Aesthetic of Historical Verisimilitude

[quarter_to_five]

Or, they did use the word clitoris in at least the late 19th Century. (Discovered while looking for something else entirely.) Thank god. I'm usually of the opinion that you have to be very careful with using words that sound too modern, even if they're actually appropriately period, because it still snaps the reader out of the sense-of-the-times, even if that sense is actually in accurate. (Unless you're trying to do something deliberate with that, of course. It all depends on what you're going for.) But with clitoris I just. don't. care. Goodbye, 'nub', 'bud', 'pearl', 'blossom', 'berry', 'secret tiny cupcake of love' and all the rest of them. Hurray. 

(...but I wasn't actually willing to use 'clitoris' until I was sure that it wasn't actually anachronistic. Look-this-makes-sense-in-my-brain-ok?)