Investigating The Plural of “Penis”

If any of you know me, you can probably guess what this is about. Even though the title really says it all. Basically this post is going to be about the little topic that’s been floating around for about 2 weeks now, and a word that I have been using for years. It came to my attention a while ago that I might not be using the correct pluralisation of “penis”!

A certain question has been on our (my) mind for quite a long time, and that is: what would be the plural of penis? Penises or penii? It may sound quite weird, but we’ve had discussions across the classroom about this (the plural that is). Apparently, if it was Latin, the plural would be penii, but in Greek it would be penises. Of course I’ve had to take this matter one step further and investigate into the subject, so I asked many members of the school, each with their own opinions. At the moment, its about half and half. No one has given a straight answer. I wondered if perhaps it was a matter of self preference, but of course, in the English language their must be answer for everything, so I turned to Google (sorry: “A Search Engine”). I came up with many significant results, and WikiPedia was on the list. Of course I had to go their first because WikiPedia is the best source of serious “sexual” information. This is what I found:

“Penii” is sometimes facetiously used as a plural form of “penis” instead of the correct “penises” or (less commonly used) “penes.”

- Unknown Author

Also, while on the same topic, I also happened to read this on WikiPedia (lovely):

Penile fracture can occur if the erect penis is bent excessively. A pop or cracking sound and pain is normally associated with this event. Emergency medical assistance should be obtained. Prompt medical attention lowers likelihood of permanent penile curvature.

- Unknown Author

In other news, I’ve just updated the About Me page.