Schlong and Other Slang

There are few words in the English language funnier to a 5th grade boy than schlong. The sound itself and the motion of the tongue almost give away the meaning. Of course it is slang for "penis". But, as with other words, it comes from somewhere. In this case, it apparently comes from Yiddish shlang meaning "snake". For some of you, this word is still tremendously funny.

Aside from sharing in the titillation, I became more recently enthralled by the term after having learned that the Persian word for "hose" is shilang. Penis, snake, hose. Not only that, but a Chinese word for "dragon" is long or lung. Can't get more languid and lanky or long than that.

Since a descriptor for those things--snakes, dragons, penises--were surely central to human life for quite some time, it stands to reason to suggest that perhaps the proposed Proto-Indo-European root of *(s)leg- (or something like it) is not only the root of languid but also cognate with whatever some of the earliest forms and senses of "long, lax, or snake-like" may have been.

Slang itself most likely comes from a word meaning "of a lax, bending form".

Consider these other relations:

PIE for "snake, eel" was *angwhi
Latin for "snake, serpent" was anguis
English for "bend" is angle
Slovak for "ankle" is členok
Polish for "penis" is członek
Hindi for "penis" is liṅga
Hindi for "anchor" is laṅgara
Hindi for "finger" is uṅgalī
Persian for "finger" is angoosht
Tamil for "penis" is Āṇkuṟi
Tamil for "anchor" is naṅkūram
Thai for "snake" is ngū
Russian for "leg" is noga
Swahili for "snake" is nyoka
Swahili for "leg" is mguu

Check Out My New Sutras

The Sanskrit word sutras meaning “threads” is most certainly related to the Latin sutura meaning “a seam, a sewing together” (which is where the English suture is derived from) through their respective words for sew (Skt. sivyati, L. suere).

You might speculate that the Classical Arabic sura which is the term for the different sections of the Quran meaning “step” or “degree” and related to siwwara, “to enclose, to wall in” may have either 1. come from an earlier unattested related cognate of Sanskrit, Latin, and the Semitic family of languages, or 2. the word and its sense was borrowed into Arabic during classical times through trade and cultural exchange. Or perhaps an earlier Semitic term was adopted independently into Sanskrit and Latin.

To quote a favorite, anonymous author everybody loves: “Nobody knows!”

Finally, an awful joke: What did the tailor say to the self-styled, self-sewn jacket? Ok, fine, suture-self!

Bloke

“Bloke is a term, when spoken in turn...”

spoke an intern who was open to learn...

This or some other introductory couplet might serve in some way to gently segue you, the reader, from whatever you may have been doing into an adventuresome etymological frolic which you might not otherwise have had occasion to attend. So sit tight and be prepared to have your noggin noodled.

The term bloke, meaning “fellow” or “man”, which replaced chap and is being replaced by dude and guy, though not necessarily in that order, is an English slang word commonly heard on television and at the movies, as well as in some parts of England and Australia (and, incidentally, in parts of Asia where the “r” sound in broke is difficult to pronounce, though we won't be concerned with those “blokes” there). While all else is well and fine with “the” bloke, it has proven to be a bit elusive in its origin. The Oxford Dictionary, venerable as it may be, can only admit of its uncertainty, asking the reader instead to consider the word buachaill meaning “boy” or “lad”, a word from the Shelta language of Ireland, which is a Celtic language spoken by the Travelers. These are people who move about the land much like the Roma (sometimes called “Gypsies”) of continental Europe.

But let's not leave the Roma off the hook. They come from northern India, originally, and It seems they may share a stake in the claim of bloke origin--at least according to one etymology, which tells us that loke, a Romani and Hindi term meaning “a man”, is the true root. Indeed, the word log is listed in an online Hindi dictionary, meaning “man”. So it just may be true.

One source states that bloke was first recorded in 1850, as London slang; another states that it was commonly used in speech as early as 1820 and appeared in a periodical in the 1830s.

It is possible that the Roma brought the word through Europe and sent it off to England as bloke. But where did the “b” come from?

The Farsi word boloogh means “puberty, maturity”. It is separated by only a small degree (or “Angle”--pardon the pun) in sound to the British English bloke, meaning “man, or fellow”, by a similar degree as the English and Farsi of brother and baradar.

Furthermore, the ancient Sanskrit word balaka meaning “childlike, not yet full-grown; a minor (of the law)” and bala meaning “not full-grown, minor” both seem to attest to a cognate relationship between the three terms: balaka, boloogh, bloke.

I found one etymology that ascribed bloke to unknown origins, though perhaps from the Celtic ploc meaning “large, stubborn person”. The same etymology suggested that in the Gypsy and Hindi loke meaning “a man”, lies the origin of bloke.

It seems that these may all be at least tangentially related, as cognates a few mutations removed perhaps; but the Sanskrit balaka seems to indicate a Proto-Indo-European origin. Or does it?

It may well be that bloke didn't become a part of the Londoners' lexicon until after the British Empire had spent some time in Persia and on the Indian subcontinent; or, likewise, until some Persian boloogh or perhaps Indian log or loke made his way to the western schools of higher education to disseminate his country's own lingual coinage.

What do you blokes think?

What is Etymology?

What the heck is etymology, you ask?

Etymology is the study of the origin of words--not to be confused with entomology or enterology, which are the studies of insects and intestines, respectively. The word etymology comes from the Greek etymon, meaning "true sense" and -logia meaning "study of".

People like yourself have been interested in the history of words for hundreds of years, perhaps even longer. Like any other question of origin that we may ask, it is a search for the beginnings of things and a home of sorts.

Can you recall the first time a teacher, friend, or parent told you where a particular word or phrase came from, or about the original meaning of something?

Language and culture are a virus of sorts. They are passed on by our minds' communication. It is ethereal for the most part, not a part of the physical world in the way that our brains are. It is the software to our body's hardware. And across millennia snippets of these viral "codes" have survived, although altered a bit, to be passed on even by ourselves.

Many people attribute the beginnings of modern etymology to Sir William Jones, who came to understand that ancient Latin and Greek were related to Sanskrit. Others made similar connections, but his was the clincher. From it sprung the studies of historical and comparative linguistics and also Indo-European studies. We now know that almost every language from Iceland to India and the places between are related.

If you are interested in languages from those regions in Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, then you will be interested in checking this blog from time to time to see what ideas we are exploring.

Whether you would like to challenge a known etymology or suggest a relationship not considered before, leave a comment.