"my Ghossips cock", 1641?

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sun Apr 27 18:28:38 UTC 2008


Could be the same one, Mark. What I recall is something somewhat
simpler in style than Dürer's work. However, since it was something
that I glanced at once about a quarter-century ago, it may well be
that it's my memory that's sketchy and not the work of art. :-)

Google Images has a woodcut by Dürer that shows a man in a "thong"
whose genitalia are very close to a faucet somewhat reminiscent of the
male genitalia in shape. It's not what I "think" I remember, but it's
close enough for government work, to coin a phrase.

-Wilson

On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 10:55 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>  Subject:      Re: "my Ghossips cock", 1641?
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 12:43 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > I'm pretty sure that cock = penis is through cock = faucet, as in
>  >  petcock, stopcock, etc. I've seen punning cartoons in which men are
>  >  posed in a public bath in such a way that its faucets appear to be
>  >  their penises. Someone even submitted here a caricature of a taverner
>  >  which showed his penis as a cock in the faucet sense.
>
>  I've seen such a "cartoon" by Albrecht Dürer.
>
>  --
>  Mark Mandel
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list