Thursday April 28, 2005
Bollocks
For reasons that have never been clear to me, the UK equivalent of NorthAm English bullshit or crap—not in the literal sense, but in the sense of something absurd or worthless that comes in loads—is bollocks. Its literal meaning is "testicles", which I suppose is a satisfyingly rude thing to mention when you're upset, although I'm quite fond of mine and I think I'd be more likely to swear by them than with them (e.g. "Sweet merciful bollocks!"). Interestingly, the word isn't listed at all in the online American Heritage Dictionary, but it really ought to be, because NorthAm (or possibly just American) speakers really need to bone up on their bollocks.
Two times in the past week, I've heard announcers on local radio stations mention the Sex Pistols album "Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols", and both times they pronounced bollocks wrong. In one instance, the DJ pronounced it like bullocks, which definitely doesn't mean what he thinks it means. A bullock is a castrated bull, and on top of that, Bullocks is a famous department store in Los Angeles. Neither of those is particularly Sex Pistolsian. In the other instance, the DJ pronounced it "bullOCKS" (with the stress on the second syllable). It sounded to me like he was Frenchifying the word, in the same way we pronounce Beijing "bay-zhing" when it's really closer to "bay-jing", in some sort of misguided attempt to make it classier. That's definitely the wrong way to go with the title of a Sex Pistols album.
Tangent: Some years ago [cough], I heard a radio interview with Andy Partridge of XTC in which he used the word "bollocks". The interviewer was confused and asked what it meant, and Andy told him that Americans would say "buttocks" (in an exaggerated American accent, with the "tt" flapped and a full vowel in the second syllable). That seems wrong to me—I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "that's a load of buttocks"—so apparently the confusion about terms for nether parts ending in "-ocks" is bidirectionally trans-Atlantic.
[Now playing: "Rook" by XTC]
I am The Tensor, and I approve this post.
01:27 PM
in Linguistics
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Comments
As a Brit myself, bollocks has sooo many meanings, it just depends on the intonation. It can express suprise, disgust and happiness. Also there's the wonderful derivative that means something is exceptionally good ' the dog's bollocks' eg. " That curry was the dog's bollocks". Stick that in yer Webster's.
This anecdote reminds me of when the word 'wanker' was introduced into the AE lexicon, via an appearance of Phil Collins on Miami Vice, he used the word quite openly on the show because he knew that no one would understand it anyway. It was edited out when that particular episode was screened in the UK.
Posted by: Alistair at Apr 28, 2005 6:04:29 PM
The worst example of this I ever saw was in a short story containing a hopelessly bad sex scene. The author tried to add a British flavour by using "bullocks" instead of "testicles", and, well, you can see why the resulting mental image was unintentionally amusing.
Posted by: Sam at Apr 28, 2005 11:42:51 PM
Don't forget Sandra Bullock('s family). I bet that DJ is way more into Sandra Bullock than department stores, bulls, or the Sex Pistols. Then again, who isn't? Um...this is a fun post Tensor. Also, Alistair, that's really interesting about Phil Collins on Miami Vice with the 'wanker'! I was always under the impression that the US was the only country with serious censorship of stuff like that (see Nipplegate). I guess we also tend to think that British words don't have the force that American swear words have when we use them here, or we don't understand that they really are equivalent to our 'fuck's etc. So even if we technically know what they mean (case of 'wanker,' for instance) we don't know what they MEAN. If you know what I mean.
Posted by: polyglot conspiracy at Apr 29, 2005 7:31:46 AM
I think it has something to do with how the word is used, too -- "wanker" isn't in common use as a swearword, so it doesn't strike the standards-and-practices people at the networks as dangerous. I'm reminded of the time my Japanese conversation partner very hesitantly asked me, in a quiet voice, if the translation of 畜生 /chikushou/, "beast", is rude in English, and it's just not. Calling someone a "beast" isn't nice, I suppose, but it doesn't carry the same force in English as calling someone 畜生 in Japanese.
It's similar for "wanker". Words that are terribly rude over there are sort of benignly exotic over here -- and vice-versa, I expect. (This doesn't apply to the Phil Collins case, of course, if they really didn't know what he meant.)
Posted by: The Tensor at Apr 29, 2005 12:27:09 PM
The American for at least one form of "bollocks" is "bollix" (as in "all bollixed up"), no?
Posted by: johnshade at Apr 29, 2005 12:48:00 PM
Yes johnshade, but it isn't bollocks,as in testicles. It has a very different etymology which I am just going to check on now...excuse me a mo' .
Posted by: Alistair at Apr 29, 2005 4:54:51 PM
I stand corrected...My! what a handy thing google is.
here:"bungle," respelling (euphemistic?) of bollocks, pl. of bollock "testicle," from O.E. beallucas "testicles," from P.Gmc. *ball-, from PIE *bhel- "to inflate, swell."
Posted by: Alistair at Apr 29, 2005 4:57:14 PM
It would be interesting to know which other languages acknowledge the profound connection existing between testicles and nonsense. Testículos do the biz in Spanish, but I don't think cojones quite make it.
Posted by: trevor@k’alebøl at May 9, 2005 12:32:27 PM
The reason bollocks is so satisfying as a swearword (or any exclamation) is to do partly with the phonology. It really trips off the tongue... so to speak. Perhaps it didn't catch on in the US because it doesn't have the same effect in an American accent?
Posted by: Laura at May 31, 2005 5:44:39 AM
If you really want to see something which is a load of bollocks you should check out my blog. It's complete bollocks and is the standard by which all other things which are (to a degree) bollocks be judged by. I thank you.
http://thegallows.typepad.com/
Posted by: Shaun Ryder at Mar 16, 2006 10:29:28 PM
