this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2026
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Sure, like I said: I know the anatomy. It's lacking in clinical precision, but it describes what people mean when they say clitoris, which is the glans.
If someone says to rub their clitoris they're not asking you to rub their labia majora. (They might appreciate it but it's not what their asking)
That's what people usually mean when they talk about the clitoris, you are right.¹ But we are talking about a language vocable in a dictionary here, not about colloquial language. Sign language is not something like an auxiliary language, but a natural one. This is why we can expect from a sign language dictionary that it uses the precise terms. My wife is working as a sign language interpreter and she very often has to prepare vocabulary before a job, then she uses these sites as a dictionary. Common jobs are medical consultations, but also medical conferences are possible. Then she needs precise terms. She doesn't speak ASL so I can't ask her about this specific sign, it could be that it can be used for both meanings.
Please don't get me wrong, I don't want to win an argument here. I just want to give another perspective!
¹I guess people mean this because the term is older than the knowledge about the anatomy of what it describes. People often just don't know. This is something that can change.
Yeah, I totally get that sign language is a real language.
It's that I don't expect a dictionary to have the same level of precision as a medical dictionary or encyclopedia. It similarly talks about kidneys as a pair of organs on the right and left of the abdomen, and the liver as a large organ in the upper abdomen.
No mention that the kidneys are made of nephrons, their connection to the bladder or role regulating osmotic equilibrium.
Absolutely devasting A+P 1 shade getting thrown right now 🍿