A few weeks ago, Katie suggested testify for a word o’ the week. She’d heard that it came to us from testicle, because it’s what men used to swear on when they claimed to be telling the truth.

“Oh cool,’ I said. And a few hours later I considered the title “Hysterical Testimony” to unite uterine and testicular suggestions in one phrase. “Isn’t that neat?” I asked her. “It’s just you, Mom,” she replied with sardonic affection.

The next day I looked. Here’s what I found.

Testify and testament and testimony all come from the Latin testis, which meant witness. Testis hailed from the Proto Indo European tris, which simply meant three (3). The notion is that a fair witness is an independent party: the third person present in a dispute between two contestants. From three we got witness and from that idea came these testy words.

It seems obvious what then happened. Witnesses were male, and they swore on their important part. In time, that/those important part(s) came to be called by a word that relates to what they were doing when they were swearing.

I wonder if a eunuch could testify? And I guess if we find a man with three cojones, his parts will earn their term.

By the way, the word “test” is unrelated. It comes from the Latin testum, meaning earthen pot, because that was the container used to assay precious metals.