Whiz

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 9/25/07, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9/25/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > Robert Wachal <robert-wachal at UIOWA.EDU> wrote:
> > >
> > >Was the phrase "take a whiz" in use in the early 1920's?
> >
> > HDAS files have nothing before the early 1970s.
>
> Cassell's dates the verb to the '20s:
>
> ---
> whiz v.2 (also whizz) [1920s+] to urinate. [echoic of urine hitting
> the lavatory bowl]
> ---
>
> But it has the noun only from the '60s:
>
> ---
> whiz n.6 (also whizz, wizz) [1960+] an act of urination. [WHIZ v.2]
> ---
>
> I don't know of any early cites for the noun. The comedy group
> Firesign Theatre had a fake ad for Bear Whiz Beer ("It's in the water
> -- that's why it's yellow!") on their 1974 album "Everything You Know
> Is Wrong", so it must have been pretty common by then.

Also, _The Queen's Vernacular: A Gay Lexicon_ (1972) has both the verb
and the noun:

---
whizz to urinate. Syn: take a whizz.
---


--Ben Zimmer

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