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23 Jan 10 - 10:27 AM (#2819432) Subject: BS: Pillock From: kendall Is there a direct translatiom from English to American English for the word "Pillock"?? |
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23 Jan 10 - 10:29 AM (#2819436) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Little Hawk Wassock? |
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23 Jan 10 - 10:33 AM (#2819440) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Stower The origin of the word is from pillicock, an old English word for penis. So would 'prick' do? |
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23 Jan 10 - 10:45 AM (#2819450) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: wysiwyg Not sure it fits, but a phrase I learned in HS to describe a person who is a prick, in even less-flattering terms, is "a penis throb." In other words, not rising (LOL) to the level of an erect, working penis but a mere powerless, unfulfilled throb. In a dismissive tone of disapprobation. ~S~ |
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23 Jan 10 - 10:46 AM (#2819451) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: gnu I did not know that. I always thought twit, dummy.... |
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23 Jan 10 - 10:54 AM (#2819455) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Little Hawk I figure it means about the same thing as "dipstick" does in North America. |
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23 Jan 10 - 12:48 PM (#2819625) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: mauvepink In Ally McBeal they constantly referred to it as "the dumbstick"! lol mp |
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23 Jan 10 - 12:52 PM (#2819632) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Smedley It's an insult but a pretty mild one, for somebody who is somewhat stupid, a bit slow to grasp ideas, and makes a lot of mistakes. But never used with anything approaching venom or hatred. Maybe 'schmuck' would do. |
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23 Jan 10 - 04:34 PM (#2819814) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: kendall Only if you speak Yiddish. |
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23 Jan 10 - 06:29 PM (#2819887) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: artbrooks Oy...doesn't everybody? |
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23 Jan 10 - 06:34 PM (#2819889) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Lox A Pillock would be somebody obtuse who is unjustifiably a bit smug about how clever they think they are. When such a person gets your goat, you might think to yourself "what an utter Pillock!" It is said with either frustrated anger, or contempt. |
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23 Jan 10 - 07:27 PM (#2819930) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Jim Dixon ...for in the thirty-fifth year of the same prelate, we find, that Johanna, the wife of Henry Pillock, died seised of a moiety of the manor.... —from The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, Volume 3 by William Hutchinson (1794). In Dr Campbell's Political Survey, under the article Shetland Islands, it is stated: "As for sillucks and piltocks, which are a kind of small whales, the meaner sort live on their flesh, such as it is." As above observed, the sillock is the young fry of the coalfish, and the piltock the same fish a year old. The Doctor has probably been led into the ludicrous mistake of describing them as "small whales," from the similarity of the name piltock (or pillock, as it is sometimes pronounced), to palach, the name by which the porpesse is universally known in the Orkney and Shetland islands. —from A Tour through Some of the Islands of Orkney and Shetland by Patrick Neill (1806). Delphinus. Phocaena, Pillock, Porpoise, or Porpus; sometimes seen in considerable numbers, during summer, pursuing other fish. —from The History and Antiquities of the County of the Town of Carrickfergus by Samuel McSkimin (1811) The pillock is a large fish, about ten foot long, and as great of body as ane ordinare horse, almost shaped like a pike, black coloured, with a long head, and a monstrous number of teeth, all of equal length. It is seldom catched but when inveigled in herring-nets. The countrey people make oyl of them. —from A Large Description of Galloway by Andrew Symson (1823) |
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23 Jan 10 - 11:09 PM (#2820015) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Gurney My take is exactly like Smedley's. A mild insult you would use like "God, you're a pillock sometimes, Phil!" Stower's probably right about it's origin, pillicock was used in the 13th century for penis. Halliwell's Dict. of Archaic Words. |
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24 Jan 10 - 06:50 AM (#2820170) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: theleveller Dickhead? |
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24 Jan 10 - 07:06 AM (#2820178) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: VirginiaTam Etymology aside - I always thought pillock meant stupid and clumsy or oafish, whereas, prick is mean spirited and selfish. Did I get it wrong? |
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24 Jan 10 - 07:24 AM (#2820187) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Smedley There is no 100% correct answer in these matters, VT, but that sounds accurate to me. Much easier to say pillock with an element of affection than it ever would be to say prick. |
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24 Jan 10 - 11:00 AM (#2820342) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: McGrath of Harlow I'd always assumed it was the diminutive of pill. The best thing to do with a foreign word that rolls off the tongue is surely to import it, and enrich the native idiom. |
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24 Jan 10 - 11:19 AM (#2820354) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Jim Dixon Yeah, I assumed it was a diminutive of pill also. In the US, I have heard the expression, "He's a real pill"—a long time ago, and not often. I took it to mean, like a pill, he's "hard to take," unpleasant, but something you just have to put up with. Pill—pillock, ball—ballock, bull—bullock. How many other words end in "ock"? I don't suppose ham—hammock counts, does it? |
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24 Jan 10 - 11:23 AM (#2820358) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: McGrath of Harlow haddock Which would make quite good mild insult. |
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24 Jan 10 - 06:46 PM (#2820715) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Paul Reade I once heard the late lamented Jake Thackray define a Pillock as a "Yorkshire scrotum"! |
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24 Jan 10 - 07:16 PM (#2820749) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Little Hawk Hammock is actually a porcine insult. Pigs often use it when they consider another pig to be a pillock. |
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24 Jan 10 - 07:35 PM (#2820772) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Dave MacKenzie According to Oxford, it's derived from a Scandinavian word for a penis. -ock is also a (English rendering of a) common Gaelic diminutive, eg Morag = little Mary. |
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24 Jan 10 - 07:40 PM (#2820776) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: mousethief Warlock? O..O =o= |
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24 Jan 10 - 07:44 PM (#2820781) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Dave MacKenzie What's a warl? |
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24 Jan 10 - 08:51 PM (#2820823) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Little Hawk It's sort of like a little whirlpool, but stronger. |
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24 Jan 10 - 10:12 PM (#2820857) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Q (Frank Staplin) Not in Merriam Webster's Collegiate, 10th ed. OED: -A small pill. obsolete. -A form of pillicock, which in vulgar dialect is penis, but in Shakespeare, Cotgrave, Urquhart, and d'Urfey, variously used to mean a darling, or a wanton. |
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24 Jan 10 - 10:55 PM (#2820878) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Gurney Johnnys-come-lately all, Q. |
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25 Jan 10 - 10:47 AM (#2821048) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Bryn Pugh "Pillock" is another word for "Divvy". |
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25 Jan 10 - 12:35 PM (#2821140) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: MGM·Lion "Pills" was also a semi-euphemism for "Balls" in my schooldays {& rugby players will [hence?] sometimes refer to the ball facetiously as 'the pill'}: & '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'?]. So perhaps 'pillock' - as well as probable but surely not definitive relationship to 'pillicock' - a facetious semi-derivative euphemism for 'bollock'. As all of these are likely to be oral-tradition words long before recorded, it is pretty well impossible to establish which form will have preceded which... Deep waters, Watson... |
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25 Jan 10 - 01:20 PM (#2821178) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: The Sandman its not as good as prickeen. pillock is a mildly derogatory term,not as objectionable as arsehole or bollocks. I had the honour of being described in such a manner by one Gervase Webb,a member of this forum,being insulted by said member is akin to being savaged by a dead sheep,or lampooned by a limp lettuce. |
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25 Jan 10 - 01:43 PM (#2821206) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Les from Hull Stupid or naive is implied, with a side order of harmless. It can be used to a friend without starting a fight, especially if he's done something slightly stupid 'Oh you pillock!' or even of yourself if you're reporting to friends something you'd done that was quite stupid and embarrassing 'I felt a right pillock!'. 'Right' is the proper adjective to go with pillock to slightly increase the degree of pillockness. This is Northern English (Yorkshire) usage. I hope our American cousins enjoy calling each other (or themselves) 'right pillocks'. Les |
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25 Jan 10 - 02:05 PM (#2821221) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Don(Wyziwyg)T HASSOCK! A dickhead preacher. Don T. |
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26 Jan 10 - 10:42 AM (#2821703) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Bryn Pugh In the immortal words of my mentor, Jim Carroll : "prick with ears" ? No takers for "Divvy", then ? |
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26 Jan 10 - 06:40 PM (#2822138) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Rowan 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 |
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26 Jan 10 - 06:42 PM (#2822140) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Rowan Cassock could be hassock's twin. Cheers, Rowan |
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26 Jan 10 - 07:33 PM (#2822170) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Jim Dixon From wordnetweb.princeton.edu: "diminutive: - a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness" |
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26 Jan 10 - 08:03 PM (#2822189) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Dave MacKenzie So Mickey is a diminutive of Mick. |
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26 Jan 10 - 08:35 PM (#2822202) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Rowan Well then, there you go; learn something every day. Cheers, Rowan |
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26 Jan 10 - 08:43 PM (#2822208) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Don(Wyziwyg)T ""Cassock could be hassock's twin."" Not the twin, Rowan, it's what the dickhead preacher wears, to hide the anomalous positioning of the family jewels. LOL Don T. |
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26 Jan 10 - 08:52 PM (#2822211) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: TheSnail Pollock! |
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26 Jan 10 - 10:06 PM (#2822246) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: MGM·Lion That is nought but a fishy and confusing intervention, Snail: Pollocks - or Bollocks - to it, Pillock - or Pollock... |
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27 Jan 10 - 03:34 AM (#2822313) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Dave MacKenzie The University of Edinburgh's Halls of Residence nowadays are the Pollock Halls. Back in the 60s the UofE owned a former church known as the Pollock Hall (where the Folk Song 65 and 67 concerts took place), and there was also the University Pollock Club. Not to mention a few Dicks. |
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27 Jan 10 - 05:42 AM (#2822371) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: TheSnail Total Carp! |
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27 Jan 10 - 08:22 AM (#2822456) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Liz the Squeak I see that magazine has borrowed the spellchecker from the Grauniad newspaper... LTS |
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27 Jan 10 - 09:52 AM (#2822533) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: TheSnail There's another one called Carp Talk. I wish they would merge to become Talk Total Carp. I wonder if it has sister publications - Total Pollock and Total Sprat. |
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27 Jan 10 - 07:43 PM (#2823069) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Pollock and Carp? They're just red herrings. Don T. |
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28 Jan 10 - 05:27 PM (#2823917) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Liz the Squeak Oh for Cods' sake... that's it..! this is no plaice for comments like that.. on yer pike, the pair of you! LTS |
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28 Jan 10 - 06:12 PM (#2823971) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Don(Wyziwyg)T O cummon Liz......ain't you got no sole? Don T. |
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28 Jan 10 - 06:13 PM (#2823972) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Don(Wyziwyg)T This thread is starting to flounder. Don T. |
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28 Jan 10 - 08:05 PM (#2824094) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Rowan You lot need "The fish song" I was a cook and she was a waitress Down at the Salty Sam Seafood Café and somewhere 'tween the clam juice and the seaweed salad some little shrimp just lured her away Oh, I lobster and never flounder He wrapped his line around her and they drove off in his carp Oh, I lobster and never flounder I octopus his face in Eel only break her heart I said, "Just squid and leave me for that piano tuna if you want to trout something new" She was the bass I ever had Now my life has no porpoise Oh my cod, I love her, yes, I do Oh, I lobster and never flounder He wrapped his line around her and they drove off in his carp Oh, I lobster and never flounder I octopus his face in Eel only break her heart (Spoken:) "Boy, I swordfish she'd come back to me, Sandy. I shore'd a whale of a time." "Now, Richard, you know she'd just pull that 'Not tonight, I've got a haddock' routine." "You're probably right. But y'know, I've kelped her picture in my walleye just for the halibut. I wonder if she's still got mine in her perch?" "Did you..you say 'perch'?" "Yeah, I'm afraid so." "That's good. For a moment there, I thought I was losing my herring." (audience groans) "Well, we bass squid all this seahorsing around before these people out here go into a state of shark." "Yeah, if we get out of here alive, it's going to be a...mackerel." "Frankly scallop, I don't give a clam." Cheers, Rowan |
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29 Jan 10 - 09:00 AM (#2824472) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: kendall It's funny how one fishy remark spawns another. |
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29 Jan 10 - 11:12 AM (#2824577) Subject: RE: BS: Pillock From: Dave MacKenzie Does anybody else remember the episode of "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again" where they tried to break the world record for the number of fish jokes in one minute (or maybe two)? |
