"Blue balls"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

HDAS shows <<1956 in Oliver _Blues Tradition_ 240: Now your mammy got
the blue-ball, your sister got the pox.>> ... supposedly referring to
"venereal buboes".

Blues music is one of the many subjects of which my ignorance is near
total, so I can't add much.

I imagine "venereal buboes" nowadays in the Anglophone world usually
refers to LGV (lymphogranuloma venereum), although in previous times (or
in other places) similar lymphadenopathy may be or have been encountered
routinely with other venereal or non-venereal diseases. Some pictures of
the large discolored (red/purple/blue) inguinal/perineal/etc. buboes can
be reviewed by searching Google Images for (e.g.) <<LGV>>. I imagine
that "blue ball[s]" perhaps originally primarily referred to such
discolored lumps (likely an eggcorn for "bubo[es]" as somebody may have
said already), with "balls" = "testicles" maybe a 'reanalysis'. I hasten
to add that I do not claim any expertise in venereal diseases.

"Blue balls" as a casual term for LGV buboes can be found in modern
medical literature (several examples at G. Books).

Now, as for the relationship between the expressions "having the blue
balls" and "having the blues" .... (^_^)

-- Doug Wilson

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