Can anyone tell me how/when dick came to be slang for penis?
Yes, this is the stuff that occurs to my coworkers on a slow Friday…
Like you never named yours, niblet…
No proof, but I suspect it came from “Dick” = “short for Richard” = Common Name for a guy, the same way both “john” and “Jakes” ended up as slang for the toilet.
[QUOTE=SoulFrost]
Like you never named yours, niblet…
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Dearie, mine’s named “Lisa”. And my vibrator’s name is “Bouncy Bouncy Joy Joy”.
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
No proof, but I suspect it came from “Dick” = “short for Richard” = Common Name for a guy, the same way both “john” and “Jakes” ended up as slang for the toilet.
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Do you know why/how ‘Dick’ become short for Richard?
[QUOTE=KarlGauss]
Do you know why/how ‘Dick’ become short for Richard?
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Just a WAG, but maybe it progressed Richard -> Rich -> Rick -> Dick.
As for the OP, the names Peter and Johnson are also slang terms for penis. It seems like naming your unit is just a pretty common thing.
I was mildly surprised that putz is also slang for penis.
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara]
I was mildly surprised that putz is also slang for penis.
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Also? AFAIK, that was the original meaning.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
From Sexual Slang, by Alan Richter, Ph.D.
Dick means “thick” in German.
[QUOTE=Lynwood Slim]
Dick means “thick” in German.
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Well that certainly makes “Thick Richard”, the name of a band that used to be around here, even funnier.
[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
Also? AFAIK, that was the original meaning.
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Reaching way back to my high school German, I remember the title of one of the dialogs we learned: Wir putzen das Auto. ‘We’re washing the car.’ From here:
Babelfish says putzen means ‘deseam’, and putz means ‘finery’.
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]
Reaching way back to my high school German, I remember the title of one of the dialogs we learned: Wir putzen das Auto. ‘We’re washing the car.’ From here:
Babelfish says putzen means ‘deseam’, and putz means ‘finery’.
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I thought putz was Yiddish for penis.
[QUOTE=Chefguy]
I thought putz was Yiddish for penis.
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It is. So are schmuck, shvantz, and shlong.
Schmuck has evolved into a milder term for a fool, used almost exclusively instead of the literal meaning. Putz has acquired a sense of a stronger idiot, and that is crowding out the older literal meaning. Shvantz also is said to have a figurative meaning, although I’ve never heard it used that way. Shlong seems only to mean penis, though, without other connotations.
“Derrick”? And it just somehow lost half a syllable?
Jesus, don’t turn to that guy for etymology again. I’m flabbergasted by the way people seem to feel so free to invent completely random explanations for words and advance them as etymologies.
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase]
It is. So are schmuck, shvantz, and shlong.
Schmuck has evolved into a milder term for a fool, used almost exclusively instead of the literal meaning. Putz has acquired a sense of a stronger idiot, and that is crowding out the older literal meaning. Shvantz also is said to have a figurative meaning, although I’ve never heard it used that way. Shlong seems only to mean penis, though, without other connotations.
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My Jewish friend once told me that schmuck was Yiddish for foreskin and it’s slang meaning, that of a jerk or fool, arose because the foreskin is completely useless (to a Jewish person). Someone better versed in Yiddish is welcome to correct me on this.
[QUOTE=Rhubarb]
My Jewish friend once told me that schmuck was Yiddish for foreskin and it’s slang meaning, that of a jerk or fool, arose because the foreskin is completely useless (to a Jewish person). Someone better versed in Yiddish is welcome to correct me on this.
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Wikipedia agrees with you, if that’s worth anything.
And in the future, Schwartz will also mean penis.
Funny how a john is a bathroom, and a johnson is a penis.
Is it true that a dork is a whale’s penis?