Friday, April 20, 2007

I got some Black Cock today

I know what you were thinking -- get your minds out of the gutter, people! (Apologies to people who searched on, um, well, you know, and got this page.) Actually, I love the name of this scotch:

You know you want some...



At playgroup yesterday (yes, these are the some of the many enlightening subjects of conversation at a toddler-age playgroup!), one of the dads was mentioning a brand of scotch one could buy here in Costa Rica called "Black Cock." We all had a good laugh, and I thought, I gotta get me some of that!

It reminds me of an incident when esposo and I were about to get hitched, and some of our friends had come down from California for the wedding. On a van ride up to Arenal, we all had a good laugh when we stopped by the side of the road to look at some really beautiful hand-carved statues and things a guy had made. Esposo and I collect chickens (living and non-living representations), and I found a large blue rooster that I couldn't resist. When I got back on the van, I made everyone laugh when I said I'd always wanted a big, blue cock. Which kind of makes me wonder about the etymology of the word cock in reference to a man's netherregion? I'll have to look that one up and get back to you.*

Yes, I know, I'm incredibly immature.

*The Online Etymology Dictionary has this to say:

O.E. cocc, O.Fr. coq, O.N. kokkr, all of echoic origin. O.E. cocc was a nickname for "one who strutted like a cock," thus a common term in the Middle Ages for a pert boy, used of scullions, apprentices, servants, etc. A common personal name till c.1500, it was affixed to Christian names as a pet diminutive, cf. Wilcox, Hitchcock, etc. Slang sense of "penis" is attested since 1618 (but cf. pillicock "penis," from c.1300). Cock-teaser is from 1891. Cock-sucker is used curiously for aggressively obnoxious men; the ancients would have understood the difference between passive and active roles; [my emphasis added] Catullus, writing of his boss, employs the useful L. insult irrumator, which means "someone who forces others to give him oral sex," hence "one who treats people with contempt." Cocky "arrogantly pert" (1768) originally meant "lecherous" (16c.); modern sense of "vain" is 18c. A cocker spaniel (1823) was trained to start woodcocks. Cock-and-bull is first recorded 1621, perhaps an allusion to Aesop's fables, with their incredible talking animals, or to a particular story, now forgotten. Fr. has parallel expression coq-à-l'âne.

Hm. Well there you go! I think that pretty much speaks for itself.

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