"Cock" = rooster

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Wed Jul 5 00:00:48 UTC 2006


Not to flog a dead dolphin here, but let me reiterate:

The question was not whether a male chicken
SYMBOLIZES "sexuality" (in many instances, literary,
subliterary, and iconographic, it obviously has). Rather it
was whether 'penis' was a denotative meaing of the
WORD "cock" at certain points in history--a very different
(though obviously not unrelated) matter.

--Charlie
_______________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 20:05:16 -0400
>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: "Cock" = rooster
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header ----
-------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-
L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      "Cock" = rooster
>------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
>
>Alison writes:
>
>On the Cock thread, no-one who has ever kept chickens could
be in any doubt about the appropriateness of considering a
cock to be a symbol of sexuality.  Roosters whole existence
seems to be wholly given over to strutting, bragging and
chasing hens.]
>
>Not to mention abusing them. When a rooster is through with
a hen, he will strike her with his spurs, if she doesn't get
out of his way quickly enough.
>
>-Wilson

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