The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126769   Message #2822138
Posted By: Rowan
26-Jan-10 - 06:40 PM
Thread Name: BS: Pillock
Subject: RE: BS: Pillock
Nor even "Dickhead" which, in Oz terminology, seems equivalent to the UK usage of "Pillock".

And I'm curious about & 'balls' in its turn a sort of shortened form of 'bollocks' [or perhaps conversely 'bollocks', or 'ballocks' (both spellings acceptable?), originally a diminutive of 'balls'?].

When did a longer word (eg ballocks) become a "diminutive" of a shorter one, in this case "balls"? "Colloquial equivalent" I could accept but I've always understood a diminutive to be a shortened version of an original; eg Mike as the diminutive of Michael.

Cheers, Rowan