A pizzle is an old, now-archaic or dialectal word for an animal’s penis, especially a bull’s. Dictionaries also record a second meaning: a whip made from a bull’s pizzle. The word’s proposed origin points to Germanic and Dutch terms for “sinew” or “tendon,” but reference works present that connection as probable, not certain.
What does “pizzle” mean?
Collins Dictionary defines the British sense as “the penis of an animal, esp a bull.” It also labels the usage archaic or dialectal, so pizzle is not a neutral everyday anatomical term in current English. The word has another dictionary sense: a whip made from a bull’s pizzle.
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Where does the word come from?
The likely explanation connects pizzle with Low German pesel or Flemish pezel, and with Dutch pees, meaning “sinew” or “tendon.” The dictionaries do not establish a certain, unbroken chain of borrowing: they describe the origin as probable or possible. The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the animal-penis sense to the 1520s; that is its reported date, not an independently verified first historical attestation.
How did “pizzle” appear in Shakespeare?
Dictionary.com records the word in an insult spoken by Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act 2, Scene IV: “’Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat’s tongue, you bull’s pizzle, you stock-fish!” The example shows the word’s literary use as a deliberately vivid insult. The wording and punctuation here follow Dictionary.com’s quotation; they should not be taken as a textual comparison of Shakespeare editions.
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Dictionary evidence at a glance
| Reference | Meaning or register | Proposed origin | How certain? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online Etymology Dictionary | Animal-penis sense; dated to the 1520s | Low German pesel or Flemish pezel, associated with Dutch pees | Proposed, not definitive |
| Collins Dictionary | British; archaic or dialectal. Also records the whip sense. | Related Germanic forms associated with sinew or tendon | Probable |
| American Heritage Dictionary | Records the word’s animal-anatomy meaning | Possibly Low German | Possible |
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