"Cock" = rooster

[hpst@earthlink.net]

This discussion is becoming something of a cockup.

Page Stephens

> [Original Message]
> From: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 7/5/2006 2:29:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "Cock" = rooster
>
> If I wished to argue with Jonathan--which, of course, I do
> not--I might consider making the following points:
>
> 1. Shakespeare's line from Henry V, "Pistol's cock is up,
> and flashing fire will follow," DOES have pointed sexual
> implications.  The aged Pistol is newly wed to Mrs. Quickly,
> whom he has won from Nym.  The dialog if full of
> military/sexual double-entendres (Nym says, "I dare not
> fight, but I will wink and hold out mine iron"), centering
> on the issue of Pistol's potency or virility; that is the
> context in which he boastfully utters the line about his
> cock.
>
> 2. The OED's earliest instance of phallic "cock" is a line
> from Amends for the Ladies . . . A Comedie (1618) by Nathan
> Field (who also wrote a comedy whose title quotes the
> proverb "A Woman Is a Weather-Cock"!):  "Oh man what art
> thou? when thy cock is up?"  That, arguably, is the same
> idiom, the same firearms metaphor that Shakespeare used--not
> a punning image of the barnyard fowl at all (though still a
> sexual metaphor).
>
> 3.  The matter of DATING for early plays is problematical.
> A play was ordinarily performed earlier than its first
> appearance in print--sometimes several years earlier--but
> whether a given line would have been spoken from the stage
> cannot be known, since plays may have been abbreviated for
> acting (with ad hoc improvising possible) and then expanded
> for publication.  In any case, the quoted line from
> Shakespeare comes from the (posthumous) first folio of
> 1623.  In the first quarto (a "bad" one) of Henry V, 1600,
> the corresponding line reads, “Pistolls flashing firy cock
> is up.”
>
> 4.  HDAS quotes from the MED some occurrences of the
> word "cok" as early evidence for "cock" meaning 'penis'. Yet
> the compilers of the MED (who certainly were familiar with
> the 15th-century lyric poem too, though they don't cite it
> in the entry) regarded those same texts simply as instances
> of "cock" meaning 'male fowl'; the MED has no entry
> for "cok" in the sense of 'penis'.  Aside from questions
> about naivete or squeamishness on the part of the MED (or
> OED) compilers, might an important distinction here be the
> concept of SLANG?  No doubt a slang dictionary SHOULD
> include stock metaphors that the MED or OED deems not yet
> fully evolved into standard denotative senses of a word that
> epitomizes the metaphor.  I mean, the OED won't eventually
> be obliged to subsume the entire contents of HDAS--will it?
>
> 5.  Two miscellaneous notes on "cock"/"up" constructions
> (from EEBO):  {a.} ". . . Casting the bone in the same
> manner in certain childish games called cock-up-all" (from
> Thomas Ady, A Candle in the Dark [1655], p. 27); is there
> other evidence for such a child's game?  {b.} "The Horse-
> Race . . . Set to an Excellent Scotch Tune, Called, Cock Up
> Thy Beaver" (Thomas D’Urfey, Choice New Songs [1684], p. 3);
> no comment!
>
> --Charlie
> __________________________________
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 09:02:50 -0700
> >From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> >Subject: Re: "Cock" = rooster
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >
> >I rejected the 1599 Shakespearean ex. from HDAS as an
> illustrative citation, not because a phallic pun can be
> entirely dismissed, but because the putative pun would be
> entirely gratuitous.  The line makes perfect punning sense
> without it and, IIRC, there are no sexual connotations to
> the situation on stage.
> >
> >  No nocturnal-perching-in-my-lady's-chamber stuff.
> >
> >  JL
> >
> >Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
> >  ---------------------- Information from the mail header --
> ---------------------
> >Sender: American Dialect Society
> >Poster: Charles Doyle
> >Subject: Re: "Cock" = rooster
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
> >
> >And, in the realm of iffy derivations, there exists a third
> >possibility: "cock" as part of a firearm.
> >
> >Shakespeare's Henry V includes a bawdy exchange among
> >the "hostess" and the low-thoughted trio Bardolph, Nym, and
> >Pistol. Pistol declares (of himself, playing on his
> >name), "Pistol's cock is up, and flashing fire will follow"
> >(2.1.54-55).
> >
> >--Charlie
>
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