An early "cock"?

[Joel S. Berson]

I apologize for sending essentially the same query twice within a
week.  But it did get responses the second time ...

Charles, I think I was asking whether the use in the song was a
metaphor, rather than asserting it was; and whether metaphors were
excluded.  I think I now have the answer--or rather, both
answers:  it's excluded, not a penis in the OED but it's included, is
a penis, in HDAS.

Joel

At 6/29/2006 09:12 AM, you wrote:
>Joel, didn't you suggest several days ago that the poem's
>use of "cock" fails to qualify for entry in OED because it's
>just a metaphor?  And a metaphor has to expire into a so-
>called "dead metaphor" before its figurative sense becomes a
>lexified, denotative "meaning" of the word or phrase.
>
>Furthermore, the early poem contains many descriptive
>details that do NOT fit any consistent interpretation of
>the "cock" as a penis (unless I'm being naive or obtuse!).
>The poem is very unlike those pretended-obscene riddles we
>were discussing last week, in which EVERY detail must fit
>both interpretations.
>
>--Charlie
>_____________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 08:44:20 -0400
> >From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >Subject: An early "cock"?
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >The following anonymous poem/song is alleged to come from
>the 14th century (others allege 15th).  Does it?  Would it
>qualify as = "penis", for which the earliest OED2 citation
>is 1618?  Or is it too ambiguous?  Or has it simply not been
>found in any writing of sufficiently early date?
> >
> >Joel--who is amused at the vision of gentil old ladies
>hearing this sung at a concert of early music.
> >
> >Courtesy of someone (else) with an interest in such things:
> >
> >>"I Have a Gentil  Cock"
> >>___________________
> >>I have a gentil  cock
> >>croweth me day
> >>he doth me risen early
> >>my matins for to  stay
> >>
> >>I have a gentil cock
> >>comen he is of great
> >>his comb is of  red coral
> >>his tail is of jet
> >>
> >>I have a gentil cock
> >>comen he is  of kind
> >>his comb is of red sorrel
> >>his tail is of inde
> >>
> >>his legs  be of azure
> >>so gentil and so small
> >>his spurs are of silver white
> >>into  the wortewale
> >>
> >>his eyes are of crystal
> >>locked all in amber
> >>and  every night he pertcheth him
> >>in my lady`s chamber"
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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