"Cock"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Re: female cocks.

1835-36 _Fanny Hill's Bang-Up Reciter_ (Facsimile rpt. London: P. R. Wells,
1965) 16:
In wedlock's bands they soon were joined,/ In hymen's holy fetters,/ He
found her cock, and his one too/ And he put them both together.

A PDF is visible here:
http://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1830s/1836--1965_fanny_hills_bang-up_reciter_friskey_songster_(PB)/index.htm

The whole silly song ("a rummy chaunt") turns on an old maid's loss of her
favorite rooster.
The hero appears and makes things better than before. So conceivably, and
despite the verbal inspiration behind the song, this use of the metaphor has
nothing to do with American Southern usage.

Conceivably.

JL
On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 4:26 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Cock"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 3:45 PM -0500 2/10/11, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >http://listentoleon.net/index.php/2009/03/23/adult-swim-power-rankings/
> >
> >has an illustration punning on the SE/BE meaning of _cock_ as a slang
> >term, as opposed to the standard slang meaning.
> >--
> Really?  I don't see where _cock_ = 'female genitalia' is involved
> here, if you're referring to the "I [heart] COCK FIGHTING" hat logo
> in the cartoon.  Am I missing something?
>
> LH
>
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