Tallywhacker

On the way back from Isle of Palms we somehow got on the subject of the word tallywhacker. As a kid, my Granny used to use the term to refer to a penis (why my Granny was referring to penises is something I will not speculate over, thank you very much). And from what I've read (yes, I've done a little research on the subject on these here interwebs) it is mainly a slang term formerly used in the southern United States. Granny grew up a country grrrl in rural Kentucky so that about makes sense.

But what are the origins of the word? Online, what little debate there is, there doesn't appear to be a clear-cut answer.

Most people cannot agree that "tally" is a derivative from Latin meaning either twig or tail (oddly enough, I've heard "tail" used as slang to refer to the female equivalent). I can almost see how a penis could be crudely compared to a tail. So I buy that. But if that is the case, why put "whacker" after that. Of the many things I many can do with a penis, whacking it ranks pretty low on my list. In fact, it ranks just above "cut off", which is honestly in last place. And I also don't see myself using my appendage to go around whacking things either. That's a bad idea. Nothing good can come of it!

So I dug around a little further and found that "whacker" might be short for "whack", which might be a bad verbal translation of "wag". I point this out because I read where certain archaic dialects of Engrish use the word "tallywag" to refer to the penis.

A wagging tail? Yeah, I totally buy that. A stretch? Certainly.

Or perhaps "tallywag" is just some made up word that doesn't really mean anything. Perhaps "tallywag" has just been mistranslated to "tallywhacker" and there is no word origins to examine because it's a nonsensical word.

Either way, Granny would be horrified that I've spent this post talking about my tallywhacker :)

100% | 174.605 lbs. (??? lbs.) | 0% (0 of 128) | 16% (8 of 50) | 59.45% (217 of 365) | 112/55 lbs.