![]() Sex and bodies today: Should parents lose the heebie-jeebies? Today’s era of hip-hop wordplay, hashtag slogans, and meme-worthy wit (and raunch) has nothing on the centuries of creative body-part euphemisms collected on Green’s timelines. In the ensuing centuries, parents may have used: flip-flap and tuzzy-muzzy (1600s) doodle and kitty (1700s) gingling Johnnie and that there (1800s) wee-wee and jelly (1900s) and soldiers and baby chutes (2000s). Taught sons about giblets or kicky-wickies and daughters about their Venus’s highway. You thought winky and jay– jay were weird? If you want to dig into the innumerable ways English speakers have spoken-or have not spoken-about vaginas and penises, head to slang lexicographer Jonathon Green’s digital timelines. This phenomenon, where the euphemism itself becomes taboo, has been dubbed the euphemism treadmill.) ![]() Cicero also noted that, by his day, penis itself was already too spicy. Writing in the 1st century BC, Cicero noted that the ancients used the word tail for the male member-and that word in Latin is penis. In Latin, words like mentula and verpa, both meaning “penis,” were considered obscene. In fact, the word penis itself likely emerged as a euphemism. But, for thousands of years, we have been resorting to variations on the staff of life and chalice of purity to dance around the subjects of bodies and sexuality. That was when legs were so sexy, apparently, people made reference to those racy body parts with the euphemism of … limbs. You might think euphemisms for private parts date back to that Golden Age of Prudery, the Victorian era. This means sex and bodies carry complicated social, cultural, and religious baggage-and come with thousands of verbal evasion tactics. Plus, icky excretions emerge from those same organs. But, the act is, or should be, pleasurable and private. And, of course, we do it with our bodies. Sex is natural it’s how humanity regenerates itself. Hat are some of the big things cultures veer around? Death. One of the best ways to understand what gives a culture the heebie-jeebies is to look at what they use euphemisms for. The tried-and-true cliché, “So sorry for your loss,” can be way better than the rawer alternative: “Gah, it’s awful your great aunt got smooshed under that tree.”īut, heat-reducing euphemisms are also receptacles for all the taboos, embarrassments, shames, fears, and discomforts of a society. Sometimes, comfort is exactly what a tricky situation calls for. ![]() Passing on, for instance, is a euphemism for that ever tough matter of dying.Īs author Ralph Keyes put it in his 2010 book Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms, these words “represent a flight to comfort … they are comfort words.” From Greek roots that literally mean “good speaking,”Įuphemisms help people speak about uneasy topics more sensitively-and not just wee– wahs. So are ding– dong, vee– vee, and all the many other words we have to replace penis and vagina.Įuphemisms are mild words that enable people to broach spicy subjects. Those goofy names remind us that childhood is also when our private parts are often given cutesy names, when not more vaguely referenced as down there, that area, or you know ….īut, why do we rename penis and vagina, themselves perfectly normal words for perfectly normal body parts? What does that reveal about our cultural attitudes toward sexuality and the body? W hat does that teach our children? Winkies, jay-jays, and other body part euphemismsĬhildren’s terms like winky and jay-jay, as well as more general polite expressions like man parts and lady bits, are called euphemisms. FUNNY WORDS FOR PENIS HOW TOSnuffleupagus and cruised the driveway in your foot-pedaled convertible.Ĭhildhood was also the time when, hopefully, you learned how to peepee-with your wee wee, weenie, peenie, winkey, giney, or jay-jay. Rule of three (1720)-this refers to the whole genital areaĪ version of this article originally ran in 2013 it has been updated for 2021.Ah, childhood, those halcyon days when you chewed on a stuffed Mr.Here are 35 of the classiest-sounding slang terms for vagina and penis from the past 600-plus years. There is a great deal of human creativity on display in this domain, especially when it comes to the most polite terms. (If you don’t see any words on the timelines, zoom out using the bar on the right.) They show that metaphors based on weapons and food have always been popular and that vulgarity is nothing new. And, of course, that includes timelines for vagina and penis slang. ![]() FUNNY WORDS FOR PENIS SERIESLexicographer and slang expert Jonathon Green has produced a series of timelines based on his comprehensive historical dictionary of slang, Green’s Dictionary of Slang. ![]()
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