how's your hammer hanging en · X
Etymology
The word hammer is explained as referring to the male genitalia. Akasha Gloria Hull identifies the expression as an African-American Vernacular English one.
Meanings
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(US, colloquial) How are you? (generally used between male speakers)
Porter, the only other colored guy on the shift, used to hail him—“Hey, Fred, how’s your hammer hanging?” And he’d mount the stool and holler back, “It ain’t ruined my crease none.”
1980, Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters, page 79:“Hiya, Dougie,” he said to Stiles, then to me: “Hiya, Paul, how’s your hammer hangin’? Sit down and take a load off.”
1993, William Styron, “Love Day”, in A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth, page 14:“Hello, Pop,” a young clammer said to the man in an adjoining boat, a sullen old man in wet overalls, “how’s your hammer hanging?”
1943, Joseph Mitchell, “A Mess of Clams”, in McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon, page 201:
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(US, colloquial) How’s your sex life?
Micheaux was still willing to test the censors, with lines like “How’s your hammer hanging?” and “You might be able to ‘make’ her,” that the local authorities in some parts of the country were bound to notice.
2007, Patrick McGilligan, Oscar Micheaux, the Great and Only, page 332:“Hey, Sam, you gettin’ much?” ¶ “Huh?” I said. […] ¶ “I said, ‘How’s your hammer hanging?’” ¶ “It’s hanging,” I said, pulling myself back to the present. “That’s the trouble.”
1976, Jack Olsen, chapter 1, in Massy’s Game, page 32: