peter

See also: Peter, péter, and Péter

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiːtə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈpitɚ/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtə(ɹ)
• Homophone: pita (non-rhotic accents)
• Hyphenation: pe‧ter

Etymology 1

US, 1902, presumably from shared initial pe-. Compare the use of other men’s names as a slang term for the penis, e.g., dick, willy, John Thomas, etc.

Noun

peter (plural peters)

1. (slang) The penis.
   • 1997: Shelby Scates, Warren G. Magnuson and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century America [2]

     You smile, act polite, shake their hands, then cut off their peters and put them in your pocket.” “Yes, Mr. President,” answered O'Brien.

   • 1998: Michael Robert Gorman, The Empress Is a Man: Stories from the Life of Jose Sarria [3]

     ... and you were there, and they acted like you weren't even born yet?' "I'd say, 'Yes, their memories are as long as their peters.'"

   • 2002: Celia H Miles, Mattie's Girl: An Appalachian Childhood [4]

     “It's to put on their peters when they don't want to make babies,” she said.

2. (UK, slang) A safe.

Derived terms

• peterman

Translations

slang: penis

• Czech: pták (cs) m, čurák (cs) m
• Finnish: pippeli (fi), kikkeli (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: pênis (pt) m

Etymology 2

1812, US miners’ slang, Unknown. Various speculative etymologies have been suggested. One suggestion is that it comes from peter being an abbreviation of saltpeter, the key ingredient in gunpowder – when a mine was exhausted, it was “petered”. Other derivations are from St. Peter (from sense of “rock”), or French péter (“to fart”).

Verb

peter (third-person singular simple present peters, present participle petering, simple past and past participle petered)

1. (most often used in the phrase peter out) To dwindle; to trail off; to diminish to nothing.
   • 2014 August 23, Neil Hegarty, “Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin by Karl Whitney, review: 'a necessary corrective' [print version: Re-Joycing in Dublin, p. R25]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎^[5]:

     Whitney is absorbed especially by Dublin's unglamorous interstitial zones: the new housing estates and labyrinths of roads, watercourses and railways where the city peters into its commuter belt.

Usage notes

Originally used independently, but today most often in the derived phrase peter out.

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

peter (third-person singular simple present peters, present participle petering, simple past and past participle petered)

1. (card games, intransitive) Synonym of blue peter

Anagrams

• Peret, Petre, Prete, peert, petre, repet.

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Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch peter, from petrijn, from Latin patrīnus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeː.tər/
• Hyphenation: pe‧ter
• Rhymes: -eːtər

Noun

peter m (plural peters)

1. A godfather.

   Synonym: peetoom