Back in third grade, the music teacher taught us how to sing The Old Gray Mare. After singing the song the first time through, a few of us raised our hands and asked what a whiffle was. The teacher looked like a deer caught in the headlights at first, but quickly informed us that whiffle was an old word whose meaning was lost.
For years, the whiffle tree perplexed me. What the hell was a whiffle? And was the whiffle tree related to a whiffle ball?
Well, thank goodness for the internet! According to the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, a whiffle is “a relaxation of the scrotum.” In other words, if you get the whiffles, your balls are hanging low. A whiffle tree is a tree with low-hanging branches. A whiffle ball is, well, a low ball. And men get the whiffles in the hot, summer weather.
Source:
Grose, Captain (1811). 1811 Dictionary of the vulgar tongue: A dictionary of buckish slang, university wit, and pickpocket eloquence. Gutenberg.
