pizzle

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pē̆s-“to blow”
2. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*fas-il-
3. Old Dutch · derived from*pisa“sinew, string, fibre”
4. Middle Dutch · derived frompese“a sinew, tendon, string, pizzle”
5. West Flemish · borrowed frompezel
6. Dutch Low Saxon · borrowed frompesel
7. English todaypizzle

From Dutch Low Saxon pesel or West Flemish pezel, diminutive of Middle Dutch pese (“a sinew, tendon, string, pizzle”), from Old Dutch *pisa (“sinew, string, fibre”), possibly ultimately related to vezel (“fiber”), from Proto-West Germanic *fas-il-, from Proto-Indo-European *pē̆s- (“to blow”) (see Old High German faso (“fiber”)); in which case this alternation *pes- / *fes- may indicate a repeated borrowing from a (non-Indo-European?) substrate language. Cognate with Dutch pees, Middle Low German pese (“tendon, bowstring”), Dutch pees (“sinew, tendon”), German Low German Peserick, Pesel (“pizzle”), dialectal German Pisel (“penis”).