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