bang

This word is a personal favorite, and my preferred slang term for intercourse. It smacks of informality, rarely being found in more serious discourse. Most of us have used it anecdotally, in describing a sound such as that of a car accident or to indicate the mental effect of an event's suddenness. It probably cannot be said to have any specific connotation with regard to sound; it is likely that if all sounds that have been described with it were heard sequentially, there would be little to link them. Except, perhaps, for volume, and this is a rather curious feature of the word as used for sounds: it is a noun that gives only a property of its referent, without defining it. More concrete, and less interesting, is its use for sudden and forceful physical impacts. In other contexts, it is often used as a generic term for an occurrence; hence its use for sexual intercourse, an act often described merely as "doing it." Hence also the "Big Bang," which names the most definitive occurrence of all, if only in theory. Unlike most uses of the word, these two speak for themselves: most other uses require elaboration, or questioning. ("Well, what kind of bang was it?" "How exactly did it sound?") The word has its limitations, it is painfully vague, but we accept it as a matter of course when the occurrence being described is inherently indescribable, as in the origin of the universe or sexual intercourse.