"How's it hanging?"

Posted by R. Berg on November 23, 2001

In Reply to: "How's it hanging?" posted by Ed lam on November 23, 2001

: Does anybody know the origin of this phrase : "How's it hanging?" Does it come from back in the days when hanging was popular? Thanks

Eric Partridge, Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, mentions some similar phrases that mean "How's your sex life?" They refer to the male organs and are "low" phrases (he says) of U.S. origin, dating from the 1920s.