Latin word "a little stake". The Italian has no obvious Latin ancestor. A number of different suggestions have been made for its origin, but none has yet gained general acceptance. : the testicles The basic word for the testicles in Latin was (singular: ). It appears to have had an alternative form * (singular: ), from which the Spanish and other Romance forms are derived. (One late Latin source has the spelling ). Etymology The etymology of is obscure. Tucker, without explanation, gives *qogh-sleǐ-os (*kwogh-sley-os?), and relates it to cohum, an obscure word for "yoke". Lewis and Short's Latin Dictionary relates the word to ("a leather sack for liquids"). However, this etymology is not generally accepted today, and according to the the etymology is unknown. In texts, the word for testicles is always spelled with col- not cull-, and is plural. Usage Cicero in his letter discussing obscene Latin words (ad Fam. 9.22) says at one point ("Lanuvian are respectable, but "Cliternian" ones are indecent"). (Lanuvium and Cliternia were small towns not far from Rome.) However, the meaning of these phrases is not known, according to the . The word occurs in Petronius (44): ("if we had any balls (i.e. if we were real men), he wouldn't be so pleased with himself!") A Pompeian graffito quotes a line of iambic verse: ("When an old man lies down, his testicles cover his butthole.") The form of the line is reminiscent of the proverbial sayings of Publilius Syrus, many of which employ the same metre. Synonyms and metaphors The more decent word in Latin for testicles was (sing. ). This word may have derived from the Latin for "witnesses". Cicero's letter says ("In a court of law, witnesses is a quite decent word; not too much so elsewhere.") Katz (1998) draws attention to the fact that in some cultures it was customary to take a solemn oath while laying hands on the testicles either of a living person (as in Genesis 24:2-4; 47:29-31), or of a sacrificed animal (as described in Demosthenes 23.67f); a similar ritual took place in Umbria when dedicating a sacrificial animal. According to Katz, the word itself appears to be derived from the root trityo- ("third") and originally meant a third party. The two meanings of open the door for puns such as the following from Martial (2.72): ("What about the fact that Caecilius has witnesses/testicles, Postumus?") Or