The inside of the penis sac contains a penis?

February 1, 2007 3:08 PM

TechnicalSpanishFilter: What parts of a snail's anatomy are the "verga" and "estimulo"? (Discussion of snail's reproductive organs inside. Perfectly safe for work unless you're not allowed to read the word "penis".)

I am translating a journal article about snails from Spanish into English, and I have had great success except for two words: "verga" and "estimulo".
I know that these are intended to be nouns, specifically, body parts.
I know that "verga" can mean "rod" and can also mean "penis", but the text uses "pene" for penis.
I have no idea what an "estimulo" could be, but it seems to be a synonym for "dart sac".

Here are some sample sentences:
"El interior del saco del pene contiene una verga muy simple y desarrollada: es un organo imperforado, de forma ovoidea, terminado en una punta roma."

"Cerca del epiphallus es muy notable la presencia de un estimulo o saco del dardo."

posted by nekton to Science & Nature (4 answers total)

I'm no expert on snail anatomy or Spanish, but could you could translate verga as 'shaft' or similar? That is, perhaps the term pene is being used to describe the organ as a whole, while verga describes just one part of it.
posted by nomis at 4:02 PM on February 1, 2007

Also, estimulo (should it be estímulo?) presumably continues the Latin word stimulus, which can mean 'sting' or 'spur'. I can't see how a 'sting' could also be a 'sac', but the 'dart' part is similar...
posted by nomis at 4:07 PM on February 1, 2007

Verga is a rude slang for penis in Mexico, so your article might have been written in Spain (I'm laughing like an 8 year old at the mental image). The dictionary translates it as a mammal's penis, so that's kind of weird. Guess it's a really kinky snail.

Estímulo means stimulus, and it's used just like in English. In a Spanish dictionary, I found the definition as "invitación, atractivo, cebo, señuelo" (invitation, attraction, bait, decoy, lure).
posted by clearlydemon at 9:45 PM on February 1, 2007

On second thought, it's weird that they use epiphallus, when there is a Spanish word for that: epifalo. Maybe the original language is not Spanish, but it was translated from another language. That would explain why they use those two words, because they don't make much sense.
posted by clearlydemon at 9:58 PM on February 1, 2007