Wee-wee


What's the meaning of the phrase 'Wee-wee'?

A nursery euphemism for urine or urination.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Wee-wee'?

Eric Partridge records this in his A Dictionary of Slang, 1937, as “Wee-wee, a urination; esp. do a wee-wee” and considers it to be late 19th century.

Reduplications that are formed from repeating words like this are symptomatic of the infantile way that youngsters used to be spoken to; for example, choo-choo, goody-goody etc. This fashion is changing rather and such terms are becoming less commonly used.

Wee, and Wee-wee, may well be variant of pee. That itself is a jokey euphemism and appears to derive from the ‘P’ in p***. Shakespeare seems to use it that way in Twelfth Night, 1602:

“By my life, this is my lady’s hand: these be her very C’s, her U’s, and her T’s, and thus makes she her great P’s.”

Never shy of recycling a good old joke, Talbot Rothwell, the screenwriter of most of the Carry On series of films, used this one again in Carry On Camping. A sign on a field gate says ‘All asses must be shown’. Sid James approaches the gate:

Are you the owner of this site?
No.
Where is he?
Gone for a P.

See other reduplicated phrases.

Trend of wee – wee in printed material over time

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

Gary Martin

Writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.
Wee-wee

Phrases & Meanings

A-Z

Categories

How did we do?

Have you spotted something that needs updated on this page? We review all feedback we receive to ensure that we provide the most accurate and up to date information on phrases.