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D&D General The D&D Memes Thread

overgeeked

B/X Known World
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Oh, it's a legit name of an actual published adventure from 1981. I'm guessing the author was more inspired by the WWI history of the term or various weird tourist traps rather than the ... other... usage.
More likely it's a cheeky dual reference to mining techniques (most likely block caving given the context) and the sexualized term. Judge's Guild was prone to some fairly juvenile humor at times.

"Glory hole" also refers to an approach to offshore oil extraction and a type of spillway found in some dams, in addition to the L'ilot de La Boiselle battlefield you mentioned, which I've also seen referred to in war diaries as "the corner of Hell." I suspect the folks who started those usages were fully aware of the other meaning of the term when they did so, although if the internet is to be believed that one didn't appear in print until 1949 - despite the basic concept being recorded (and exploited by police and blackmailers) as early as 1707.

On a related note, I can never avoid chuckling when reading old fiction where some respectable lady espouses a desire to retire from her current job and open a tearoom, which (aside from being what it sounds like) was slang for a bathroom stall with a glory hole. Happens often enough in the works of Agatha Christie and her imitators that I really have to wonder if they knew what they were doing too. :)
 


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