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology? 

message: Might anyone know where Roland Barthes's statement regarding la petite mort as the ultimate affect from great literature can be found? You should let me know either here or my talk page. Thank you! Enderandpeter (talk) 23:26, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Roland Barthes and La petite mort 

message: Does anyone mind improving the paragraph below, in order to indicate how does this relate to a "small death"? For me, as it is right now, the fact seems a bit "stretched" in order to make it fit into this article. 159.245.16.100 (talk) 07:47, 2 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Real Death 

message: "... melancholy or transcendence as a result of the expenditure of the "life force," the feeling which is caused by the release of oxytocin in the brain after the occurrence of orgasm."
A reference is needed to justify this assertion. I have read the Wikki entry on oxytocin & can find no reference to melancholy or feeling of transcendence as an effect of oxytocin, although 'contentment' is mentioned.   g4oep  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.96.60.31 (talk) 08:54, 28 September 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Oxytocin 

message: The reference below, which includes a further reference to Kinsey, opens up a wider picture of the petite mort, which might be worth exploring if this wikki article is to be elaborated further.
http://www.forum2.org/mellon/lj/glenn.pdf
g4oep  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.96.60.31 (talk) 09:01, 28 September 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Omne Animal post coitum triste est 

message: The article says: "When referring to orgasm, it is unclear whether "la petite mort" or "little death" describe a normal post-orgasmic state, or whether they refer to a medical condition, such as sexual headaches, Dhat syndrome, post-coital tristesse (PCT), or postorgasmic illness syndrome (POIS)".
I have never ever came (sic) across the latter meaning, it was always used (both in books/articles and in conversations) as the former one, which is the normal post-orgasmic state. I have no idea where the user who edited that in the article found this unfounded hypothesis. 
The reason why it remained in usage - after being used to refer to the brief loss of consciousness in the previous centuries, as an euphemism for sex (back when it was improper to simply say it clearly) - is because it works as a figure of speech, using a term belonging to the negative death drive (la mort, the Death), to instead refer to the positive life drive (sex -> orgasm).
88.177.158.231 (talk) 17:50, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unclear? 

message: The term "little death", with which "la petite mort" is often compared, has a similar, though slightly different meaning. Namely, it means "a state or event resembling or prefiguring death; a weakening or loss of consciousness, specifically in sleep or during an orgasm".[2] As with "la petite mort", the earlier attested uses are not related to sex or orgasm.
"Compared"? It's -the literal translation of the phrase-. What is this paragraph even trying to say? 108.34.206.74 (talk) 07:02, 25 June 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  What even is this 

message: During the plague and up through the Renaissance the term "La Petite Mort" also referred to the act of Sneezing. It was thought that each time one Sneezed their heart stopped. With each Sneeze one's soul went to heaven and God determined whether to grant continued life, or not. Hence the original phrase "God has blessed you". Meaning that you had been granted life. 
https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/sneeze.html
Why do people say, “God bless you,” after someone sneezes?
There are varying accounts as to the origin of this response.  One belief is that it originated in Rome when the bubonic plague was raging through Europe.  One of the symptoms of the plague was coughing and sneezing, and it is believed that Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) suggested saying “God bless you” after a person sneezed in hopes that this prayer would protect them from an otherwise certain death.
The expression may have also originated from superstition.  Some people believe that the custom of asking for God’s blessing began when ancient man thought that the soul was in the form of air and resided in the body’s head.  A sneeze, therefore, might accidentally expel the spirit from the body unless God blessed you and prevented this from occurring.  Some ancient cultures also thought that sneezing forced evil spirits out of the body endangering others because these spirits might now enter their bodies.  The blessing was bestowed to protect both the person sneezed and others around him.
Edallen33 (talk) 05:35, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Your link appears to be broken. Do you have another source indicating that "la petite mort" has ever referred to sneezing? I remember being told the same thing, but can't find any sources (other than your comment) to support that. BatmanAoD (talk) 14:18, 29 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other use of the term "La Petite Mort" 

message: An article from the website of the radio station "France info" : "Why do we say little death ?" https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/sexo/journee-mondiale-de-l-orgasme-pourquoi-parle-t-on-de-petite-mort_5555007.html 2A01:E0A:8E5:9D90:F559:1E6C:956A:68B1 (talk) 21:45, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reference in French