Etymology - Testicles

Etymology – history in the roots of words.




Testicles

As everyone knows, the testicles are the male reproductive glands, which produce the little wrigglers which play such an important part in creating little things which wail and keep you awake at night.

So, one would assume that the word ‘testicle’ would mean something about seeds or soul or something like that. And why not, after all? The word ‘sperm’ means ‘seed’ in Latin. The word ‘Gonad’ which is another word for your dingle-dangles is derived from the Greek word ‘Gone’ which means ‘Seed’ or ‘Act of generation’.

But the word ‘Testicle’ has another root altogether, which has nothing to do with planting or farming or seeds in general.

‘Testicle’ come from the Latin word ‘Testis’, which means ‘Witness’. Not the act of seeing – the actual person who comes to court and deposes, saying that he has seen something which is germane to the case being heard in the court.

Why?

This is because, under Roman law, there required to be at least two witnesses (Testes) to make a court trial legal. A single witness can be bought or bullied, but two independent witnesses would balance each other. Hence the legal maxim – ‘Testis unus testis nullus’ i.e ‘One witness is no witness’. However, this noble intent was quickly nullified by parties hiring two corrupt witnesses who corroborated each other.

As such two witnesses were found in pairs, they were called ‘Testicles’

Know anything else, which hangs around in pairs?







In the company of dicks and assholes?