"tarriwag", 1784 (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:38 AM -0600 1/23/08, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>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.

Farmer & Henley include "tallywag" ('the penis; see PRICK') but
neither of the others, although my impression too is that
"tallyw(h)acker" has a long history.  Curiously, F&H also list
"tarrywag", which (in the plural) = 'testes'.  So the tallywag with
its two companion tarrywags?  Seems unlikely, somehow.

LH

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