penis (English)

Where does "penis" come from?

The English word 'penis' entered the language in the late 17th century as a learned borrowing from the Latin 'pēnis', which originally meant 'tail' or 'penis'[1]. The Latin term descends from the Proto-Indo-European root '*pes-', meaning 'penis'[1][2]. This borrowing ultimately displaced native English terms such as 'pintle'[1].

Open questions

• The traditional derivation of Latin pēnis from Proto-Indo-European *pes- is disputed in view of semantic chronology, and an alternative hypothesis connects the word to penna meaning wing or feather through a Proto-Italic form meaning tail. [2]

Full etymology tree

• penis (English), 'The male erectile reproductive organ used for sexual intercourse that in the human male and other placental mammals is also used for urination; the tubular portion of the external male genitalia (excluding the scrotum).'
  • learned borrowing penis (Latin), 'tail'
    • derived *peznis (Proto-Italic)
      • derived *pes-ni-s (Proto-Indo-European)
        • derived *pes- (Proto-Indo-European), 'penis'

Ancestors

• *pes- (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

• pintle (English)

Descendants and derived words

• corona glandis penis (English)
• corpus cavernosum penis (English)
• depenis (English)
• glans penis (English)
• hemipenis (English)
• hirsuties papillaris penis (English)
• jugum penis (English)
• kung pow penis (English)
• kung pow penis (English)
• kung pow penis (English)
• macropenis (English)
• megalopenis (English)

Sources

1. penis (English) - Wiktionary
2. penis (Latin) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris