Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Blossom]

I read in an article that somebody was flogged with a whip made from a bull's pizzle.

What is a bull's pizzle?

[asterix]

A bull's p e n i s.

[Lorikeet]

According to a link from Google, it was used in Shakespeare...

"A tanned bull's peni* � a "bull's pizzle" as Falstaff calls it in Shakespeare's "Henry IV" � was once used as a whip..."

[advoca]

Hi Blossom

As Asterix and Lori have said, pizzle is another word for p e n i s. It has long been in use, certainly since medieval times.

Bull's pizzles were once sold for cooking and eating as a delicacy, but they were also dried and used as walking-sticks, or tanned like leather and used as whips. They were cleaned, salted and dried. By twisting and stretching during this process, it became a highly flexible whip 2 or 3 feet long. The pizzle was intended for driving cattle, for self-defence, or for punishment purposes.

Bull�s pizzles are commonly found in pet shops and are sold as chews for dogs. Many dog owners do not know this, and perhaps they might not buy them if they knew where they came from.

But the word pizzle is often used as a euphemism for pee or piss.
�Excuse me, I have to go and pizzle.�

Urine is sometimes referred to as pizzle drizzle.
�Mary wet herself, and you could see a pizzle drizzle patch on her pants.�

A pizzle is also a slang word used to describe an embarrassingly small p e n i s.
�I burst out laughing. He had a tiny pizzle, just as you�d expect on Michael Jackson.�

Pizzle is also used as a derogatory term.
�I hate my Maths master. He�s a real pizzle.�

But to end on a less contentious note, Pizzle is a psudo-anagram of "PSL," or Port St. Lucie, a urban-sprawl town in East Central Florida. Local residents evolved the term �pizzle� from saying the letters PSL, when referring to their town. You might hear someone say, �I�m going home for Christmas. I�m going to Pizzle.�

[Blossom]

Thank you all, especially advoca for your interesting information.

I think it must be terrible to be flogged and even worse to be flogged with a bull's p e n i s. OOH!