"my Ghossips cock", 1641?
Wilson Gray
hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sun Apr 27 18:28:38 UTC 2008
Could be the same one, Mark. What I recall is something somewhat
simpler in style than Dürer's work. However, since it was something
that I glanced at once about a quarter-century ago, it may well be
that it's my memory that's sketchy and not the work of art. :-)
Google Images has a woodcut by Dürer that shows a man in a "thong"
whose genitalia are very close to a faucet somewhat reminiscent of the
male genitalia in shape. It's not what I "think" I remember, but it's
close enough for government work, to coin a phrase.
-Wilson
On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 10:55 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: "my Ghossips cock", 1641?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 12:43 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm pretty sure that cock = penis is through cock = faucet, as in
> > petcock, stopcock, etc. I've seen punning cartoons in which men are
> > posed in a public bath in such a way that its faucets appear to be
> > their penises. Someone even submitted here a caricature of a taverner
> > which showed his penis as a cock in the faucet sense.
>
> I've seen such a "cartoon" by Albrecht Dürer.
>
> --
> Mark Mandel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list