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cock up, english language, idioms, meanings, origins, phrases, Quirky Claus, Sebastian White, The Phrase Finder
One of my favorite pastimes is to find out the origins of common sayings or phrases. So, I was thrilled when my author friend Sebastian White (of Quirky Claus fame) alerted me to The Phrase Finder, a wonderful resource for anyone with a passion for English.
In true English fashion, The Phrase Finder explains the meanings and origins of thousands of English idioms, phrases, and sayings such as:
- Proverbs – a list of hundreds of the proverbs that give meaning to our language like no other form of expression.
- American Idioms – Divided by a common language? Not when you understand the phrases that were born in the USA.
- Phrases coined by Shakespeare – He gave us more words and expressions than anyone else.
- Nautical phrases – the phrases came from our nautical friends.
- Phrases from the Bible – the single book that has given more sayings, idioms, and proverbs to the English language than any other.
- Famous Last Words – when it comes to memorable quotations, many prominent people save the best for last. Also, a special form of last words – notable suicide notes.
So, what’s with the cock-up?
A delightful example of what you can find in The Phrase Finder’s pages is the explanation for that very British expression, the cock-up. Meaning a blunder; a confused situation, its origin most likely has no vulgar meaning, as is often assumed in the US (what Americans might make of Robert Burns’ poem, ‘Cock up your beaver‘, is best left to the imagination. What Burns was actually referring to was adorning a beaver fur hat by putting a cock’s feather into it.)
‘Cock’, in the sense of this term, means ‘stand up conspicuously’, ‘turn up at the edge’, ‘bend at an angle’ etc. This is the sense of the early usage of the term ‘cock-up’, in the terms ‘cock-up one’s ears’, ‘cock-up one’s nose’. In the 17th and 18th centuries, people were also often advised to ‘cock-up’ their bonnets, eyes, even legs. The expression ‘cock a snook’ also derives from that same sense of ‘cock’.
While a vulgar interpretation is plausible, there is a score of alternative explanations:
- The accidental putting up (into flight) of woodcocks during a hunt.
- The accidental leaving of the ends of ship’s spars in a tilted, that is, ‘cocked’, position.
- The accidental leaving of the spigots (a.k.a. cocks) on beer barrels.
- The incorrect placement of the cock-feather when loading a longbow.
- The accidental misalignment of text in a line of type. (The large capital letters that used to be commonly seen at the beginning of paragraphs are called ‘cock-up’ letters.)
The most likely of these is the first one; ie the ‘putting birds to flight‘ theory. The American writer Henry Herbert, using the appropriate pseudonym of Frank Forester, published the novel ‘The Warwick Woodlands’, in 1851. That contains a reference to ‘cock-up’:
You’ll find a blind track there, right through the brush – keep your eyes skinned, do! There’ll be a cock up before you’re ten yards in.
A hunter’s mistaken disturbance of a bird and our current understanding of the term ‘cock-up’ match, so that has some claim to being more believable than the other suggestions. It is still speculative though and is probably as far as we can go with those ‘explanations’.
* No, the fact that today’s my wedding anniversary has nothing to do with this post’s choice of subject
gibsonauthor said:
Reblogged this on s a gibson.
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Lucy Brazier said:
This is fabulous! I love learning the origins of words and phrases. Congratulations on your wedding anniversary, too.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thank you, Lucy 🙂
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coldhandboyack said:
I always thought it was a fight of some kind, and based on cockfighting.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Ah, if only it were that simple 😀
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Marcia said:
What a great resource, Nicholas. Thank you. As for cock-up, I’ve read enough books by English authors to know what that means, though I can see where it would confuse many Americans. Having said that, we do use the word in other, perfectly acceptable for mixed company ways, to wit: He cocked his head to one side, paying close attention to the weapon in her hand. She cocked the gun, and warned him not to take another step.
See? Context counts. 😀 😀 😀
Checking out the Phrase Finder right now. I’m a person who looks up a word in the dictionary, then reads the rest of the page, just for fun. I’m going to love this! Thanks again.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – context sure does count 😀
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rijanjks said:
Happy Anniversary, Nicholas! I too, love to know where phrases and sayings originated. Great stuff!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thank you, Jan 😀
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Lovingthealternative by Lisa D. Greene said:
Hmmm…muito interessante. This has me so tickled for some reason…maybe I’m just weird. 😆I have an obsession with words and idioms…the better the bigger! As a self proclaimed word geek, my thesaurus is my BFF. Thanks for this. I’ve read this phrase a couple of times and just applied the context of the sentence, but, it’s always nice to have a lil word origin.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – you’re just like me 😀
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Don Massenzio said:
Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog.
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beetleypete said:
Hope you have a great anniversary. Not sure I’m buying the woodcock story though…
Best wishes, Pete.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks. Are you more convinced by one of the alternative theories, then?
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beetleypete said:
I tend to think it is to do with cocking a pistol incorrectly, but have no hard evidence except that it was a phrase often used in the army.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I don’t know if you read the original article, but it makes it pretty clear that pretty much how little hard evidence exists to support one theory over the other. So, your guess is as good as any 🙂
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beetleypete said:
Thanks, Nicholas. I was aware of little evidence, so will stick with my firearm theory until proved wrong! 🙂
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kimwrtr said:
Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
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J.A. Stinger said:
Reblogged this on Words Can Inspire the World.
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The Story Reading Ape said:
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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Jean M. Cogdell said:
Nicholas, you’re the greatest! I’m crazy in love with this website. I’ll pass it on to my readers. Wow, this will be so hard not to pepper my writing with cliches. LOL
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – thank you so much, Jean 😀
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Phillip T Stephens said:
Reblogged this on Wind Eggs and commented:
Derrida makes it clear that many idioms common to one language can’t be translated to others. We can translate the words, but not the meaning. You would think “cock up” isn’t one of those, but that’s only if you’re an English speaker. It may have no more meaning in French than SNAFU in Chinese (even if they both mean relatively the same thing).
Nicholas Rossis introduces readers to Phrase Finder, a wonderful online resource for exploring how many common phrases entered the language.
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quietblogster said:
Hilarious post! Call me old-fashioned, but my favorite is cockamamy.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – thanks and welcome to my blog 😀
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aurorajeanalexander said:
Reblogged this on Writer's Treasure Chest and commented:
Nicholas Rossis informs us about a tool called “Phrase Finder”. Thank you, Nicholas. This comes in handy!
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Matt Bowes said:
Congrats on your wedding anniversary!
That’s a pretty awesome site. Thanks for pointing us to this.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks and thanks 🙂
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Pingback: So… Cock-up? The Phrase Finder | Campbells World
Patty said:
I enjoy this, and why is it folks in the US take things so very out of context? It seems to me, they can make anything dirty!
Sometimes really gets under my skin!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – in all fairness, it does lend itself to dirty explanations 😀
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Angela Gaft said:
Hi Nicholas!
Thanks a lot for following Suitcase Travel blog!
Have a wonderful day!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks and welcome to my blog 🙂
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