Also, Q, the different connotations of different English words with similar origins have often occurred through the different languages those words went through to arrive in the English language. Latin was used in Italian, French, German, Spanish, etc etc etc and what started out as a Latin word with a fairly specific meaning may have picked up interesting connotations from different uses in different countries. Like collecting baggage or souvenirs.

Q, are you saying that penis isn't related to penetrate? According to my book "Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English", which I'll admit was printed in 1966, penis and penetrate are traced back to "Penates, gods of the Roman household, gods of the interior, erives from Latin penes, inside, in the interior of......."

The words penetrate, pencil, penicillin, and penis are then explored.

"2. Prob, (probably) with -n- infic, from an IE r* pe-, as in G[reek] peos and Skt (Sanskrit) pasas, penis, is L[atin] penis, the male member, adopted by many Eoropean nations as the Med or tech word; perh, however, despite the vowel change (? imposed as differentiation), L[atin] penis derives from or is, at least, akin to L. penes, inside: 'the withinner, the penetrator'"

Abbreviation:

r = root
* = presumed word, or form of a word, or sense

Helen