"tarriwag", 1784 (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Tallywhacker" is indeed more frequent.

  JL
"Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC"
Subject: Re: "tarriwag", 1784 (UNCLASSIFIED)
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE




>
> Dunno about Taylor, but Samuel "Hudibras" Butler (1612-80)
> definitely used it:
>
> *1680 in Samuel Butler Posthumous Works in Prose and Verse
> (London: R. Smith, G. Strahan, J. Brown, 1715) 23: Old
> Harry's C--piece in the Tower...Whose Tarriwags it held long since.
>
> Bailey, 1724, defines it (pl.) as "Membra Virilia." I
> think that is the more usual meaning. A few additional 18th
> C. exx. are available. The U.S. form, "tarryw[h]acker,"
> always refers to the penis AFAIK.
>
> JL
>


"Tarrywhacker"? I've known this one as "tallywhacker" (sometimes
shortened just to "tally") since elementary school.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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