The lower legs of poultry have been called drumsticks since the mid eighteenth century, but the word really gained currency during the mid nineteenth century: prudish Victorians used it in place of leg, a word avoided at the supper table for fear its suggestive overtones would reduce the dinner guests to paroxysms of sexual frenzy. The shape of a turkey’s leg was, of course, the inspiration behind drumstick, as it was for the French equivalent, pilon, meaning pestle.