Singapore COCK is probably not CACK

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

I certainly wouldn't want to rule out the possiblity that Singapore "cock" is 
sometimes fecal rather than penile. However, the Singapore slang spelling 
with "o" rather than "a" would seem to me to indicate a rounded vowel, whereas 
the fecal word is universally pronounced with an unrounded vowel.

Moreover, the same website distinguishes sharply between "cack" and "cock", 
as the following entries make clear:

cack noun
1. Shit.
2. Nonsense.
3. Lies.
...
cock breath noun
One whose breath smells of cock.
cockholster noun
A pejorative term for a sexually promiscuous woman.
cock jockey noun
1. A promiscuous gay male.
2. A promiscuous woman.
cocksucker noun
A mean or despicable person.
cockweasel noun
1. An annoying person.
2. A promiscuous woman.

Admitedly, "cockbreath" and maybe "cockweasel" are possibly ambiguous, but 
cetainly not "cock jockey" and "cockholster," wherein "cock" can only be penile.

I didn't examine the web site too closely, but it is obvious that the 
compilers have put quite a bit of care into it. I'm fairly convinced that they would 
not confuse their penises (or, if they don't personally have them the penises 
in their lives, if any) with their feces.

In other words, an absolutely cock idea is not the same thing as an 
absolutely cack idea. By the way, many Americans also have "ka-ka" or "ca-ca" for feces 
(as in Spanish). Of course, many Americans pronounce "cock" = penis with an 
unrounded vowel, but I doubt that that is too important to the situation in 
Singapore.


In a message dated 3/21/04 1:01:54 PM, M.L.Murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK writes:


> --On Sunday, March 21, 2004 12:36 pm -0500 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:> I
> found this at
> 
> > <http://www.talkingcock.com/html/sections.php?op=3Dviewartic= le&
> > artid=3D33>, which comes from Singapore; "cock" here appears to be
> > adjectiva= l,=20
> > not attribtive:
> >
> > "Yah, I heard about Ah Seng. I'm not surprised. It was an absolutely
> > cock=20 idea!"
> 
> 
> I'm betting that this has more to do with feces as with penes (my preferred
> plural of penis).
> 
> British English has the word _cack_, which means 'feces' or 'to defecate
> in' (e.g., _cack one's pants_).  If you google 'cack idea', you'll get lots
> of examples from the UK and Australia.  It may be that 'cock' is how it's
> spelt in Singapore English--or that this writer has misspelt it or
> folk-etymologied it over to 'cock' (if they didn't know 'cack').
> 
> Incidentally, this word always comes up when I discuss the word 'khaki'
> with English people (it comes up a lot...).  In the UK, it's pronounced
> like US 'car key'--with a definite /r/ in it (though NODE doesn't show
> this).  The t-shirt shop round the corner from my house has even spelt it
> 'kharki' in their ad.  When I've asked why there's an 'r' in it, I've been
> told that otherwise it would sound like 'cocky', which would be confusing.
> I point out that Americans get round this by pronouncing it with an /ae/,
> and they point out that that would sound like _cacky_ 'shitty' in British
> English.
> 
> Lynne
> 
> Dr M Lynne Murphy
> Lecturer in Linguistics
> 
> Department of Linguistics and English Language
> Arts B133
> University of Sussex
> Falmer
> Brighton BN1 9QN
> >From UK:  (01273) 678844
> Outside UK: +44-1273-678844
> 
>