Whiz

[Charles Doyle]

Google Books seems to show "take a whiz" from 1925--Benjamin De Casseres, _Mirrors of New York_:  "There was a cellar, however, three blocks up the avenue where a gentleman could
take a whiz at the wheel. No, we couldn't do anything with the wheel today."  Although it's attractive to envision a small waterwheel installed inside a urinal for the recreation of well hydrated whizzers, I assume the reference is to some other activity.

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:25:42 -0400
>From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>

>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
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org