[off-list] Re: [ADS-L] "fanny", n.4

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sun Dec 16 05:09:59 UTC 2012


On Sat, Dec 15, 2012 at 11:27 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
> "Peter."

In my family, Peter's full name is "Peter Weter." My *impression" has
always been that _peepee_ is the source of _Peter (Weter)_ "penis."
For example, A college friend, Wendell ("win-DELL"), universally known
as "Peter," had acquired that nickname, I was told, as a consequence
of his having been difficult to break to the commode. Since I had long
since concluded that _Peter_ "penis" < _peepee_ "urine, urinate," I
had no trouble accepting this explanation as the truth.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list