Catchy title, huh?

Guys, well most of you might think that the title above refers to men's member - you're probably right!

Of course I'm not gonna talk entirely about that - you might think that I am this biatch who thinks nothing but dicks. Although there's some truth to that, it's just that I did a little probe on why the term 'dick' is now associated with male genitalia. Below were some of the things I gathered.

Dick is actually a nickname for Richard, like Bill for William and Bob for Robert. Did you ever wonder why our tourism secretary is sometimes referred to as Dick Gordon?

Richard is a very old name, but its origin is not thoroughly established. Old English name had 'Richeard', from Ric (ruler) and Heard (hard) - hard ruler! Old French had 'Richart' and Old German had 'Ricohart'.

In early days, since most documents were hand - written - it is quite agreeable to use more common and shorter words for easier comprehension. Names were not exempted in the use of abbreviations and Richard, being one of the most popular names in those days - had quite a lot. Rick, Hick, Rich, Richy, Ricky, Ricket were among the few. Spin - offs from these nicknames also evolved, all of which can be traced to the name - Hich, Hicket and Dicket to name a few.

Being popular as it is, the name Dick (like Jack) was used colloquially to the average man, thus the phrase "Every Tom, Dick and Harry". From the use of 'dick' for an average person, other usages also appeared.

Oxford English Dictionary cited the word 'dick' meaning 'a type of hard cheese'. When treacle is added, it became 'treacle dick' and later on when raisins or currants were added to the cheese, 'spotted dick' was born referring to the dotted appearance of the pudding because of these additions. The term 'dick' was also used to refer an apron, a riding whip, the mound around a ditch, and an abbreviation for 'dictionary' around 1860s.

Later on, the word was used to refer to a policeman which later evolved to mean detective as in 'Dick Tracy'.

And now where back to where we started. Why 'dick'?

The word's association with penis is really unknown, though some argued that the riding whip had pointed the way. Others had this theory that the term usage evolved from the word 'dork' that has 'dirk' and 'dick' as some of its variations - had something to do with this. The word 'dork' is a slang for a whale's penis, though it's orinally meaning is really penis; it refers to humans and not cetaceans. 'Dork' now popularly refers to a stupid or obnoxious person.

I surmised that the evolution of the word, which usually refers to a masculine adjective and reference i.e. 'hard', 'average man' and 'policeman/detective', except probably for cheese - had made the slang as popular as ever . There were also some prominent men who figured in history named Richard - all 'dick personified'.

Richard the Lionheart
Richard Burton
Richard Gere
Richard Harris
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Nixon
Richard Attenborough
Richard Gomez
Richard Guttierez
Richard Pinlac (?)

Any other famous dicks, I mean Richards, you know?