OED dating of "cock" = "penis"

[Wilson Gray]

As it happens, I learned "cocksucker" when I was in the first grade,
ca.1942, but it had no more meaning than, e.g. "hobble-de-hoy." When I
did find out what it meant, ca.1947-48, it had the standard
Southern-English / Black-English meaning and was held to be a way that
one could show that one was a mighty, mighty man. Likewise, it wasn't
until the 'Sixties, when porn became readily available, that I had to
deal with the Yankee meaning of cock.

And it's a damned shame that the writing of porn is - or was -
strictly an endeavor of Yankees.

-Wilson


On 6/25/06, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: OED dating of "cock" = "penis"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Regarding (Southern) "cock" = 'vagina':  As y'all Yankees can
> easily imagine, we Southern youths, upon first encountering
> the term "cocksucker" (for me, in the 1960s), perforce
> invisioned the designated individual's ministrations quite
> differently . . . .
>
> Charlie
> _____________________________________
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >>
> >> What is the earliest date for the "cock" = "vagina" which
> used to be a southern dialectical meaning?
> >>
> >> How common is this meaning today and where?
> >>
> >> Yours,
> >>
> >> John Mehlberg
>
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>

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