Prick (slang)
This is an accepted version of this page Prick is a vulgar word for 'penis' as well as a pejorative term used to refer to a despicable or contemptible individual.
The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang says a prick is "a despicable man, a fool, used as a general term of offence or contempt.
'"[4] In modern times, writes Tony Thorne, "in polite company it is the least acceptable of the many terms for the male member (cock, tool, etc.
[6] Prick as a verb for sexual intercourse can be seen as early as the 14th century, in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
[6] The word is listed in Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue as "prick: the virile member" in 1788.
[8] However, prick continued to appear in Victorian pornography, such as Walter's My Secret Life, who used it 253 times,[7] as well as in the works of Scottish poet Robert Burns, who used it with "vulgar good humour".
"[11] In Farmer and Henley's A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English in 1905, the two definitions of prick are "a term of endearment (1540)", or "a pimple".
[14] By the mid-20th century, prick had enthusiastically returned to literature from its Victorian banishment, and was being used liberally both as a description for the penis and as an insult.
Philip Roth used it frequently in Portnoy's Complaint, with an oft-cited quote being his inclusion of the Yiddish proverb "When the prick stands up, the brain gets buried."
"[15] Larissa Dubecki continued the Shakespearean wordplay tradition with her 2015 book, Prick with a Fork: The World's Meanest Waitress Spills the Beans.
[19] Roger Ebert responded by criticizing all such gender-based terms for either books or film as "sexist and ignorant".
She continues:[22] In vulgar, non-philosophical usage, the prick is both the male sexual organ (the famous penis of penis-envy: attraction-resentment) and an obnoxious person-an unprincipled and selfish man who high-handedly abuses others, who capriciously exhibits little or no regard for justice.
The prick does not play by the rules: he (she) is a narcissistic tease who persuades by means of attraction and resistance, not by orderly systemic discourse.
