BS: Codswallop!

Subject: BS: Codswallop!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 05:37 PM

It has occurred to me that the term "codswallop" is invariably used in a negative fashion. Why is this? Is there something totally vile and repulsive about walloping a cod every now and then? I don't think so. Sure, anything can be taken to excess. Someone who goes around walloping cods all the time probably needs help. But, for normal people, walloping a cod can be a healthy and normal form of recreational activity. I think it's high time for enlightened people to stand up for their right to wallop a few cods!

Sincerely,

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 05:59 PM

But cod are endangered and very hard to fathom out... ever heard of the piece of cod that passeth all understanding?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Hollowfox
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:00 PM

I know more than a few gents who wear codpieces, and I know for a fact that they wouldn't look forward to getting walloped anywhere near that region. Could be interesting though, but a bit risky to the walloper as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Cluin
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:06 PM

I thought it meant getting walloped BY a cod.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:12 PM

From Ask Oxford:

What is the origin of the word 'codswallop'?

The story goes that a gentleman by the name of Hiram Codd patented a bottle for fizzy drinks with a marble in the neck, which kept the bottle shut by pressure of the gas until it was pressed inwards. Wallop was a slang term for beer, and Codd's wallop came to be used by beer drinkers as a derogatory term for weak or gassy beer, or for soft drinks.

This theory has appeared in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, but there are problems with it. Codswallop is not recorded until the mid-20th century, rather a long time after Codd's invention, and there are no examples of the spelling Codd's wallop, which might be expected as an early form. These are not conclusive disproof of the theory - it is conceivable that the term circulated by word of mouth, like many slang terms, and that the connection with Codd's bottle had been forgotten by the time that the term was written down - but they do shed doubt on the tale.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:14 PM

This thread may have been started specifically to make me look a burk, but I thought the expression Codswallop comes from a patent medicine from 19th century England. The inventor's name was Cod[d] and his medicine packed a punch. OK, this is the bit where some really clever git puts me straight ...

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Don Firth
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:15 PM

For what it's worth (if anything):--   Boink!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: CarolC
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:18 PM

Cods?

I have been told that there will come a day when I will have to kiss a cod fish. I have also been told that before kissing the fish I may have to undergo a certain amount of humiliation, and then afterwards I'll drink a toast of some really nasty rum and say, "Long may your big jib draw".

I hope I won't have to wallop the poor thing after I've kissed it.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Peace
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:25 PM

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition says it entered the written language in 1963. Incidentally, the MWCD is a great value for dollar dictionary (because it provides the dates for words that enter the written language). They run about $25-28 Canadian.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:27 PM

Don, beat you by two whole minutes!

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Amos
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:30 PM

Codswallop is an old Elizabethan term related to codspiece (a sheath for clothing the male member). It is roughly synonymous with smegma. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:40 PM

Sarf London speak....."freezin' me cods off" means it's parky.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:53 PM

codswallop - the result obtained from 'walloping the cods' - similar derogatory use as US 'Jizz' 'Jazz'...

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:55 PM

Amos, whoever can equate codswallop with smegma needs a bath--now! That's some buildup.

"Smegma is probably the most misunderstood, most unjustifiably maligned substance in nature. Smegma is clean, not dirty, and is beneficial and necessary. It moisturizes the glans and keeps it smooth, soft, and supple. Its antibacterial and antiviral properties keep the penis clean and healthy. All mammals produce smegma. Thomas J. Ritter, MD [co-author of Say No to Circumcision] underscored its importance when he commented, 'The animal kingdom would probably cease to exist without smegma.'" ("Where Is My Foreskin? The Case Against Circumcision," by Paul M. Fleiss, MD, Mothering, Winter 1997)

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: GUEST,marthabees
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 07:48 PM

Yes, but what does "parky" mean??
Or for that matter, "sarf"??

<>

Martha

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 09:44 PM

thought it was a region of England,
near the lake district
the codswallops.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: LadyJean
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 11:43 PM

I always thought it was a bass ackwards way of saying "cow's dollop".

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Feb 04 - 12:51 AM

I don't know if you will have to wallop the beastie CarolC, but I think you might have to eat its tongue and cheeks.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Feb 04 - 01:02 AM

and probably some Jigg's Dinner, scrunchions, fish & brewis and bakeapple pie.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: CarolC
Date: 27 Feb 04 - 09:47 AM

JtS makes me Jigg's dinner quite often (without the boiled meat), and then bubble and squeak from the leftovers. Yummmm...

I've had bakeapple jam, but not pie yet. I don't think I'll be doing the scrunchions, fish & brewis, or the cod tongue and cheeks, seeing as how I don't eat meat or seafood. Howsomever, I have been assured that there are some very tasty wild tofu that live in the south part of the island, and they taste just like bologna.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 27 Feb 04 - 09:49 AM

if wild tofu taste like bologna then it is plain that the domestic variety has had all the flavour bred out of it!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Amos
Date: 27 Feb 04 - 10:23 AM

SRS:

Your erudition, vocabulary and flair for colorful quotes never cease to amaze me, dear!! It's not I who needs a bath, BTW, just my mind. I was offering a definition for codswallop, not indulging in the practice thereof!! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 04 - 11:27 AM

Pretty gross, huh? I think I outdid myself on that one.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 27 Feb 04 - 12:58 PM

Carol C. Rex Hunt has been kissing fish on TV for many years, and making a good living out of it, so don't despise the pastime. After all, it's better than a smack on the belly with a wet fish!
John

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Mudlark
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 02:44 AM

Not that it has anything (necessarily) to do with codswollop, but it is my opinion that smegma is one of the most inherently ugly words in the English language. I cast no aspersions on the material itself, just the sound of the word.

As to the orinigal word in question I'm amazed that it was first recorded in the 60's....the 1960's. Balderdash, I say. Maybe Venable Bede didn't use it, but surely some character in 12th Night did?

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Gurney
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 02:52 AM

Marthabees, parky means cold, as in weather, and sarf is the way Londoners say south.
I always thought codswallop was a stew, chowder, or mess of pottage.
Can't find any backup, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: CarolC
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 03:00 AM

John... does he do it for fun, or is he in a perpetual state of being "screeched in"?

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 04:40 AM

He's Australian Carol!
John

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 12:12 PM

Where has this thread been all my life?

"Codswallop" is what sensitive people do when someone says things such as "Nearer my Cod to thee."

Seriously, I always thought it had something to do with chugging a bottle of cod liver oil.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: CarolC
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 12:17 PM

He's Australian Carol!

So I take it that that means he does it for fun. (?)

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 02:06 PM

No Carol; money!
John

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 02:44 PM

I always thought that the term wallop for beer came from the term Codswallop. The wallop was what you had to do to the bottom of the boittle of Codd's to dislodge the marble and gain access to the contents.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: paddymac
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 08:41 PM

per Don's "boink" -

"This mainly British colloquial expression is recorded only from the 1960s, but is certainly older. Its origin is uncertain. Some argue it may be from cods, an old term for the testicles that derives from the Anglo-Saxon sense of cod, a bag. It is also suggested that wallop may be connected with the dialect term meaning to chatter or scold (not with the word meaning a heavy blow)."

I'm certainly no expert on British slang, but the above suggests to me the term likely had a sexual meaning. Now, what path that might lead to probably depends on whether the "cods" involved were walloping or being walloped.

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: Peace
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 08:53 PM

Good Cod, have you people no mercy?

Subject: RE: BS: Codswallop!
From: JennieG
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 09:18 PM

Carol,
Rex Hunt is a man who has a fishing program on Oz TV. He does blokey things things like going out in a boat with a few other men, plus a cameraman, they catch fish, haul them into the boat, take the hook out of the fish, discuss it in great detail (during the discussion the poor fish, cod or otherwise, is flapping around in Rex's hands), then Rex gives the fish a kiss and puts it gently back in the water. Male honour has been satisfied, they can then go home to their wives and tell lies about why there is no fish for dinner tonight.
Cheers
JennieG