"Blue balls"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 8:55 AM, Benjamin
Zimmer<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> Any possibility that Roland was using one of the other senses of "blue
> balls" attested by HDAS -- either 'venereal buboes' or 'gonorrhea'?

And speaking of buboes (if we must), did "blue boar" (Grose 1788) and
"blue boy" (Farmer & Henley 1890) arise as eggcornic reinterpretations
of "bubo"?


--Ben Zimmer

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