Australian linguistic question

[kindkit]

I am pondering upon the verb "to root." I know it means "to fuck," but I'm wondering if it's used in a fairly neutral denotative way (not jokey, not hostile) simply to refer to people having sex. The sentence context would be something like, "He didn't know if the two of them were actually [having sex]."

"Rooting" sounds odd to me in that context, but that could easily just be because it's not a word I use myself.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

From "Australia's Next Top Model", after one contestant quit because she missed her boyfriend.

Model: Ah, I reckon she just quit cos she needed a root.