"Cock"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 8/16/2011 7:20 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Cock"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But wait!
>
> One ex. doesn't make a speech community.  Perhaps Doten used the word one
> way and his sweetie used it in the other. Thus the seeming unisex "meaning"
> would simply be for the nonce.
--

But here's another example, from this list:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1102B&L=ADS-L&D=0&1=ADS-L&9=A&I=-3&J=on&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4&P=46462

<<He found her cock, and his one too ....>>

--
> If that's the case, where are their descendants? ....
--

I haven't met any such users of unisex "cock" AFAIK. But that's not to
say there are surely none.

Some may find unisex "cock" a priori intuitively unlikely, and I find it
so myself. Still, there is some indication that it exists/existed. It
may be that here-and-now intuitions apply imperfectly to other milieux.
In particular, I would expect little standardization of informal words
which are very seldom uttered, and maybe in some times and places and
social circles sex organs were not an everyday subject of casual
conversation.

For comparison, here is a reported case of "chinchin" (generally =
"penis") recommended as a term for "vagina" by Japanese education
authorities:

http://www.wowasis.com/travelblog/?p=2911

... although I'm not 100% sure the source is 100% impeccable ....

-- Doug Wilson

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