Young Sheldon Reveals Why Sheldon Says Coitus Instead Of Sex

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Young Sheldon season 5, episode 6.

Young Sheldon has finally explained why Sheldon Cooper uses the term “coitus” instead of simply saying “sex”. The Big Bang Theory spinoff may be an easy target for criticism when it comes to preserving the original show’s continuity, but it seems to be taking those criticisms more seriously. Now in its fifth season, Young Sheldon is building on the Big Bang Theory‘s well-known story by shedding new light on some of adult Sheldon’s (Jim Parsons) most featured quirks—of which there are many.

Young Sheldon season 5 has noticeably sidelined its titular lead character Sheldon (Iain Armitage), as most of the show’s recent stories have revolved around other characters. There’s the burgeoning affair between George Cooper Jr. (Lance Barber) and Brenda Sparks (Melissa Peterman), followed by Georgie’s (Montana Jordan) decision to quit school. Meemaw (Annie Potts) has been busy getting her laundromat/gambling business up and running, while Missy (Raegan Revord) and Mary (Zoe Perry) both develop a crush on Youth Pastor Rob (Dan Byrd). Despite not being the current focus, there has still been a significant Sheldon revelation that links back to his The Big Bang Theory counterpart.

In the Young Sheldon season 5 episode “Money Laundering and a Cascade of Hormones”, Mary sits down with the Cooper twins in an attempt to teach them about sex. Understandably, Sheldon’s twin Missy is weirded out by the whole situation, which is only compounded by Mary’s plan to give a talk on the subject at her school, resulting in many of her friends turning their backs on her. Eventually the entire topic of sex is banned from the Cooper house. As Sheldon ruminates on all of this, he realizes that the term “sex” itself has a bad connotation, as the mere mention of it makes a conversation immediately awkward. In an effort to resolve this, he thinks up an alternative word—one that doesn’t provoke any uncomfortable reactions. He briefly considers using the word “fornicate” but concedes that it sounds “too judgy”. After consulting with his dictionary, Sheldon finds the perfect word in “coitus”, which he determines to be a “word so bland and clinical that it would be impossible to take offense to it.” 

The term “coitus” is all too familiar for longtime fans of The Big Bang Theory, as grownup Sheldon uses the term extensively throughout the entire series. While his friends still use the more general term “sex” in their day-to-day conversations, most of them were clearly used to also referring to intercourse as coitus after spending so much time around their quirky friend. In season 1, Howard (Simon Helberg) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) both used the term as they discuss Penny (Kaley Cuoco) being the new neighbor across the hall.

This doesn’t mean that Sheldon never uses the term “sex” following the decision he makes in Young Sheldon season 5. During The Big Bang Theory season 4 premiere, he refers to it as such when Penny asks if he and Amy (Mayim Bialik) were planning on sleeping together in order to have children. For the most part though, the socially inept genius tends to stick to the term “coitus” in an effort to prevent any potentially awkward situations. Interestingly, this is such a mature thing for Sheldon to do. Typically, he’s indifferent to the feelings of others, and yet he goes out of his way to find an alternative word for “sex” at a young age, knowing that Missy gets uncomfortable by the mere mention of it. 

After all the plot inconsistencies in Young Sheldon, this proves that CBS can still use the spinoff to expand on The Big Bang Theory‘s narrative long after the 10-time Emmy award-winning series came to an end. Of course, it’s important that it stands on its own and tells a compelling story, as Young Sheldon cannot simply rely on nostalgia to be continuously successful. That being said, there’s also no harm in dropping fun Easter eggs and explanations like the aforementioned revelation, explaining one of Sheldon’s most consistent quirks throughout the original series.

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