private, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

private n.

1. (also privities) in sexual senses, usu. in pl. [abbr. euph. SE private parts].

(a) the female genitals.

c.1600		Shakespeare Hamlet II ii: ham.: Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours? guil.: Faith, her privates we. ham.: In the secret parts of Fortune? O! most true; she is a strumpet.
1723		‘Whipping-Tom’ A Knave’s Last Will and Testament III 41: I give to the R--- S---y the Sum of Five Hundred Pounds, [...] to Proceed in their Knowledge of the Secrets of Nature, and particularly to find out the Length of the Vagina of a Woman’s Privities.
1785		Trial of Lady Ann Foley 21: A white handkerchief, with several marks of stains thereon, and which had been used by [...] one of them to wipe their, or one of their privates.
1841		‘Toasts & Sentiments’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 48: May volunteers all be able to enter the privates without beating about the bush.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) III 576: What a lot of women I have heard say they would not have believed it, when I first made a snatch at their privates.
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 104: I have seen a mature woman, mother of a large family, burst out laughing when a former soldier spoke casually of buck privates.
2001		Indep. Rev. 23 Feb. 9: A bare-bottomed working girl [...] scrubbing at her privates.

(b) the male genitals.

1465–71		Mankind line 429: neu gyse. A lasse master a lasse my privyte my privity [...] Ye shall not choppe my Iewellys.
[c.1500		J. Russell Boke of Nuture in Furnivall (E.E.T.S.) 135: Put not youre handes in youre hosen youre codware* for to clawe (*Codde, of mannys pryute (preuy membris)].
1606		Marston The Fawne Act IV: Behold a goodlie man three partes a liue quartered, his priuities hacled off, his belly launcht vp.
1621		R. Burton Anatomy of Melancholy (1893) III 326: Eunuchs [...] sent commonly from Egypt, deprived in their childhood of all their privities.
1741		‘Capt. Samuel Cock’ Voyage to Lethe 37: At the lower end of the Temple was another Idol, called Masturpro, with this inscription over it, A Chapel of Ease A naked Man erect, one Leg a little before the other, with his Right-Hand grasping his Privites.
1785		see sense 1a.
1797		M. Leeson Memoirs (1995) III 199: Poor C-- found his privities extremely chilled, which caused him in a paroxism of rage to throw the well sluced peruke into a running brook at the bottom of the garden.
1833		‘Lustful Peg’ in Fal-Lal Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 23: Young Peggy would after the soldiers go. / [...] / She was scarcely sixteen, and was pretty and fair, / But the privates, indeed, was the whole of her care.
1841		‘The Shitten End Of A Brick’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 46: Upon the privates she, her wicked mind did fix.
1890		‘Neaniskos’ Priapeia Ep. xciv 97: Thou mayest devour our Priapus: Even consume his yard [...] thou mayest munch even its privities, thou wilt still be pure.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1919		Transcript Dunn Inq. L.R. Murphy Perverts by Official Order (1989) 23: He turned out the light and had me sit on the toilet seat while he felt my privates.
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 303: After having had first a cold bath to keep their privates from rising in alarm.
1955		P. Larkin ‘If, My Darling’ Less Deceived 42: A Grecian Statue kicked in the privates.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 37: privates (n.): The genitalia.
1970		G. Cain Blueschild Baby 20: We enter and stand scratching and playing with our privates.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 685: The man grabbed his privates and stumbled away bent over.
1987		B. Chatwin Songlines 79: He stared earnestly at his privates, scratched his crotch.
2006		(con. 1930) C. Carr Our Town 115: Of the victim hanging closest to the tree, Barnett said, ‘This one with the shirt hanging around him—they’d cut him. His privates’.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 62: Two naked Indian men were [...] looking terrified, hands cupped over their privates.

2. (US tramp) a private house.

1907		J. London Road 74: I was lost. I could not tear myself away long enough to ‘batter’ the ‘privates’ (domiciles) for my supper.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 304: Privates—a private-dwelling.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 194: Chi [...] It’s de hobo’s pararrdize. Free slum from de privates; de Molls is softer-hearter’n hell. I could find a dozen whores to keep me.

3. (N.Z. prison) a lowly-ranked inmate within the prison hierarchy; thus a ‘servant’ to more influential prisoners.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 145/1: private n. 1 an inmate, usually new and in the role of an underdog, who acts as a ‘runner’ or a servant for another inmate 2 a skinhead prospect.

4. (S.Afr. prison) a handrolled cigarette.

2005

A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 103: A drag made from loose tobacco and Rizla paper was called a private Dassie-puff and one made with check (telephone book or newspaper) was an ordinary Dassie-puff.