felch

While the term felch first made its requisite debut on Urban Dictionary in 2003, the term can be traced back to at least 1972, when it was recorded in linguist Ronald Farrell’s article “The Argot of the Homosexual Subculture.” Published only a few years after the Stonewall Riot in New York City, a key moment in the Gay Rights movement, Farrell’s article explored the language of the gay community at the time, including felch, which he recorded as feltch.

The origin of felch is obscure. It may be an imitation of the sound of the act of felching, although one linguist, according to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, has suggested a connection to filch, which originally meant to “to steal something with a hook.”

You won’t find felch in any issues of Superman or Batman. But the term did make its way into underground comics in 1975 as part of the risqué Felch Cumics. Get it?

Various Urban Dictionary entries note the fact that felching can also be done out of a vagina. Some propose use of a straw for felching. Others note that felching may include spitting the sexual fluids into a partner’s mouth. As felching involves direct contact with sexual fluids, it can be considered an unsafe sex practice that may transmit STDs.

Another sense of felching is the rumored practice of inserting small animals, such as a gerbil, into an anus for sexual pleasure.