Quoin???

[kellydeer.livejournal.com]

At the risk of sounding completely ignorant...can someone please tell me what the hell a 'Quoin' is???

I've been around this fandom for quite a while & have never figured it out & never bothered to ask anyone. I did look up the term & found the following definition (via the Mirriam-Webster dictionary):

1: a solid exterior angle (as of a building) b: one of the members (as a block) forming a quoin and usually differentiated from the adjoining walls by material, texture, color, size, or projection


2: the keystone or a voussoir of an arch


3: a wooden or expandable metal block used by printers to lock up a form within a chase

Somehow I'm guessing none of these are what the term means in the QAF fandom. From what I can gather, it is (for lack of a better term) a male whore house. If so, I was just wondering how the term came to be used as such when I've found no definition even closely resembling that.

If this should not be posted here, please advise. Thanks!


UPDATE: No one really knows how the word Quoin became associated with a male brothel, but thanks to its_french, this is the closest definition for the word:

Here's what Urban Dictionary has to say about it:
To unceremoniously bend someone over and take them from behind.

Comments

[kellydeer.livejournal.com]

I've seen Quoin quite a bit in this fandom (mostly on the Moonshadow Tribe site I guess...)

They had these 'Quoin challenges'. I am currently reading "Madrid Interlude" by Thyme http://www.magsnificent.com/MSW/Challenge/Quoin/Madrid.htm
(Written for the Quoin Blue Challenge. Brian goes to Spain on business and finds much more.)

There's another called "Partnership" also by Thyme
http://www.mags-nificent.com/MSW/Challenge/Quoin/Partnership.htm
(Written for the Quoin Red Challenge. Brian and Justin are partners in a Quoin.)

But thanks...hmmm, never thought about looking it up in the Urban Dictionary...

[gaedhal.livejournal.com]

That's going way, way back (2003 or so).

It was a group of stories done by some writers that revolved
around a male brothel. I don't remember now who was
involved (I wasn't), but I don't think any/many of those
writers are still around.

It was a total fanon term and not from anything actually on
the show.

[kellydeer.livejournal.com]

No, I knew it wasn't from the show. I just didn't know how these authors came to associate the word 'Quoin' with a male brothel...

[mightye.livejournal.com]

im not entirely sure but i think the term came from some sci-fi fandom/universe and was applied to the whole idea of a global network of male brothels....or at least that is what i understood from when i tried to figure out the term a couple of months ago....

[http://users.livejournal.com/_alicesprings/]

http://www.mags-nificent.com/MSW/Challenge/Quoin.htm

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

I never knew what it meant, either. I knew it was tied to a fic challenge of some sort, but could never be arsed to find out what, yanno?

Also, HAI!!!!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_alicesprings/]

I think some of the stories were still being updated when I first came to fandom, so I was reading them way back then. I think there's a lot of unfinished WIPs though. :(

HAI GURL! :D

[oasis6028.livejournal.com]

You are reading some of my stories(Thyme). They are from the Quoin Challenge that was sponsored by Shannon Marie way back when. A quoin was a male brothel, and the QAF characters were part of the brothel. There were four challenges - one where Brian is the prostitute, one where Justin is, one where they both were, etc. I had never heard the term before the challenge.

[kellydeer.livejournal.com]

Thanks Thyme! By the way...love every story you've ever been a part of (still reading Sunshine Series every Sunday - first thing I check in the morning!)

I appreciate your response, but it doesn't sound like anyone on here really knows how the word Quoin became associated with a male brothel but I guess it's just one of those things you have to let go of & know that it doesn't necessarily have to make sense, huh???

Please...keep on writing!!!

[moonbrightnites.livejournal.com]

This is a completely new one for me, too. :)

[mydogjewel.livejournal.com]

Thank you for asking a question that has been bugging me for ages! I thought it was a commonly used term, most likely Gaelic, since I've seen it in QAF fiction so many times. Its nice to at least know that it is exclusive to QAF, which would explain why I've never seen it anywhere else!

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Kelly, please update your post. Thanks.

[kellydeer.livejournal.com]

Ooops...sorry, will do!

[elaere.livejournal.com]

The Quoin - challenge of QAF fandom was inspired by so-called Key fiction (for example The Palace of Keys is here
http://www.ravenswing.com/~keys/archives.html)

Quoin is a key stone (in masonry, a corner stone, a stone that locks the corner in place). That might be the reason for the name of brothels in the challenge, I think.

[kellydeer.livejournal.com]

OK...

I guess that makes some sense, but it's still a pretty big stretch. Thanks for the link though.