I was amused to see the February 22 front page of the Daily Sun, peppered with its usual plethora of exclamation marks.
“Ex-lover slashed my 4-5!”
That was the headline, and the story went on to explain:
“He was sitting happily with his new sweetheart when the door to his house crashed open.
“It was his former lover, carrying a knife and screaming for his new girl’s blood!
“… Thlalefang Shuping (35) acted quickly and wrestled the girl to the ground, but her knife flashed and he felt a searing pain in his balls!
“Blood soaked his pants — she had slashed his penis!”
Thlalefang, we are told, was later “given 10 stitches on his penis” at a clinic. Poor man. Apart from the interesting confusion between penis and testicles in the article, what’s fascinating is the terminology. I’ve never seen the term “4-5” used for a penis. Is this indigenous South African slang? Does it refer to the average length of the average penis?
I feel some research should be done. The field of slang terms for sexual acts and body parts is enormous, as demonstrated by Sex Slang, a new book from Routledge. For penis, to stick to that area alone, we have everything from “skin flute” to “whanger” to “yoghurt cannon”. I feel “4-5” should be added to this list, as well as a South-Africanism I’m trying to propagate — “wilbur”.
I can’t recall where I heard this first, but it fits in with the tendency of Gayle, the gay slang that works on the basis of giving names, usually alliterative female names, to such terms. Thus they sound like characters in a particularly mad pantomime, and hence we have Ada for Aids, Kathy (Bates) for cocaine, and so on. The letter P is already taken with Priscilla (police), and there are already two terms for the dangly or not-so-dangly bits — Lana (lunch; itself a slang term for such things) and Erica (erection).
But I’d like to get Wilbur (willy/whanger) out there, and spread it around, as one does. Any takers?
Shaun why were you surprised by the punctuation in the Sun!!!!!!!! Why!!!! Was it something they wrote!!!!
We should use cognomens like the Romans used to do.
These were usually their 3rd name – started out as a nickname but by which we would later know them eg : Cicero who was Marcus Tullius Cicero.
So the guy whose 4-5 was saved could be – Joe Bloggs ‘Appenis (on account of his happiness at saving his 4-5).
I’ve got 2 to add: 2-5 – meaning a woman’s thighs. And 6-9 meaning $hit. I kid you not!
Wasn’t Wilbur the first human to fly? Is that where the word “fly” as in trouser-opening comes from?
Where are you from? You never heard Ralph being called 4-5 before??
But tell me has your 4-5 ever been slashed? Maybe the pain is first felt in the balls. Not having my own it seems entirely possible. I know that the fabulous thing about pain inflicted to the skin is that it’s felt (in dilution) all over the body as the skin is one organ.
4-5 is township slang for penis
6-9 is for shit
99 means “for real”
can’t think of anymore right now
Tebogo L, point of correction, 6-9 means urinating.
We’ve been calling dicks 4-5in the township for as long as I can remember. And Tebogo maybe this differs from kasi to kasi, but in Soweto 6-9 is to pee.
What can I say about the story itself, there’s a Bobbit in every country? Tlhalefang has a great future as a porn star.
Traps what are you talking about?????????????
Doesn’t 6-9 mean the toilet?? It’s usually used to potray going to the toilet, i.e. Ke ya 6-9, loosely translated, i’m going to the toilet. Or maybe interpretation depends on geographical location!
Kgomotso – herewith cognomens :
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cognomen
Everything has an origin, even these. Wonder what they all are?
Could 4-5 possibly be derived from
penis
p—s
p-s
4-5 from the similarity of numbers to letters (like on numberplates when the letters are taken)
but 2-5, 6-9 and 99 are beyond me.
6-9 pee dnt think. that means sit.
where have you been 4-5 is 4 a penis and no for as small and big as it can be.
Thanks for the info. Sorry I didn’t know; I’ve led a very sheltered life.
Shaun, in Black South Africa ‘dick’ doesn’t exist, 4-5 (pronounced “four five”) does. Like you though, I have absolutely no idea where that came from. I really doubt it has anything to do with the average penis size, it’d be interesting to find out the real origins of the term though…