בֻּלְבּוּל (bulbul) — bulbul (songbird); children's slang for penis
Etymology
The word בֻּלְבּוּל carries two distinct meanings in Israeli Hebrew — a species of songbird, and children's slang for the male organ — and the connection between them is one of the more entertaining puzzles in the language.
The bird: The bulbul (Pycnonotus xanthopygos, the yellow-vented bulbul) is common in the Levant. Its Persian name is بُلْبُل (bulbul), meaning "one who babbles/warbles," describing its tendency to sing loudly at all hours. The word entered Arabic from Persian. When zoologist Israel Aharoni gave the bird its Hebrew name in his 1923 textbook Torat HaHai (A Textbook of Zoology for Elementary Schools), he coined the form בִּלְבִּיל — but Hebrew speakers preferred the Arabic pronunciation בֻּלְבּוּל, and that is the form that stuck.
The slang: The children's word בולבול for the male organ appears in print for the first time in the 1982 Dan Ben-Amotz and Netiva Ben-Yehuda dictionary Milon Okh-Manyoki LeIvrit Meduberet. This means the slang term developed sometime between 1976 (when the popular children's TV show Bulbul HaKabolvul aired on Israeli television, apparently without causing any raised eyebrows about the name) and 1982. The star of that show, Itzik Weiss, maintained in a Ha'aretz Magazine interview that the show played no role in the semantic shift.
Several origin theories exist for the slang meaning: (1) From the bird's name, as English cock and bird both developed phallic slang senses; (2) From the stick used in the Israeli game of Dudes (a variant of cricket), which was called a bulbul, especially by Iraqi immigrant children; (3) From the Arabic word for urine (בּוּל), as the organ is where urine exits; (4) From the word בּוּלְבּוּלִים, recorded by Ben-Amotz and Ben-Yehuda in their 1972 dictionary as children's slang for testicles (possibly a distortion of בֻּלְבּוּסִים or the English Balls) — with a subsequent metonymic shift. The etymology remains uncertain.
Key Quotes
"ציפור מכנסי השבת שלי / ציפור תחתוני המתוחים / זמיר מנגינת הלילות שלי / דרור חלומותי הנשכחים" — Hanoch Levin, "Tzipor HaMikhnesayim HaKtana" (from the 1977 film Fantasy on a Romantic Theme)
Timeline
- Persian: بُلْبُل (bulbul) — name for the nightingale, "babbler/warbler"
- Via Arabic: word enters Levantine usage as name for the songbird
- 1923: Israel Aharoni coins בִּלְבִּיל in his zoology textbook; speakers prefer בֻּלְבּוּל
- 1972: Dan Ben-Amotz and Netiva Ben-Yehuda record בּוּלְבּוּלִים as children's slang for testicles
- 1976: Israeli children's TV show "בולבול הקבולבול" airs without apparent controversy
- 1977: Film "Fantasy on a Romantic Theme" features Hanoch Levin's song comparing the penis to a bird
- 1982: First printed attestation of בולבול as children's slang for the penis (Ben-Amotz/Ben-Yehuda dictionary)
- Present: Both meanings in active use; the bird name standard; the slang term primarily in children's speech
Related Words
- זַמִּיר — nightingale (the "correct" Hebrew name for that bird)
- פִּין — penis (the standard modern Hebrew term; see entry)
- זַיִן — penis (slang; from the letter name, attested from 1911 among Gymnasia Herzliya students)
- זֶרֶג — penis (slang; from Aramaic zarnuk, "irrigation pipe")