bollocks

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) gives examples of its usage dating back to the 13th century. One of the early references is Wycliffe's Bible (1382), Leviticus xxii, 24: "Al beeste, that ... kitt and taken awey the ballokes is, ye shulen not offre to the Lord ..." (any beast that is cut and taken away the bollocks, you shall not offer to the Lord, i.e. castrated animals are not suitable as sacrifices).

The OED states (with abbreviations expanded): "Probably a derivative of Teutonic ball-, of which the Old English representative would be inferred as beall-u, -a, or -e". The Teutonic ball- in turn probably derives from the Proto-Indo-European base *bhel-, to inflate or swell. This base also forms the root of many other words, including "phallus".

From the 17th to the 19th century, bollocks or ballocks was allegedly used as a slang term for a clergyman, although this meaning is not mentioned by the OED{{'}}s 1989 edition. For example, in 1684, the Commanding Officer of the Straits Fleet regularly referred to his chaplain as "Ballocks".{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gds2CAAAQBAJ&q=commanding+officer+of+the+straits+fleet+1684+said+bollocks&pg=PA84 |title=The Pleasures of Testicles: A Celebration and Exploration of All Things Balls |last=Riedy |first=James L. |date=2013-01-31 |publisher=Outskirts Press |isbn=9781432788896 |language=en}} It has been suggested that bollocks came to have its modern meaning of "nonsense" because some clergymen were notorious for talking nonsense during their sermons.{{cite book |last =Watkins

|first =Peter |title =The Soul of Wit: Eccentricity, Absurdity and Other Ecclesiastical Treasures |year =2002 |publisher = SCM-Canterbury Press Ltd |isbn = 1-85311-496-0 |page =71}}

Originally, the word "bollocks" was the everyday vernacular word for testicles—as noted above, it was used in this sense in the first English-language Bible, in the 14th century. By the mid-17th century, at least, it had begun to acquire coarse figurative meanings (see {{slink||Bollocking}}), for example in a translation of works by Rabelais.

It did not appear in Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary of the English language.*[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofengl01johnuoft Downloadable copy of Johnson's Dictionary, 6th Edition, Volume 1] and [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofengl02johnuoft Volume 2] at the Internet Archive It was also omitted from the 1933 Oxford English Dictionary and its 1941 reprint, finally appearing in the 1972 supplement.Melvin J. Lasky: The language of journalism: Profanity, obscenity and the media, Aldine Transaction, 2007. {{ISBN|0-7658-0220-1}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7658-0220-0}}. p.134 The first modern English dictionary to include an entry for "bollocks" was G. N. Garmonsway's Penguin English Dictionary of 1965.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

The relative severity of the various profanities, as perceived by the British public, was studied on behalf of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, BBC and Advertising Standards Authority. The results of this jointly commissioned research were published in December 2000 in a paper called "Delete Expletives?".[http://www.asa.org.uk/Resource-Centre/Reports-and-surveys.aspx ASA Reports and Surveys] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100314131854/http://www.asa.org.uk/Resource-Centre/Reports-and-surveys.aspx |date=14 March 2010 }}, Delete Expletives paper. Retrieved 19 March 2010. This placed "bollocks" in eighth position in terms of its perceived severity, between "prick" (seventh place) and "arsehole" (ninth place).Delete Expletives, p.9 By comparison, the word "balls" (which has some similar meanings) was down in 22nd place. Of the people surveyed, 25% thought that "bollocks" should not be broadcast at all, and only 11% thought that it could acceptably be broadcast at times before the national 9 pm "watershed" on television (radio does not have a watershed).Delete Expletives, p.28 25% of the people regarded "bollocks" as "very severe", 32% "quite severe", 34% "mild" and 8% considered it "not swearing".Delete Expletives, p.12

A survey of the language of London teenagers (published in 2002) examined, amongst other things, the incidence of various swearwords in their speech. It noted that the top ten swearwords make up 81% of the total swearwords. "Bollocks" was the seventh most frequent swearword, after "fucking", "shit", "fuck", "bloody", "hell" and "fuck off". Below "bollocks" were "bastard", "bitch" and "damn", in eighth, ninth and tenth places.Anna-Brita Stenström, Gisle Andersen and Ingrid Kristine Hasund: Trends in teenage talk: corpus compilation, analysis, and findings, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2002. {{ISBN|1-58811-252-7}}, {{ISBN|978-1-58811-252-1}}. p.80 This research regarded these words as swearwords in the context of their usage but observed that some might be inoffensive in other contexts.Stenström, Andersen and Hasund, p.76

Some campaigners, particularly the Liberal Democrats, hoping to stop the UK's departure from the European Union adopted the slogan, "Bollocks to Brexit". When queried about the propriety of the use of this term in Parliament in January 2019, the Speaker of the House, John Bercow ruled that the use of the word in Parliamentary speech was "not disorderly".{{Cite web|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-01-10/debates/159740E3-991B-4DF4-A29C-D04B2F1CE10F/EuropeanUnion(Withdrawal)Act|title=European Union (Withdrawal) Act - Hansard|website=hansard.parliament.uk|access-date=2019-05-19}}

"Talking bollocks" generally means talking nonsense or bullshit,R Lingo, Talking Bollocks!: Totally Stupid Everyday Remarks, Crombie Jardine Publishing Limited, 2008.{{ISBN|1906051186}}, {{ISBN|978-1-906051-18-1}} for example: "Don't listen to him, he's talking bollocks", or "talking absolute bollocks". Another example is "I told Maurice that he was talking bollocks, that he was full of shit and that his opinions were a pile of piss. (Rhetoric was always my indulgence.)"Robert McLiam Wilson, Ripley Bogle, Arcade Publishing, 1998, {{ISBN|1-55970-424-1}}, {{ISBN|978-1-55970-424-3}} "Talking bollocks" in a corporate context is referred to as bollockspeak.Tony J. Watson, Organising and managing work: organisational, managerial and strategic behaviour in theory and practice (2nd edition), Pearson Education, 2006, {{ISBN|0-273-70480-X}}, 9780273704805. p.231: "I call a cock up a cock up and not a "contingent operating difficulty [which is] pompous bollock-speak." Bollockspeak tends to be buzzword-laden and largely content-free, like gobbledygook: "Rupert, we'll have to leverage our synergies to facilitate a paradigm shift by Q4" is an example of management bollockspeak. There is a whole parodic book entitled The Little Book of Management Bollocks.Alistair Beaton 2001 {{ISBN|978-0-7434-0413-6}} When a great deal of bollocks is being spoken, it may be said that the 'bollocks quotient' is high.John Pilger, 'The politics of bollocks', New Statesman 5 February 2009 [http://www.newstatesman.com/north-america/2009/02/obama-pilger-israel-gaza]

Comparable to cock-up, screw-up, balls-up, fuck-up etc. Used with the indefinite article, it means a disaster, a mess or a failure. It is often used pejoratively, as in to have "made a bollocks out of it",Henry Friedman, Sander Meredeen, The dynamics of industrial conflict: lessons from Ford, Taylor & Francis, 1980, {{ISBN|0-7099-0374-X}}, 9780709903741, p.104: "Birch had admitted to Rees that the Union had 'made a bollocks of it' by confusing the grading and equal pay issues in court." and it is generally used throughout Britain and Ireland.

To bollocks something up means "to mess something up". It refers to a botched job: "Well, you bollocksed it up that time, Your Majesty!" or "Bollocksed up at work again, I fear. Millions down the drain".{{cite web | title =Memorable Quotes from Notting Hill | publisher = IMDb| url =https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125439/quotes | access-date = 2007-02-05}}

To "drop a bollock" describes the malfunction of an operation, or messing something up, as in many sports, and in more polite business parlance, dropping the ball brings play to an unscheduled halt.{{cite web | title =Top Ten Worst Vanity Projects | url =http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/review.php?id=146 | access-date = 2007-02-05 }} "Guy Ritchie ... was about to drop a bollock from a mile high. His next project in 2003 was Swept Away, a film so harshly derided by critics that it actually made the reader feel sympathy for the poor guy – that is, until they saw it for themselves."

A "bollocking" usually denotes a robust verbal chastisement for something which one has done (or not done, as the case may be), for instance: "I didn't do my homework and got a right bollocking off Mr Smith", or "A nurse was assisting at an appendix operation when she shouldn't have been ... and the surgeon got a bollocking".{{cite journal | last =Lyall | first =Joanna | title =Journalists accused of wrecking doctors' lives | journal =British Medical Journal | volume =330 | page =485 | date = 26 February 2005 | doi =10.1136/bmj.330.7489.485 | issue =7489 | pmc =549675 }} Actively, one gives or delivers a bollocking to someone; in the building trade one can 'throw a right bollocking into' someone.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest meaning as "to slander or defame" and suggests that it entered the English language from the 1653 translation of one of Rabelais' works, which includes the Middle French expression "en couilletant", translated as "ballocking". The earliest printed use in the sense of a severe reprimand is, according to the OED, from 1946.Oxford English Dictionary, online edition. Entry for "bollocking"

Bollocking can also be used as a reinforcing adjective: "He hasn't a bollocking clue!" or "Where's me bollocking car?"{{cite book | last =Brown | first =Christy | title =Wild Grow the Lillies | year =1976 | page = 216|publisher=Martin Secker & Warburg}}

"A kick in the bollocks" is used to describe a significant setback or disappointment, e.g. "I was diagnosed with having skin cancer. Ye Gods! What a kick in the bollocks".Roger Stutter, Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, Tonto Books, 2007, {{ISBN|0-9552183-8-1}}, {{ISBN|978-0-9552183-8-5}}. p.158

To freeze one's bollocks off means to be very cold. To "work one's bollocks off" is to work very hard. This phrase is also sometimes used by or about women: Boy George referred to his mother "working her bollocks off" at home.Deborah Ross, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/boy-george-drama-chameleon-651060.html "Boy George: Drama chameleon"]{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, The Independent, 13 May 2002

"Bollock naked" is used in the singular form to emphasise being completely nude: "he was completely pissed and stark bollock naked".{{cite book| last =Carter| first =Jon| title =South America Detox | publisher =Carter| year =2005 | isbn =0-9552184-0-3|page=258}}

In Ireland, "bollocks", "ballocks" or "bollox" can be used as a singular noun to mean a despicable or notorious person, for instance: "Who's the old ballocks you were talking to?"{{cite book | last =Joyce | first =James | title =Ulysses | year =1922 | pages = Episode 12 | publisher =Oxford University Press | no-pp =true | isbn =0-19-502168-1}}

Multiple meanings, also spelled "bolloxed" or "bollixed":

1. Exhausted: "I couldn't sleep at all last night, I'm completely bollocksed!"
2. Broken: "My foot pump is bollocksed."
3. An extreme state of inebriation or drug-induced stupor: "Last night I got completely bollocksed".{{cite web | last =Ball| first =Kevin | title =Bally's Celtic Swing | work =A Love Supreme (Sunderland AFC Fanzine) | publisher =ALS Publications | url =http://www.a-love-supreme.com/archive/archive049.htm | access-date = 2007-02-05 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061206071611/http://www.a-love-supreme.com/archive/archive049.htm |archive-date = 6 December 2006}} "We all went out ... for a few beers to a place called Sean's Bar. Some of the lads were playing darts in there, and there was a lass near them who was utterly bollocksed. She was all over the shop."
4. Hungover (or equivalent): "I drank two bottles of gin last night, I'm completely bollocksed."
5. Made a mistake: "I tried to draw that landscape, but I bollocksed it up."

The phrase "bollocksed up" means to be in a botched, bungled, confused or disarrayed state; e.g. "He managed to bollix up the whole project."{{cite encyclopedia |title=Bollocks |encyclopedia=American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language |edition=Fifth |year=2011 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company}}{{cite encyclopedia |title=Bollocks |encyclopedia=Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary |publisher=K Dictionaries Ltd., Random House, Inc. |year=2010 |orig-year=1991}} In the printing and newspaper industries, dropping a California Job type case of moveable type {{ndash}} spilling the contents {{ndash}} was a classic example of "bollocksing up the works". The box was called "pied". "Bollocksed" in that sense meant "beyond all repair".

A usage with a positive (albeit still vulgar) sense is "the dog's bollocks" or simplified "The Bollocks".[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dog's%20bollocks.html Dog's bollocks – meaning and origin] phrases.org.uk, Viz magazine 1989: "Viz: the dog's bollocks: the best of issues 26 to 31". An example of this usage is: "Before Tony Blair's speech, a chap near me growled: 'He thinks he's the 'dog's bollocks'. Well, he's entitled to. It was a commanding speech: a real 'dog's bollocks' of an oration."The Times, 4 October 1995, p7

Although this is a recent term (the Online Etymology Dictionary dates it to 1989,{{cite web

|url = http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bee%27s+knees |title = Online Etymology Dictionary |author = Douglas Harper |access-date = 2006-09-08}}) its origins are obscure. Etymologist Eric Partridge and the Oxford English Dictionary believe the term comes from the now obsolete typographical sequence of a colon and a dash :-.{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English |edition=3rd |publisher=Routledge & Paul |lccn=50014741 |year=1949 |author=Partridge, Eric}} This typography, using a dash following a colon -:, was used to introduce a list. Thus, it is a very early example of an emoticon.{{cite news |work=Anglophenia, Fraser’s Phrases |title=The Dog's Bollocks |first1=Fraser |last1=McAlpine |date=12 September 2011 |publisher=BBC America |url=http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/09/frasers-phrases-the-dogs-bollocks/ |access-date=31 January 2015}}

The Oxford English Dictionary says the following mark (":— ") is entitled "the dog’s bollocks", defined as: "typogr. a colon followed by a dash, regarded as forming a shape resembling the male sexual organs." The usage is cited to the year 1949.{{cite web |url=http://bygonebureau.com/2010/01/20/the-secret-history-of-typography-in-the-oxford-english-dictionary/ |date=20 January 2010 |first1=Nick |last1=Martens |publisher=The Bygone Bureau |title=The Secret History of Typography in the Oxford English Dictionary |access-date=31 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141122150147/http://bygonebureau.com/2010/01/20/the-secret-history-of-typography-in-the-oxford-english-dictionary/ |archive-date=22 November 2014 |url-status=dead }}

This phrase has found its way into popular culture in a number of ways. There is a beer brewed in England by the Wychwood Brewery called the Dog's Bollocks,{{cite web

|url = http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/wychwood-dogs-bollocks/6471/

|title = Wychwood Dogs Bollocks

|access-date = 2006-09-08

|publisher = RateBeer LLC

}} as well as a lager cocktail.{{cite web

|url = http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink3221.html

|title = Dogs Bollocks recipe

|access-date = 2006-09-08

|archive-date = 14 June 2006

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060614125838/http://drinksmixer.com/drink3221.html

|url-status = dead

}}

The Dutch city Groningen has a pub-style café named "The dog's bollocks".[https://www.thedogsbollocks.nl/ thedogsbollocks.nl]

The phrase "chuffed to one's bollocks" describes someone who is very pleased with themselves. Nobel laureate Harold Pinter used this in The Homecoming."He'll be chuffed to his bollocks in the morning when he sees his eldest son". The phrase provided a serious challenge to translators of his work.{{cite web

|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/pinter/language.shtml

|title=Michael Billington Q&A: Language

|publisher=BBC

|access-date=2010-12-04}} Pinter used a similar phrase in an open letter, published in The Guardian, and addressed to Prime Minister Tony Blair, attacking his co-operation with American foreign policy. The letter ends by saying "Oh, by the way, meant to mention, forgot to tell you, we were all chuffed to the bollocks when Labour won the election."{{cite book

| last =Raby

| first =Peter

| title =The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter

| publisher = Cambridge University Press

| isbn = 0-521-65842-X

| page =232

| year =2001}}

• "Bollock-head" is a vulgar British term for a shaven head.{{cite book| last =Wilson| first =Robert McLiam| title =Ripley Bogle| publisher =Arcade Publishing| year =1998| isbn =1-55970-424-1| page =[https://archive.org/details/ripleybogle00wils_0/page/302 302]| url-access =registration| url =https://archive.org/details/ripleybogle00wils_0/page/302}}"My baldy chum wasn't smiling now...This bollock-head was obviously an amateur, a cowboy". It can also refer to someone who is stupid, as can "bollock-brain". The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811) cites the expression "His brains are in his ballocks", to designate a fool.{{cite book| last =Grose| first =Captain| title =1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

|orig-year=1811 | publisher =Kessinger Publishing| year =2004 | isbn =1-4191-0007-6|page=15}}

The 2007 Concise new Partridge dictionary of slang and unconventional English quotes "bollards" as meaning "testicles" and that it is a play on the word bollocks.Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor: The concise new Partridge dictionary of slang and unconventional English, Routledge, 2007. {{ISBN|0-415-21259-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-415-21259-5}}. p.76

The play Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery, published in 1684 and ascribed to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, includes a character named Bolloxinion, King of Sodom (along with other characters with names such as General Buggeranthos and the maid of honour, Fuckadilla). The word bollox appears several times in the text, such as:

{{poemquote|Had all mankind, whose pintles I adore,

With well fill'd bollox swiv'd me o'er and o'er.

None could in nature have oblig'd me more.Earl John Wilmot: Sodom; Or the Quintessence of Debauchery, Act IV, published 1684. Reprinted by Olympia Press, 2004

{{ISBN|1-59654-021-4}}, {{ISBN|978-1-59654-021-7}}}}

In 1690, the publisher Benjamin Crayle was fined 20 pounds and sent to prison for his part in publishing the play.Sheryl Straight (2003). [http://www.eroticabibliophile.com/censorship_history.php "The Obscenity of Censorship: A History of Indecent People and Lacivious Publications"]. Retrieved 24 March 2010.

In one of the tales in Burton's 1885 translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Kafur, the eunuch, says:

{{quote|But now my spirit is broken and my tricks are gone from me, so alas! are my ballocks.Richard F. Burton (translator). The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Volume 2, Oxford, 1885. [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext02/21001107.txt eText from Project Gutenberg]. Retrieved 24 March 2010.}}

Perhaps the best-known use of the term is in the title of the 1977 punk rock album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Testimony in a resulting prosecution over the term demonstrated that in Old English, the word meant a small ball, in the 19th century it was also nickname for clergymen, and then came to used to mean "nonsense".{{cite web|url=http://www.bombedoutpunk.com/history/legal-bollocks-the-infamous-sex-pistols-prosecution/|title=Legal Bollocks – The Infamous Sex Pistols Indecency Prosecution.|work=Bombed Out!|author=Lloyd, Peter Alan|access-date=30 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031085303/http://www.bombedoutpunk.com/history/legal-bollocks-the-infamous-sex-pistols-prosecution/|archive-date=31 October 2016|url-status=dead}} Defence barrister John Mortimer QC and Virgin Records won the case: the court ruled that the word was not obscene.{{cite news |url= http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1977-11-25-02&articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1977-11-25-02-012 |title=Record sleeve of punk rock album ruled not indecent |newspaper=The Times |date=25 November 1977 |page=2 |access-date=4 December 2010 }}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} It just means "put aside all of that other rubbish and pay attention to this".

In a summary for the defence, Mortimer asked,

{{quote|What sort of country are we living in if a politician comes to Nottingham and speaks here to a group of people in the city centre and during his speech a heckler replies "bollocks". Are we to expect this person to be incarcerated, or do we live in a country where we are proud of our Anglo-Saxon language? Do we wish our language to be virile and strong or watered down and weak?}}

Tony Wright, a Leicestershire trader, was given an £80 fixed penalty fine by police for selling T-shirts bearing the slogan "Bollocks to Blair". This took place on 29 June 2006 at the Royal Norfolk Show; the police issued the penalty notice, quoting Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 which refers to language "deemed to cause harassment, alarm or distress".{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/5135150.stm |title=UK | England | Leicestershire | Man fined for 'rude' Blair shirt |work=BBC News |date=30 June 2006 |access-date=2010-02-14}}

{{Wiktionary|bollocks|testicles|dog's bollocks}}

• Art Bollocks
• Bullock (disambiguation)
• A load of old cobblers
• Wikisaurus:testicles

{{Reflist|group=upper-alpha}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

Category:British English idioms

Category:Interjections

Category:Testicle

Category:English words

Category:English profanity