Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Phallus |
PhallusNoun1. Genus of fungi having the cap or pileus hanging free around the stem. 2. The male organ of copulation (`member' is a euphemism). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Phallus" was first used: 1613. (references) |
Etymology: Phallus \Phal"lus\, noun; plural Phalli. [Latin, a phallus (in sense 1), Greek.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The penis (plural penises or penes) or phallus is the male copulatory organ, and, in mammals, the male organ of urinary excretion. It is homologous to the female clitoris, as it develops from the same embryonic structure. The male sexual organs comprise both the penis and the testes. The penis is capable of erection for use in sexual intercourse.
Animal penises
Most marsupials, except for the two largest species of kangaroos, have a bifurcated penis. That is, it separates into two separate columns, and so the penis terminates in two ends. The dolphins have independent control over their penises, so they use it as an appendage to feel the bottom with. The barnacle has the longest penis for its own length: up to twenty times the length of the animal.
The human penis
The human penis differs from some other mammalian penises by lacking an erectile bone, instead relying entirely on engorgement with blood to reach its erect state, lacking the ability to be withdrawn into the groin, and being larger than average in proportion to body mass.
Structure
The human penis is built of three columns of erectile tissue:
- the two corpora cavernosa and
- one corpus spongiosum which lies below them.
An uncircumcised penis, a circumcised penisThe end of corpus spongiosum is enlarged and cone-shaped and forms the glans penis. The glans supports the foreskin or prepuce, a loose fold of skin that can retract to expose the glans. It aids in sexual insertion, keeps the glans moist and provides a gliding action which is said to increase sexual pleasure for the man and his partner as well. For various culturual, religious, and more rarely medical reasons, the foreskin is sometimes partly or completely removed; this is called circumcision. Removal of the same tissue in females is considered a genital mutilation and is outlawed in many countries. The area on the underside of the penis, where the foreskin attaches, is called the frenum (or frenulum). The inner portion of the foreskin near the sulcus is a highly innervated area known as the ridged band. Removal of the foreskin by circumcision also usually removes the ridged band and injures or removes the frenulum.
The urethra, which is the last part of the urinary tract, traverses the corpus spongiosum and its end lies on the tip of the glans penis. It is both a passage for urine and for the ejaculation of semen. Sperm is produced in the testes and stored in the attached epididymis. During ejaculation, sperm are propelled up the vas deferens, two ducts that pass over and behind the bladder. Fluids are added by the seminal vesicles and the vas deferens turns into the ejaculatory ducts which join the urethra inside the prostate gland. The prostate as well as the bulbourethral glands add further secretions, and the semen is expelled through the penis.
Male internal sexual anatomy
Erection
An semierect penisErection is a stiffening and hardening of the penis which occurs in the sexually aroused male. Erection enables sexual intercourse, though it is not essential, and some other sexual activities.
Size
In comparison to body size, the human male penis is among the largest of the primates. From polling, the average human male penis is 5 1/2 inches (14 cm) in length when fully engorged with blood during arousal, though this varies quite a bit. The size of a flaccid human penis has an even greater variation in both length and width that often does not predict the size of a fully aroused member. For example, a man with a relatively small flaccid penis may have an above average length penis when fully aroused. The opposite is also true.
Disorders affecting the penis
In Peyronie disease, anomalous scar tissue grows in the soft tissue of the penis.
Pudendal nerve entrapment is a condition characterized by pain on sitting and loss of penis (or clitoris) sensation and orgasm. In fact, sometimes there is a total loss of sensation and orgasm. The pudendal nerve can be damaged by narrow hard cycle seats and accidents. In females it commonly occurs as a result of childbirth. It is treated in France (the leaders in this area), America and Egypt.
Penile fracture can occur if the erect penis is bent excessively.
Developmental disorders of the penis
Hypospadias is a developmental disorder of the penis, where the meatus is positioned wrongly at birth. It is usually corrected by surgery.
A micropenis is a very small penis caused by developmental problems.
Psychological disorders related to the penis
- koro - delusion of shrinkage of the penis and retraction into the body
- penis envy - the contested Freudian belief of a woman envying men for having a penis
Body modification
The most common form of penile body modification is the common but controversial practice of circumcision.
Less commonly, the penis is sometimes pierced and modified by other body art. Piercings of the penis include the Prince Albert piercing, the Apadravya piercing, the Ampallang piercing, the dido piercing, the frenum piercing and others.
Other physical modifications to the penis are also performed by some people, although they are considered very extreme. Apart from a penectomy, perhaps the most radical of these is the subincision, in which the glans penis is bifurcated to look similar to that of the kangaroo. This modification was originally done among Australian Aborigines, although it is now done by some in the U.S. and Europe.
A small number of men who are circumcised attempt to restore their foreskin through various means, including surgical. This is called foreskin restoration.
Penis size myths and legends
(see also the more detailed article on penis size)Many people are highly concerned with penis size. Some men seek penis enlargement, as they perceive that their penis is "too small". Studies have shown that most men seeking penis enlargement have normal-sized penises.
Many cultures have a persistent urban legend that the penis size of some minority groups is larger than the norm. In the United States, the minority group chosen are African-Americans. This appears not to be supported by anything other than anecdote. Fanon covers this subject in some detail in "Black Skin, White Masks", and tends to agree that this is a myth (which he backs up with statistics).
The only reliable penis-size studies commonly quoted in the literature are the Kinsey study, the UCSF study, and an Italian study, none of which even attempted to correlate with race. There is an ongoing government study in India as well (commissioned with the goal of helping reduce the high condom failure rate there), but it too is unlikely to answer the question. There have been many other studies and claims of varying rigor--for example, the LifeStyles condoms study, but they are generally flawed by selection bias.
See also: impotence, lingam, penis envy, priapism, circumcision, sexual intercourse, Sexual slang, and the movie Percy.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Penis."
Synonyms: PhallusSynonyms: genus Phallus (n), member (n), penis (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Phallus |
| English words defined with "Phallus": Dictyophera ♦ genus Dictyophera ♦ Phalli, phallic, Phallism, priapic. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Phallus" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (phallus), German (phallus), Latin (phallus). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | How big is your phallus, Shaft (Shaft in Africa; writing credit: Stirling Silliphant) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Amon Düül II spielt Phallus Dei (1968) Gwar: Phallus In Wonderland (1992) The Maltese Phallus (1990) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| "Phallus" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Phallus" is used about 42 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 42 | 52,864 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "Phallus": genus Phallus ♦ phallus impudicus ♦ phallus ravenelii. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "Phallus": phallus-like, phallus-shaped. | |
Ending with "Phallus": phantasy-phallus. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
phallus | 136 |
impudicus phallus | 8 |
erect phallus | 7 |
phallus photo | 7 |
phallus worship | 5 |
graphic phallus | 4 |
little phallus | 3 |
huge phallus | 3 |
micro phallus | 2 |
phallus picture | 2 |
female phallus | 2 |
giant phallus shrine | 2 |
glass phallus | 2 |
mushroom phallus | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "Phallus"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | organ seksual i mashkullit (penis). (various references) | |
Arabic | قضيب (bar, baton, draw-bar, mace, penis, pointer, rail, rod, shaft, staff, stem, stick, switch, wand), الفالوس صورة للقضيب أو رمز له. (various references) | |
Czech | falus. (various references) | |
Dutch | fallus. (various references) | |
Esperanto | faluso. (various references) | |
Farsi | کیر (Penis), الت تناسلی مرد, الت ذکور (Prick). (various references) | |
French | phallus. (various references) | |
German | Phallus, männliches Glied. (various references) | |
Greek | φαλλόσ (penis). (various references) | |
Hebrew | איבר "מין "זכרי (penis). (various references) | |
Hungarian | hímvesszõ (penis), fallosz (yard). (various references) | |
Indonesian | lingga. (various references) | |
Italian | fallo (defect, error, fail, fault, flaw, foul, mistake). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 陽物 (penis), ファラデー定数 (farad, Faraday constant, farce, phalanx, phallicism). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ファルス (farce), ようぶつ (penis). (various references) | |
Manx | bwoid (penis, tool). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | allusphay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | falo. (various references) | |
Romanian | falus. (various references) | |
Russian | фаллос (phalli). (various references) | |
Spanish | falo. (various references) | |
Swedish | fallos. (various references) | |
Turkish | penis (Dick, Dong, joystick, knob, pecker, penis, Peter, prick, rod, tool), erkeklik organı (penis, pizzle, stamen, virile member), çük (joystick, knob, pecker, penis, prick, rod). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | фалос. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | phallos. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | phallus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "Phallus": phalluses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Phallus" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pallos, pallus, Palplus, Phalese, phalis, Phall, phallas, phallis, phallls, phallo, phalloc, phallum, phallusy, phallys, Phalu, phalus, phillus, philos, philus, phyllus. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "Phallus" (pronounced 'Phal"lus'): Asilus, Bacillus, Bolus, Callus, Clitellus, Cucullus, hilus, Nucellus, Ocellus, Palus, Paxillus, Peplus, Phacellus, Prothallus, Pullus, Pulvillus, Scamillus, thallus, Verticillus, Villus, Vitellus, Zulus. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-h-l-l-p-s-u" | |
-1 letter: sulpha. | |
-2 letters: ahull, halls, hauls, hulas, hulls, palls, plash, plush, pulls, shall, shaul, spall. | |
-3 letters: alls, alps, hall, haps, hasp, haul, hula, hull, laps, lash, lush, pall, pals, pash, plus, pula, pull, puls, push, sall, salp, saul, shul, slap, upas. | |
-4 letters: all, alp, als, ash, asp, hap, has, hup, lap, las, pah, pal, pas. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-h-l-l-p-s-u" | |
+1 letter: pushball. | |
+2 letters: phalluses, pushballs. | |
+3 letters: prothallus, punchballs, sepulchral. | |
+4 letters: callithumps, publishable. | |
+5 letters: ailurophiles, philadelphus, prothalluses, sepulchrally, superhelical. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
