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.

One of the earliest uses of prick can be found in Shakespeare's As You Like It .