In the history of
human culture it has had far more than a merely human significance; it has
been the symbol of all the generative force of Nature, the embodiment of
creative energy in the animal and vegetable worlds alike, an image to be
held aloft for worship, the sign of all unconscious ecstasy. As a symbol,
the sacred phallus, it has been woven in and out of all the highest and
deepest human conceptions, so intimately that it is possible to see it
everywhere, that it is possible to fail to see it anywhere.
In correspondence with the importance of the penis is the large number of
names which men have everywhere bestowed upon it. In French literature
many hundred synonyms may be found. They were also numerous in Latin. In
English the literary terms for the penis seem to be comparatively few, but
a large number of non-literary synonyms exist in colloquial and perhaps
merely local usage. The Latin term penis, which has established itself
among us as the most correct designation, is generally considered to be
associated with _pendere_ and to be connected therefore with the usually
pendent position of the organ. In the middle ages the general literary
term throughout Europe was _coles_ (or _colis_) from _caulis_, a stalk,
and _virga_, a rod.
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