User:Jerzy/Consummation (usage)

Consummation is a word whose fundamental meaning is very close to "fulfillment" or "completion", but
 * 1) The correct spelling is, for etymological reasons, "consummation", but "consumation" with a single M is a reasonable common misspelling, and for a common pronunciation, consistent with English orthography.
 * 2) The expression "a consummation devoutly to be wished" is a fairly well known expression, usually about something pleasant and unexpected, with the word "devout" in it sounding to modern ears  like an using religious devotion as an ironic metaphor -- but to those who know Hamlet well, it refers to death, especially by suicide ("with a bare bodkin"):
 * ... To die: to sleep:
 * Nor more; and by a sleep to say we end
 * The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
 * That flesh is heir to; ‘tis a consummation
 * Devoutly to be wished.
 * 1) Although the senses that are synonyms of more generic words like "fulfillment", "completion", and so on are technically correct and quite understood, "consummation" is both a legal and colloquial term for sexual activities, and its use in otherwise generic contexts can be intended as a double entendre.