User:CatWatcher/Sandbox2

Prick is one of the most common names for the central part of the male genitalia. The Latinised term Penis is a relative newcomer to English, the oldest "penis" in the Oxford English Dictionary cited as coming from a medical dictionary which was translated in 1684 and published in 1693. There, the word was defined in terms of an older euphemism, Yard. In the original Latin, Penis meant Tail, which was the old English (c 14th Century) term. The fact that there does not appear to be any consistently used term (see below) for the male genital organ, is in no small measure due to that fact that one euphemism after another has been used to sanitise the meaning.

One of the reasons for this is: "Children in English-speaking communities learn early that their communities regard certain words as 'dirty' and instead offer euphemisms that are usually of Latin or French derivation. Instead of prick, the child is supposed to say penis, and he is expected to subsitute vagina for cunt"

Like its female counterpart, Cunt, "prick" is used as a term of abuse, but whereas cunt has different meanings when applied to males and females, "prick" is normally used as as insult to a male, with the connotations being that the recipient of the abuse is stubborn, conceited or stupid.

Euphemisms for Prick

 * 1) Personal names, such as Dick, Dicky, John Thomas, Peter or Roger.
 * 2) Weaponry: The analogy with a penis is very old; Romans referred to it as a gladius (sword). Naturally, the gladius would fit into a vagina (or sheath). The English term prick, while not a weapon, alludes to piercing. In addition to these there are : tool, machine, truncheon and gun. Joey on Friends often refers to his prick as the little general.
 * 3) Anatomical allusions: joint, member, organ, private parts (or privates), sex
 * 4) Metaphors: bat (and balls), bishop, bone (whence boner), cock, manhood, manroot, pecker, policeman, pego, rod, sausage, yard
 * 5) Generalisations: affair, apparatus, business, equipment, member, thing (together with variants such as thingy, thingummy etc.), whang, works
 * 6) Nonsense Words: ding-a-ling, peenie, pintle, weenie, wee-wee
 * 7) Surreaistic Imagery: pork sword, pink oboe, instrument of joy