Wenis
Hillary Brown
hillaryhazelbrown at GMAIL.COM
Fri Oct 12 11:08:32 UTC 2007
Wenis as penis appears in an episode of the TV show _Mr. Show_ with Bob
Odenkirk and David Cross from 1998. The relevant sketch is even up on
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCimI9QUtc0
hb
On 10/11/07, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject: Re: Wenis
>
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>
> >Does anybody have chapter and verse on the history of "wenis", which
> seems
> >to be US slang for the skin of the elbow (lots of Google hits).
>
> Just my impression ... and I hope it's wrong and there's something
> interesting here ....
>
> Basically, "wenis" (= "wienis" = "weinis") means "penis" (presumably
> with influence from "wiener"). I've seen this on the Internet for a
> decade or so, I think (can't remember whether I've ever heard it in real
> life).
>
> "Wenis" has also been used, I don't know whether by many or not, to
> mean a prosthetic penis, I guess a strap-on device maybe, presumably
> < "w[oman's] + [p]enis". I see this at Google Books in a book by Jonathan
> Ames.
>
> "Wenis" = "elbow-skin" is probably basically some sort of prank or
> hoax. I don't see it before 2003 at a glance. Nobody but nobody, I
> think, uses this word without having "penis" in mind. The idea is to
> give the word a factitious 'clean' meaning ... so that the teacher or
> the censor 'can't object' when one talks loudly and publicly about
> someone's 'wenis'. Cf. "pecker" ("It just means 'nose', honest!").
>
> "Wenis" simply meaning "penis" is all over the Internet still.
>
> I wonder whether "wenis" = "elbow-skin" was popularized in some movie
> or TV program. It would be right at home on some of the programs I've
> glanced at by mistake recently.
>
> Something similar apparently appeared on the TV program "Friends":
> 'WENUS' and 'ANUS' as imaginary acronyms, around 1996: one can search
> (e.g.) Google Groups <<wenus friends>>.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
>
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