I disagree.
It appears that Old English words for penis included teors and pintel. No indication of how offensive they were, however. Wiki also mentions waepon (weapon), but this is clearly a euphemism.
Another archaic word is pizzle, first used 1523, which is now mainly restricted to the penis of an animal.
Merriam-Webster lists the first use of penis in English as 1668.
Okay, spasibo za poyasnenie. But as a native US English speaker, I would claim that until quite recently, “shit” ranked among the “tri kita”* of American cuss-words. In other words, it was just as bad as “fuck” and “cunt,” even if it has suffered devaluation in the past few decades by overuse.
BTW, for any other serious or casual students of Russian reading this: as a non-native speaker, I feel obliged to warn from bitter experience that we inostrantsy must never ever USE any of these words, even though they sound completely enchanting and one should definitely learn them by heart.
And, in particular, don’t utter them in mixed-sex company – because, theoretically, Russian women don’t know these words, in the same theoretical sense that “girls don’t fart or masturbate” 
So it looks trashy for a man to say them in front of women (or for a woman to say them in front of men!), even though English has recently become more egalitarian on this point.
- Russ. idiom: tri kita = “the three whales” = Slavic equivalent of “the four elephants on top of the world-turtle” – or, in other words, the “basic fundamental pillars” (not always exactly three) of any specified subject.
Hmmm… haven’t found a confirming source, but I would bet money that pintel is cognate with “punch” and “point” (both from Latin pungere, “to puncture”), and not with Latin penis (“tail”).
To my genuine surprise, “pizzle” has no proven relation to “piss,” but instead comes from a Germanic word meaning “tendon; sinew.” And here in the States, dried bull-dongs are sometimes sold as chew-toys for dogs under the name “Pizzle”! (Though sometimes they’re euphemistically labeled “Beefy Sticks.”)
And although it sheds no light on my original question, a chain of Google links led me to an Albrecht Dürer woodcut called Das Mannerbad (“The Men’s Bath”) – check out the strategic placement of that “cock-as-in-faucet” at the lower left of the picture!
Thanks for that correction!
Since I only spoke English for the last 30+ years, I caught exactly those past few decades of overuse.
Very true. It is not “endearing” to hear foreigners brag that they know those words. There were students of Russian who bragged about their knowledge by repeating those words in front of my parents (shudder).
Oh man, I never cussed in Russian. I even felt uncomfortable using the familiar second person. Of course this was almost 25 years ago, when babushki who’d help defeat Hitler were still thick on the ground, happy to set young men straight about безобразство.
And spotted dick!
“So, Lonestar, I see your schwartz is as big as mine!”
ETA: I knew knew a girl in my high school (or maybe junior high) band class with the last name “Schlonga”. She played … the trombone. Seriously.
Hey, I know a guy named Jack Putz.
Putz, like schmuck, means penis in Yiddish as well as fool/jerk/idiot. In US English the latter meanings predominate.
The pun, of course, is on the Yiddish schwanz, also meaning penis (or tail).
Since “cunt” dates from 1230 (and is probably older) and “splice” didn’t occur until 1524 (see the OED), this is unlikely in the extreme.
I think at this point we should just assume that every Yiddish word means “penis” until proven otherwise.
And that every Yiddish song sounds like this. (NSFW)
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got from a Russian on this subject is that, for foreigners, using the euphemistic forms like blin, pipets, yolki-palki, not to mention all the numerous fig expressions, will actually make you seem COOLER to most Russians than using the Real Cusswords. (This was hard for me to believe, because it sounded so uncool and Ned-Flanders-ish when the euphemisms are translated back to English – like, “Oh, pancakes!” and “Fiddly-diddly-sticks!”)
The thing is, any fool nowadays can look up the cusswords with Google Translate, but if you can use the euphemisms correctly it shows some glimmer of cultural awareness, as well as good manners.
I find that to be about as true as saying that something “sucks” is referring fellatio. Sure, both are still negative, but they aren’t that derogatory.
Heck, I’d say the same thing about “shit.” It’s worse than crap, but is rarely meant to evoke the quality of fecal matter. These days I think you’d have to specifically spell out the reference, like James the Video Game Nerd does when he references diarrhea.
Also, I’m surprised the OP wasn’t asking for an explanation for why these particular words seem to have no significantly alternate meaning that is clean, instead of just asking if this was always the case.
On the contrary, crap is a non-filthy term used in certain dice games.
No, that’s craps, not crap. It has a different derivation, from crabs.
No, that’s craps, not crap. It has a different derivation, from crabs. It’s not the same word.
Yes, the game is certainly called craps, plural. But a player can crap out. Hence crap is a term used in the game. And never mind the origin, it is a non-filthy word.
I have an amusing story about how I learned that in England “fanny” means “pussy” not “butt.” Well, it was amusing for me, I fear it must have been quite distressing for the young Englishwoman I was dating at the time.