Talk:dick

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A question came up in IRC (from a meta user indirectly) asking WTF "pejorative coarse slang" means. Simply wikifying those three terms was enough explanation for that not-totally-fluent English learner. But in the discussion that ensued, a disctinction was made (by me) between "pejorative, coarse, slang" and "pejorative coarse slang". Others thought that such a thing should end up in the category Category:Pejorative coarse slang.

My question is, are the three "tags" each separate attributes of the word, as I have always thought? --Connel MacKenzie 16:58, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

I'd call dunderheaded pejorative but neither coarse nor slang, ape (as in "to go ape") slang but neither pejorative nor coarse, and merkin coarse but neither (intrinsically) pejorative nor slang. Coarser options were available.

Does that answer the question? Hv 22:59, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the response, but that wasn't quite what I was trying to ask about. Rewording the question, should dick be in A) one category or B) in three categories. A being Category: Pejorative coarse slang words, and B being Category: Pejorative words + Category: Coarse words + Category: Slang words. So, A or B? Which is more appropriate for this word? --Connel MacKenzie 03:09, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Ah, gotcha. I would expect there to be 3 separate categories, and I'd expect dick to be in all 3. Since the combination of the 3 is common there might be merit in a one-category shorthand to express membership of the 3, but I don't see the intersection of the 3 categories as having intrinsic significance beyond the fact that it is such an intersection. Hv 08:26, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Richard

Shouldn't this entry mention that "Dick" is also very commonly used as a shortened version of "Richard"?

No, that should be on the separate page Dick. --EncycloPetey 10:46, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

New related question --    

How did "Dick" ever become the almost universal "nickname" for "Richard"??

Dick originated as a rhyming nickname for Rick, which is short for Richard. —Stephen 18:42, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Could male anatomical vulgarism derive from "dickens" ("devil")?

Boccaccio wrote a story in the Decameron around this idea. Google "put the devil into hell" and "Day 3, Story 10" Admittedly, however, Boccaccio was writing in Italian. Hcunn (talk) 18:38, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Doesn't seem likely at all. Equinox ◑ 21:44, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Arabic in colloquial for penis

It's not أير, it's عير Chaimshalom (talk) 22:51, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

 Done --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 23:18, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

proactive prevention of photoshopped comic being used as source for dick=advice/talk

It's a bad photoshop job (the K is too big and the FROM is too far away): http://www.funnymeme.com/index.php/funny-memes-2/funny-memes-solid-dick/

here's the original:

http://superopinionated.com/post/88517668253/graemem-i-know-i-know-youre-stunned-to

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sAwnle7QgQg/U0HlVAmGVNI/AAAAAAAAEjk/QhTHT1TVapM/s1600/Iron+Man.jpg --Espoo (talk) 08:43, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Other senses

• Spotted dick says that in the 19th century, "dick" could mean "pudding" in British dialects, giving "treacle dick" as another collocation, another is "lump dick(s)".
• The English Dialect Dictionary says it was a (Northern England, Midlands) word, possibly obsolete, for a louse (often used in the plural). (In fact, the EDD says it was a word for "body lice", but all its examples are of someone's head being "full o' dicks"...)
• The EDD also says, with two possibly-usable citations, that it was a (Yorkshire) word for "a leather apron and bib worn by children".

- -sche (discuss) 03:40, 9 September 2018 (UTC)

Missing sense: fine words / dictionary

Chambers 1908 defines dick as "(slang) fine words", for "dictionary". Never mind what I found when looking for "a lot of dick" etc. Can we attest this? Equinox ◑ 13:28, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

There's an image supposedly from an old Marvel comic, of Iron Man telling Captain America he needs "solid dick"—said to mean "straight talk". Some people have made the case it's photoshopped, but if an old dictionary has something similar, that's intriguing. I searched for examples when I first saw the comic and I couldn't find any, but today I found this:

• 2018, Ryan Sayles, I'm Not Happy Till You're Not Happy, All Due Respect, an imprint of Down & Out Books

  "I don't apologize for sayin' what needs to be said." "You were terrible to Grandma, and in turn she was terrible to my mamma, and in turn she was terrible to me. You can't treat folks like that. It's a cycle.” The old man glared. “I don't apologize for sayin' what needs to be said.” “You don't apologize for your solid dick?” “Nope." Grandpa says. […] "Now," Linus says as he rises from his seat, the look on his face gone stone cold. "Let me give you some solid dick. [...] When you spend your life taking a dump on people, eventually they decide they've had enough."

To me, that sounds kinda clunky and I'd be concerned it might be an author just trying to use a word they had heard was archaic without necessarily understanding it and possibly without it having necessarily existed in the past, like Georgette Heyer seemed to do with Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue words IIRC, but it's something. Between that and Chambers one might surmise dick = words, but I'd be wary without 2 more cites. It's not in Century or Wright. - -sche (discuss) 06:29, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

I see that Chambers' usexes are "to take one's dick"(?) and "up to dick" = excellent, properly. (The semantics seem ... flexible?) Hotten's old slang dictionary has "Dick, abbreviation of 'Dictionary,' but often euphemistically rendered 'Richard,'—fine language, long words. A man who uses fine words without much judgement is said to have 'swallowed the dick.'" I would almost think that was a joke—if not on the part of the dictionary, then on the part of the users of such a phrase. - -sche (discuss) 07:11, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

But we do have an entry for have swallowed a dictionary. Equinox ◑ 21:46, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

other dicks

groaty dick and spotted dick should probably be linked on the page. Also, there was a bird with "dick" in its name, but I forget it. Jonely Mash (talk) 01:44, 5 January 2021 (UTC)