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''Bollocks'' () is a word of
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
origin, meaning "
testicles
A testicle or testis (plural testes) is the male reproductive gland or gonad in all bilaterians, including humans. It is homologous to the female ovary. The functions of the testes are to produce both sperm and androgens, primarily testostero ...
". The word is often used figuratively in
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
and
Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English (from Latin '' Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland ...
in
a multitude of negative ways; it most commonly appears as a noun meaning "rubbish" or "nonsense", an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, or an adjective to describe something that is of poor quality or useless. It is also used in common phrases like "bollocks to this", which is said when quitting a task or job that is too difficult or negative, and "that's a load of old bollocks", which generally indicates contempt for a certain subject or opinion. Conversely, the word also appears in
positive phrases such as "the dog's bollocks" or more simply "the bollocks", which will refer to something which is admired or well-respected.
Etymology
The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' (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
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmac ...
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
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...
base ''*bhel-'', to inflate or swell. This base also forms the root of many other words, including "
phallus".
Meaning "nonsense"
From the 17th to the 19th century, ''bollocks'' or ''ballocks'' was allegedly used as a
slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-g ...
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''". It has been suggested that ''bollocks'' came to have its modern meaning of "
nonsense
Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous. Many poets, novelists and songwriters have u ...
" because some clergymen were notorious for talking nonsense during their sermons. According to
Merriam Webster the term has been used before the 12th century.
Severity
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 ), for example in a translation of works by
Rabelais.
It did not appear in
Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary of the English language. It was also omitted from the 1933 ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' and its 1941 reprint, finally appearing in the 1972 supplement. The first modern English dictionary to include an entry for "bollocks" was G. N. Garmonsway's Penguin English Dictionary of 1965.
The relative severity of the various
profanities
Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, ru ...
, as perceived by the British public, was studied on behalf of the
Broadcasting Standards Commission
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.
Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
,
Independent Television Commission
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003.
History
The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...
,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and
Advertising Standards Authority. The results of this jointly commissioned research were published in December 2000 in a paper called "Delete Expletives?". This placed "bollocks" in eighth position in terms of its perceived severity, between "prick" (seventh place) and "
arsehole" (ninth place). 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). 25% of the people regarded "bollocks" as "very severe", 32% "quite severe", 34% "mild" and 8% considered it "not swearing".
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. This research regarded these words as swearwords in the context of their usage but observed that some might be inoffensive in other contexts.
Some campaigners, particularly the
Liberal Democrats, hoping to stop the UK's departure from the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
have adopted the slogan, "
Bollocks to Brexit
"Bollocks to Brexit" is a meme and grassroots campaign slogan used by people Opposition to Brexit in the United Kingdom, opposing Brexit, following the result of Brexit Referendum, a 2016 referendum.
The slogan received media coverage and legal ...
". When queried about the propriety of the use of this term in Parliament in January 2019, the Speaker of the House,
John Bercow
John Simon Bercow (; born 19 January 1963) is a British former politician who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham between 1997 and 2019. A member of the Conservative Party prior t ...
ruled that the use of the word in Parliamentary speech was "not disorderly".
Negative uses
"Talking bollocks" and "bollockspeak"
"Talking ''bollocks''" generally means talking nonsense or ''
bullshit
''Bullshit'' (also ''bullshite'' or ''bullcrap'') is a common English expletive which may be shortened to the euphemism ''bull'' or the initialism B.S. In British English, "bollocks" is a comparable expletive. It is mostly a slang term and a ...
'', 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.)" "Talking ''bollocks''" in a corporate context is referred to as ''bollockspeak''. ''Bollockspeak'' tends to be
buzzword-laden and largely content-free, like
gobbledygook
Gibberish, also called jibber-jabber or gobbledygook, is speech that is (or appears to be) nonsense. It may include speech sounds that are not actual words, pseudowords, or language games and specialized jargon that seems nonsensical to outside ...
: "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''. When a great deal of bollocks is being spoken, it may be said that the 'bollocks quotient' is high.
A "bollocks" (singular noun)
Comparable to ''
cock-up'', ''
screw
A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to f ...
-up'', ''balls-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", and it is generally used throughout
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.
Bollocks up (transitive verb)
''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".
To "drop a bollock"
''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.
Bollocking
Noun
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''". 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.
Adjective
''Bollocking'' can also be used as a reinforcing adjective: "He hasn't a ''bollocking'' clue!" or "Where's me ''bollocking'' car?"
"A kick in the bollocks"
''"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".
"Freeze (or work) one's bollocks off"
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
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singer ...
referred to his mother "working her bollocks off" at home.
"Bollock naked"
"''Bollock naked''" is used in the singular form to emphasise being completely nude: "he was completely pissed and stark ''bollock naked''".
Bollocks (singular noun)
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?", or conversely as a very informal
term of endearment
A term of endearment is a word or phrase used to address or describe a person, animal or inanimate object for which the speaker feels love or affection. Terms of endearment are used for a variety of reasons, such as parents addressing their ch ...
.
"Bollocksed"
Multiple meanings, also spelled "''bolloxed''" or "''bollixed''":
# Exhausted: "I couldn't sleep at all last night, I'm completely ''bollocksed''!"
# Broken: "My foot pump is ''bollocksed''."
# An extreme state of inebriation or drug-induced stupor: "Last night I got completely ''bollocksed''".
# Hungover (or equivalent): "I drank two bottles of gin last night, I'm completely ''bollocksed''."
# 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." In the
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
and
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
industries, dropping a
California Job type case
A type case is a compartmentalized wooden box used to store movable type used in letterpress printing
Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing. Using a printing press, the process allows many copies to be produced by repeate ...
of
moveable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation m ...
spilling the contents was a classic example of "bollocksing up the works". The box was called "pied". "Bollocksed" in that sense meant "beyond all repair".
Web design
"Dog's bollocks syndrome" is a term used by
web design
Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...
ers to describe over-designed websites that have more flash than might be needed or justified.
Positive uses
"Dog's bollocks"
A usage with a positive (albeit still vulgar) sense is "the dog's bollocks" or simplified "The Bollocks".
[Dog's bollocks – meaning and origin](_blank)
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
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
'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."
Although this is a recent term (the ''Online Etymology Dictionary'' dates it to 1989,
) its origins are obscure. Etymologist
Eric Partridge
Eric Honeywood Partridge (6 February 1894 – 1 June 1979) was a New Zealand– British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. His writing career was interrupted only by his service in the Army Education Corps an ...
and the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' believe the term comes from
the now obsolete typographical sequence of a colon and a dash :-.
This typography, using a dash following a colon -:, was used to introduce a list. Thus, it is a very early example of an
emoticon
An emoticon (, , rarely , ), short for "emotion icon", also known simply as an emote, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers, and letters—to express a person's feelings, ...
.
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.
This phrase has found its way into popular culture in a number of ways. There is a
beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
brewed in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
by the
Wychwood Brewery
Wychwood Brewery is a brewery in Witney, Oxfordshire, England, owned by Marston's. The company's flagship brand is Hobgoblin, a 5.2% abv brown ale.
Wychwood Brewery produces around 50,000 barrels () of cask ale each year, and is the United Kin ...
called the Dog's Bollocks,
as well as a
lager
Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storag ...
cocktail.
The Dutch city
Groningen has a pub-style café named "The dog's bollocks".
"Chuffed to one's bollocks"
The phrase ''"chuffed to one's bollocks"'' describes someone who is very pleased with themselves.
Nobel laureate Harold Pinter used this in ''
The Homecoming
''The Homecoming'' is a two-act play written in 1964 by Harold Pinter and first published in 1965. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony A ...
'' The phrase provided a serious challenge to translators of his work. Pinter used a similar phrase in an
open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...
, published in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', and addressed to
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Tony Blair, attacking his co-operation with
American foreign policy
The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
. 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."
Other uses
* ''"Bollock-head"'' is a vulgar British term for a
shaven head. 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.
Rhyming slang
The
rhyming slang for ''bollocks'' is "''
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...
s''". It can be shortened to ''Jacksons'', as in "
Modern art? Pile o' ''Jacksons'' if you ask me!". ''
Sandra Bullocks'' is occasionally used to approximate rhyming slang; it does not quite rhyme, but preserves meter and
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...
.
The Beautiful South
The Beautiful South were an English pop rock group formed in 1988 by Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway, two former members of the Hull group The Housemartins, both of whom performed lead and backing vocals. Other members throughout the band's exi ...
bowdlerised
Expurgation, also known as bowdlerization, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media.
The term ''bowdlerization'' is a pejorative term for the practi ...
their original line "''sweaty bollocks''" as "''Sandra Bullocks''", as one of several changes to make their song "
Don't Marry Her" acceptable for mainstream radio play.
"Horlicks"
The term ''"Horlicks"'' was brought to prominence in July 2003, when then-
British Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen ...
Jack Straw
John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary ...
used it to describe irregularities in the preparation and provenance of the "
dodgy dossier" regarding
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Straw used the expression "a complete ''Horlicks''", instead of the more impolite "make a complete ''bollocks'' of something". This
euphemism stems from an
advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...
for the
Horlicks
Horlicks is a sweet malted milk hot drink powder developed by founders James and William Horlick. It was first sold as "Horlick's Infant and Invalids Food", soon adding "aged and travellers" to their label. In the early 20th century, it was s ...
malt drink, where people were seen to be shouting ''"Horlicks!"'' in a loud voice, to give vent to stress or frustration.
Eric Morecambe
John Eric Bartholomew, (14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984), known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's d ...
was also known to cough ''"Horlicks!"'' behind his hand on
The Morecambe and Wise Show.
Rowlocks/rowlocking
''Rollocking'' is sometimes used as a euphemism for ''"bollocking"''. A ''rollocking bollocking'' may be delivered by an electorate.
Bollards
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.
Literature
The play ''
Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery
''Sodom'' is an obscene Restoration closet drama, published in 1684. The work has been attributed to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, though its authorship is disputed. Determining the date of composition and attribution are complicated owing ...
'', published in 1684 and ascribed to
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1 April 1647 – 26 July 1680) was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court. The Restoration reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era. Rochester embodi ...
, 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:
In 1690, the publisher Benjamin Crayle was fined 20 pounds and sent to prison for his part in publishing the play.
In one of the tales in
Burton's 1885 translation of ''
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night'', Kafur, the
eunuch
A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function.
The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millenni ...
, says:
Obscenity court ruling
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
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
, the word referred to a priest, and could also be used to mean "nonsense". Defence
barrister John Mortimer QC and
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...
won the case: the court ruled that the word was not
obscene
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be us ...
.
It just means "put aside all of that other rubbish and pay attention to this".
In a summary for the defence, Mortimer asked,
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
Harassment, alarm or distress is an element of a statutory offence in England and Wales, arising from an expression used in sections 4A and 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, which created the offence. The Act was amended in 1994.
The offence
The o ...
which refers to language "deemed to cause harassment, alarm or distress".
See also
*''
Art Bollocks''
*
Bullock (disambiguation)
Bullock may refer to:
Animals
* Bullock (in British English), a castrated male bovine animal of any age
* Bullock (in North America), a young bull (an uncastrated male bovine animal)
* Bullock (in Australia, India and New Zealand), an ox, an adu ...
*
A load of old cobblers
*
Wikisaurus:testicles
References
Notes
Citations
{{Reflist, 30em
British English idioms
Interjections
English profanity
Testicle
English words