A medical expression is used to designate the vulva

The solution of continuity is a medical expression attested as early as 1314 to designate wounds and fractures. This initial anatomical use allowed Rabelais in Pantagruel and La Fontaine in 1674 to use the term with a ribald implication. This humorous assimilation of female anatomy to a gaping wound was taken up in the 18th century by Nerciat, then in 1864 by Alfred Delvau in his Dictionnaire érotique moderne.