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

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Willy" seems to have started in the UK.

I first heard it used by an American - who'd been in the Peace Corps in
Afghanistan in the '70s - in 1984. He'd heard it from Brits.

That was after sixteen years of slang research, including nearly ten years
of student questionnaires (though the students were mostly from the
Mid-South).

JL

On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 12:09 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: [off-list] Re: [ADS-L] "fanny", n.4
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
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