Pizzle

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Bull pizzle cut into small pieces.
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Bull pizzle cut into small pieces.

Pizzle is an old English word for penis, derived from Low German pesel or Flemish Dutch pezel, diminutive of Dutch pees 'sinew'.

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[edit] Original uses

It is used in heraldry, where the adjective pizzled indicates that part of an animate charge's anatomy, especially if coloured differently.

It is also known, at least since 1523, especially in the combination "bull pizzle", to denote a flogging instrument made from a bull's penis - compare bullwhip - and the modern Dutch word bullepees 'bull sinew' which fits a bull pizzle, a term specifying the material is from a bull.

[edit] Modern uses

Bull pizzles are almost exclusively used/produced today as chewing treats for dogs.[citation needed] The pizzles of bulls are cleaned, stretched, twisted and then dried at a very high heat. The result is a very hard, 80-100 cm long brown stick, which is then sawn into pieces appropriate for the size of the dog, usually 10-20 cm (this process also makes its anatomical origin rather unrecognizable).

The fully digestible bull pizzles are excellent chewing toys. Since they consist mostly of proteins, they can usually be ignored for the daily calorie intake of the dog.[citation needed] As is the case for most chewing toys, the dog will clean its teeth by itself during the lengthy chewing process. However, most humans find the smell of a half-chewed bull pizzle rather unpleasant,[citation needed] which is probably the reason why synthetic digestible chewing toys have become increasingly popular and displaced the dried bull pizzle into a niche for dog owners who prefer more natural or organic food for their dogs.[citation needed]

[edit] Slang and games

In more recent times the word pizzle has become an alternate word for a pistol.

[edit] Sources and references

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