“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” (William Shakespeare, from Romeo and Juliet)
In just about every area of life we are prone to using nicknames to refer to various people, objects, and actions. For example, we may refer to the boss at work as the “big guy”, “head honcho”, or “slave driver.” All of the nicknames we choose reveal our thoughts on the subject matter at hand, so it’s interesting to consider which nicknames we use and why they are chosen.
Along those lines, we wanted to bring a little bit of lightheartedness to our usually serious discussions on penis size. We’ll get back to the medical discussions and self-help guides in due course, but for this post we wanted to keep it light and entertain you with some of the more commonly used nicknames for the male member. Some we were able to research in terms of their origin, others remain a mystery. In either case, enjoy.
Cock – “Cock” is in the name derived from an observation of roosters and their tendency to strut their stuff back and forth as part of their mating rituals. Some observed that the thrusting motion made by the human male during intercourse resembles a rooster strutting. Hence, “cock” is one of the earliest nicknames we know of for the male penis.
Dick – The nickname “dick” is perhaps one of the more well known in English. There are plenty schools of thought as to the origin of this name, but most agree that it was a term originally coined to describe someone who had a bad reputation around town. How it moved from that arena to a name for the penis is unknown. Regardless, here are the different schools of thought:
Playing off the earlier term, “cock”, the English equivalent of the Arabic word for rooster is “deek.” Some speculate the term “dick” resulted from a normal evolution of the Arabic word.
Some believe the term originated from the fact that “Richard”, shortened to “Dick” in the late 18th century, became a term to describe men in general because the name was so common. With that commonality it’s speculated the Brits simply began to use the term for the penis so as to avoid having to use the biological term.
According to the Oxford dictionary the use of “dick” as slang for the penis came into play about 1890. Prior to that it was used either to denote someone considered undesirable in society. Associating it with the male penis seems to be a result of standards of the day that avoided talking about such things in public. Doing so would’ve been considered crass and immoral.
John Thomas – This nickname allegedly came about as a result of an English nobleman in the late 19th century by the name of John Thomas. Legend says that Mr. Thomas had a penis in the 12″ range, a rather impressive feat for that day. Using his name as a nickname apparently was initially just for men of larger size. It gradually became a reference to penises of any size.
Weenie and Wiener – Both of these nicknames can be traced back to Germany at the turn of the 20th century. In the early 1900s Germans began referring to the frankfurter using both of these slang terms. The obvious correlation in size and shape to the human penis led to the terms being adopted for that use.
Phallus – The word “phallus” is not so much a nickname as it is a Greek word. It was adopted to describe penis-like objects of worship used in ancient religious practices. Today the term is used almost exclusively by those in the psychology, anthropology, and religious studies communities.
Johnson – See “John Thomas” above.
Arborvitae – Obviously we know that an arborvitae is a very popular shrub. It gets its name from a Latin word meaning “tree of life.” It was coined as slang for the penis in the 18th century due to the fact that the penis has long been the symbol of male fertility.
Wang – The term “wang” is a shortened version of the word “whangdoodle.” In the early 20th century “whangdoodle” was a word used to describe any sort of gadget for which no formal name existed, or was not commonly known. It seemed legitimate to apply “wang” to the male penis if one did not know of any other suitable term.
Other notable nicknames include:
dong
schlong
wood, stick, log
meat torpedo
love stick, love missile
screw machine
prick, pud, rod
shaft
If what Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet is indeed true, it doesn’t much matter what words we use to refer to the male sex organ. Big or small, full or lean, circumcised or intact, it provides the same functionality for every man that owns one. So learn to love yours no matter what you call it.