69 (sex position)
69 or sixty-nine is a sex position in which two people align themselves so that each person's mouth is near the other's genitals, allowing each partner to simultaneously perform oral sex on the other. The participants are thus mutually inverted like in the number 69, hence the code name. In this case, the numerals 6 and 9 are treated more as pictographic symbols than as numerical representations, with the bulbous part representing the heads of the performers.
The name is a translation of the original French, soixante-neuf, which is also sometimes borrowed directly into English. The concept is that both partners can experience sexual stimulation and oral sensation simultaneously, but this can also distract those who try to focus solely on their own pleasure from giving oral sex well. The position can also be awkward for partners who are not similar in height.
History
The term sixty-nine or soixante-neuf for mutual simultaneous oral-genital stimulation is an English translation of the euphemistic French term "soixante-neuf". The term "soixante-neuf" has not been traced any earlier than the Whore's Catechisms published in the 1790s in France, usually attributed to an early leader of the French Revolution, Mlle. Théroigne de Méricourt.Legman has described how the concept dates back to at least ancient Roman times:
Legman has also elaborated on Hindu representations:
The Kama Sutra mentions this sex position, albeit by a different name: "When a man and woman lie down in an inverted order, i.e. with the head of the one towards the feet of the other and carry on congress, it is called the 'congress of a crow'."