"Cock"

[Wilson Gray]

On Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 3:25 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
> I don't actually know that there ever were any people
> who had "cock" as a unisex term. Â But if not, how do you account for its
> transmigration across the gender line?

FWIW, IME, _cock_ is the most commonly-used term for all aspects of
the female genitalia in BE. E.g., it's the term that used in dirty
jokes, not _pussy, ass, (that (good)) stuff, that thing_, etc.. Among
black men - among those of us of a certain age, at least -  _cunt,
cunny, twat, gash, love-glove_, etc. are all literary terms.

"Transmigration across the gender line" may have occurred. But, for
the first quarter-century or so of my life, I had no idea that _cock_
could possibly mean "penis." Words like _joint, rod, bone, (the very
rare) magivny-giver_, and others that'll come to mind as soon as I
press Send, are used for "penis," but _cock_ never is. Like using
"Jesus (Christ)!" or "Son of a bitch!" as exclamations, using _cock_
to mean "penis" would say to the hearer, "I spend a lot of time
*socially* in the company of white people. It's not the case that I
merely *see* them in class, on the team, or at work." Of course,
that's not as rare today as it was in the '40's to the early '70's.
But it's still quite extraordinary.

IAC, using _cock_ to mean "penis" feels to me the same as using, e.g.,
the Russian word _khui_ in that meaning. It's foreign. _Cock_ isn't
unisex by any stretch of the imagination.

--
-Wilson
-----
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.
-Mark Twain

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