# phallus
## English
### Alternative forms

* phallos

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈfæləs/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -æləs

### Noun

phallus (plural phalli or phalluses)
* 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.
* A representation of an erect penis symbolising fertility or potency.
* (psychoanalysis) The signifier of the desire of the Other, and the signifier of jouissance.

#### Synonyms

* See also Thesaurus:penis

#### Coordinate terms

* yoni

#### Derived terms

* phallectomy
* phallic
* phallically
* phallicism
* phallobase
* phallocentric
* phallocentrism
* phallocracy
* phallocrat
* phallocratic
* phallogocentric
* phallogocentrism
* phalloidin, phalloidine
* phallological
* phallologist
* phallologocentric
* phallologocentrism
* phallology
* phallolysin
* phallometric
* phallometry
* phalloplasty
* phallostethid
* phallotomy
* phallotoxin
* phallused
* primordial phallus

#### Related terms

* ithyphallic
* lingam

#### Translations
## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin phallus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fa.lys/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

phallus m (plural phallus)
* phallus

#### Related terms

* phallique

### See also

* pénis

### References

* ↑ “phallus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
* ↑ “phallus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Latin
### Etymology

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”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈpʰal.lus/, [ˈpʰälːʲʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈfal.lus/, [ˈfälːus]

### Noun

phallus m (genitive phallī); second declension
* (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
* (anatomy) phallus, membrum virile, penis
* (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

#### Declension

Second-declension noun.

#### Related terms

* ithyphallicus
* phallicus
* Triphallus

#### Descendants

* Asturian: falu
* Catalan: fal·lus
* → Czech: falus
* → Dutch: fallus
* → English: phallus
* → French: phallus
* Galician: falo
* → German: Phallus
* Italian: fallo
* → Occitan: fallus
* → Polish: fallus
* → Portuguese: falo
* Romanian: falus (possibly via French)
* → Russian: фа́ллус (fállus), фалл (fall)
* → Serbo-Croatian: falus, фалус
* Sicilian: fallu
* Spanish: falo
* → Turkish: fallus

### Further reading

* “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