June 30, 2006

Put a sock in it

I'm big fan of the origin of words. I will wonder why the word for the basin in which I wash our dishes is called a sink. Or why the green stuff in the front yard is called a lawn. Or-- well, you get the idea. I'm sure this isn't completely normal, but as abnormalities go, this one isn't too bad. At any rate, all this explanation is leading to the curiosity that codd in Middle English means scrotum (in Old English is means bag.) I discovered this when tracking the origin of the term codpiece.
Imagine all the uses for this:
  • grocery store codder
  • cods under my eyes
  • golf cod
  • pack the coddage
Okay, so there aren't so many things you can do with this discovery unless you are a 14-year-old kid who has now discovered a new way to call someone a "scrotumhead" without getting detention.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Makes you wonder about Codliver Oil????