LONDON (AP) 鈥� Francesca can鈥檛 get no satisfaction in
鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell you how many times I鈥檝e said the word 鈥榩innacle鈥� in the last year of my life,鈥� laughs Hannah Dodd, the actor who plays her in the Netflix series returning Thursday.
That鈥檚 because the sixth Bridgerton sibling is on a personal quest to discover the secrets of female pleasure, and 鈥減innacle鈥� is the word she, repeatedly, uses for the orgasm that eludes her.
Part two of the continues the fairytale love story between but also includes updates on the rest of the sprawling family’s romantic adventures. Newly wed to the Earl of Kilmartin, played by Victor Alli, Francesca realized that she is ignorant about what happens in a four-poster bed and resolves to discover the secrets of sex from her married friends and family.
鈥淚 wonder if that was a bit of a workshop with, like, what word they were going to use for it?鈥� Dodd mused during an interview.
The answer is yes.
Showrunner Jess Brownell confirms that they researched and discussed which term to use. A thesaurus helped.
鈥淚t felt like 鈥榦rgasm鈥� wasn鈥檛 a word that was used in that time period,鈥� says Brownell. The show, and produced by Shondaland, is set during Britain’s Regency era, the early 19th century. 鈥淚t needed to be a word that sounded right coming out of Francesca鈥檚 mouth over and over again,鈥� Brownell adds.
鈥淧innacle鈥� was eventually deemed obscure and funny enough for the character to use.
So did that term hit the spot?
Jessica Cale, a novelist and historian of sex, says that 鈥減innacle鈥� isn鈥檛 quite historically accurate 鈥� but it is 鈥渧ery effective.鈥�
鈥淥ne of the more common terms that comes up a lot is 鈥榯he crisis,鈥� which I think is probably the funniest one,鈥� Cale says.
The word 鈥渙rgasm鈥� was indeed around then 鈥� Oxford English Dictionary dates use of it to the late 1600’s 鈥� but it was usually used as a clinical term, the first evidence of its use is in medical literature by physician George Thompson in 1671.
Euphemisms have abounded for centuries. Cale references popular erotic fiction like 鈥淔anny Hill,鈥� also known as 鈥淢emoirs of a Woman of Pleasure,鈥� which was published in parts during the late 1740s 鈥� well before The novel by John Cleland refers to orgasms as 鈥溾�榯he point.鈥� 鈥楾he critical period.鈥� 鈥楾he die-away moment,鈥� and 鈥� this is the best one 鈥� 鈥榯he critical ecstasy, the melting flow, into which nature, spent with an excess of pleasure, dissolves and dies away,鈥欌�� Cale says.
Whether Francesca’s storyline resolves in crisis of the literal or more figurative kind, her character’s pinnacle of another sort is yet to come, as Dodd is expected to take a larger role in a future season.
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