# Origin of the term "wenis"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 13, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230 "2011-04-13T14:33:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/1 "2011-04-13T14:33:33Z")
Just learned that the wenis is the loose skin around your elbow. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) has no listing for it, although of course [urbandictionary.com](http://urbandictionary.com) has page after page. I assume it’s jokey-slang to sound like the male reproductive organ. Anyone know?
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/2 "2011-04-13T15:00:32Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> Just learned that the wenis is the loose skin around your elbow. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) has no listing for it, although of course [urbandictionary.com](http://urbandictionary.com) has page after page. I assume it’s jokey-slang to sound like the male reproductive organ. Anyone know?
I first heard it used on a Friends episode.
> [@](#):
>
> Yes, Fran, I know what time it is, but I’m looking at the Wenus, and I’m NOT happy!
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### Author:  [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/3 "2011-04-13T15:43:42Z")
> [@astro](#):
>
> I first heard it used on a Friends episode.
Of course, that was an acronym for “Weekly Estimated Net Usage Statistics,” not elbow skin.
(I enjoyed the Annual Net Usage Statistics part as well, even though it only came up once.)
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### Author:  [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/4 "2011-04-13T18:05:25Z")
FWIW, “Show Me Your Weenis” was the title of a 1998 Mr Show episode, in which the titular phrase is used. Not used in reference to elbows, though.
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### Author:  [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/5 "2011-04-13T20:24:21Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> I assume it’s jokey-slang to sound like the male reproductive organ.
Heh, I looked at the thread title and decided it was a portmanteau of “wiener” and “penis” before I even read what it was.
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### Author:  [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/6 "2011-04-13T20:49:22Z")
Very bizarre. I also recently learned of this word just this weekend, after an apparently wenis-related incident at my niece’s prom. Had never heard the term before then, other than the above-mentioned _Friends_ reference.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/7 "2011-04-13T21:54:47Z")
Huh. I watched _Friends_ pretty often, and don’t remember that reference.
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/8 "2011-04-13T22:21:52Z")
I just pulled out my copy of Gray’s Anatomy. There’s a Watney (part of the thymus), a Willis, circle of (part of the brain), A Wormian (bone). No Wenis.
The inside bend of the elbow is the anticubital space. The back side is the… wait for it… elbow.
Someone’s having fun at your expense, I’m guessing.
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### Author:  [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/9 "2011-04-13T22:31:50Z")
My girlfriend uses “wenis” to refer to the elbow. I’ll ask her where she heard it.
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### Author:  [@curious11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curious11)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/10 "2011-04-13T23:00:00Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> Huh. I watched _Friends_ pretty often, and don’t remember that reference.
> **[Chandler Bing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_Bing)**
>
> Chandler Muriel Bing is a fictional character from the NBC sitcom Friends, portrayed by Matthew Perry. Chandler was born to Nora Tyler Bing, an erotic romance novelist, and Charles Bing, a gay female impersonator and star of a Las Vegas drag show called "Viva Las Gay-gas" as Helena Handbasket. It is revealed in the first season that he went to an all-boys high school.
> Chandler's best friends are his roommate Joey Tribbiani, and Ross Geller, his college roommate. He met Ross's sister, Monica Gell...
Look under the section entitled “Career”
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/11 "2011-04-13T23:05:16Z")
No word resembling this in the OED.
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### Author:  [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/12 "2011-04-14T02:23:03Z")
Weenus sounds like it could be a rather unfortunate Irish moniker.
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### Author:  [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/13 "2011-04-14T02:53:20Z")
Well, I asked my girlfriend and she doesn’t remember where she heard it used to mean elbow (aside from thinking it is from _Friends_, which we’ve already established used it to mean something entirely different).
Her sister is also over and attests to kids using the expression “give me wenis” and rubbing elbows. She doesn’t have any idea about the origin of it either, though.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/14 "2011-04-14T04:06:35Z")
“Wenis!” is also fun to call out to random people as you drive past the bus stop.
Or so I’ve… heard… seen on TV… read online… somewhere.
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### Author:  [@CheeseDonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheeseDonkey)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/15 "2011-04-14T05:09:41Z")
The earliest reference to “wenis” and “elbows” I could find in Google News archive was a 2006 article, so the modern definition of the term is not that old.
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### Author:  [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2011, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/16 "2011-04-14T11:08:58Z")
My now-adult kids have been using this word for at least ten years, usually in the form of “Dude, I can see your wenis!” Kind of like how when I was in grade school we would say “Your epidermis is showing!”
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### Author:  [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/17 "2011-04-14T14:06:27Z")
I just asked my 7th-grade and 9th-grade daughters if they’d heard the term “wenis”, and while my 9th-grade daughter said “What? Like on _Friends_?” my 7th-grade daughter said “Yes! YES! **YES!!!** Every idiot at my school does ‘Wenis Wednesday’ where they run up to you and smack your elbow and say ‘HAHAHA!’ and then run to the next person in the hall and do it again, then again, all the way down the hall. It’s so stupid!”
I’m not doing the vehemence of her reply justice. It was hilarious to watch my normally mild-mannered daughter freak out about the whole thing.
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/18 "2011-04-14T14:16:43Z")
I guess I’m going to have to call our ergonomics lady to see if she can offer some relief for my tennis wenis.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/19 "2011-04-14T15:20:48Z")
Thanks, everyone. Good to know.
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### Author:  [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-wenis/578230/20 "2011-04-14T21:16:13Z")
The Friends episode that [WENUS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Friends_episodes#Season_8:_2001.E2.80.932002) was used was Season 8, Episode 21, first aired on 5/2/2002.
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