phallus

• phallos

From Latin phallus (“membrum virile, phallus, or a figure thereof”) from Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfæləs/

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• Rhymes: -æləs

phallus (plural phalli or phalluses)

1. A penis, especially when erect.
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 159:

     The phallus had power to subdue the attacks of demons and the Evil Eye[.]

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 129:

     If the priests of Diana of Ephesus castrated themselves and offered their genitals on the altar, it was because the phallus was the symbol of the dying body.

2. A representation of an erect penis symbolising fertility or potency.
3. (ornithology) A similar erectile sexual organ present in the cloacas of male ratites.
4. (psychoanalysis) The signifier of the desire of the Other, and the signifier of jouissance.

• See also Thesaurus:penis

• yoni

• ithyphallic
• lingam

Borrowed from Latin phallus.[1]

• IPA^(key): /fa.lys/[2]

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phallus m (plural phallus)

1. phallus

• phallique

• pénis

From Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós, “membrum virile, phallus, or a figure thereof”), likely ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, swell up”); compare follis (“sack”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpʰal.lus/, [ˈpʰälːʲʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfal.lus/, [ˈfälːus]

phallus m (genitive phallī); second declension

1. (mythology, religion) an iconic phallic figure of the male member borne in cult processions at a Dionysian orgy or festival of Bacchus as a symbol of the generative power of nature
2. (anatomy) phallus, membrum virile, penis
3. (figurative, art) phallus; an artistic image of the membrum virile or other figurative representation of the erect penis as an icon representing male sexuality, potency, fertility

Second-declension noun.

• ithyphallicus
• phallicus
• Triphallus

• “phallus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• phallus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1171.
• phallus in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, column 1680