Bollocks

''Bollocks'' () is a word of Middle English origin, meaning "testicles". The word is often used figuratively in British English and Hiberno-English 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'' (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".

Meaning "nonsense"

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''". 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. 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'' 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, as perceived by the British public, was studied on behalf of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, BBC
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