Loose Lips	Loose Lips Archive

The spammers discovered Blanche's e-mail address, and suddenly her mailbox began to fill up with unwanted solicitations for Herbal Viagra, low-interest mortgages, debt reduction, and incredible vacation offers. But most of all, the spam was about porn sites and penis enlargement. One e-mail message promises that by following their low-cost procedures, "YOU TOO WILL BE WELL HUNG!!!"

As she hit the Delete button once again, Miss Poubelle began to wonder about the expression well hung. Where does this phrase come from? The connection of meaning between the penis and hanging is fairly obvious, but the history of this idiom is rather interesting.

View our poll archive

In the most literal sense, something is well hung if it hangs well. The dictionary shows that well hung has been applied to a wide range of hanging objects, and not just those attached to men's bodies. A once frequent use of well hung described horse-drawn carriages that were properly positioned between the axles. Smollett in 1771 wrote, "I have suffered more from jolting and swinging than ever I felt in the whole course of my life, although the carriage is remarkably..well hung." Another use is found in a 1791 paper describes peas that "grew rapidly and were very well hung." And another frequent use of well hung describes meat that has been hung long enough to make it taste good.

But well hung has also been an English idiom for talking about the size of the genitals for a surprisingly long time. The first clear instance in in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, first performed in 1602. In a scene with Maria and the Clown, we find the following interchange:

Maria: ... My lady will hang thee for thy absence.

Clown: Let her hang me. He that is well hanged in this world needs to fear no colours

To fear no colours means 'to fear no foe.' So the jist of the Clown's response is that a man with a big dick ('he that is well hanged') isn't afraid of anything.

Just to make sure that the audience got the joke, Shakespeare worked in another joke about hanging a few lines later:

Maria: Yet you will be hanged for being so long absent; or, to be turned away, is not that as good as a hanging to you?

Clown: Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage;

The last line is a good joke, though only a clown would believe that a big dick will lead to a happy marriage.

So well hung could describe the size of the penis in older English, just as it does in modern English. But in earlier English, it seems that this expression could also apply to other parts of the body as well. For example, a 1641 guide for farmers says "Hunge tuppes are such as have both the stones in the codde." [Translated into modern English, "Hung rams are those that have both testicles in the scrotum."] A 1645 letter writes of some unfortunate person, "they cut off his genitories, (and they say he was hung like an ass)." And a 1685 quote refers to "a large Hound Bitch... pretty well hung, all white." In the first quote, hung describes the condition of the ram's balls, not the penis. In the second quote, hung like an ass surely refers to the size of the penis. But the third quote refers to a bitch, and in context it sounds as if well hung must mean that the dog's teats are large.

On the basis of examples such as these, the Oxford English Dictionary defines (well) hung as 'having pendent organs', without specifying what organs might be involved. In the history of well hung, it has gone from a very general term that could describe anything hanging down to a specialized term describing a man with that something extra.

But however desireable being well hung may be, Miss Poubelle doubts that the combination of Chinese herbs and ancient Tantric exercises being marketed in her e-mail will have the effect of increasing the endowment of the ill hung. Short of a medical breakthrough, they'll have to be content with knowing that little things mean a lot.