Bollocks or bollock () is a word of Middle English origin meaning "testicles". The word is often used in British English and Irish 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" The meaning of nonsense is a corruption of bullocks from the Old Testament. Ecclesiasticus, chapter 38, verse 25- How can he get wisdom ... whose talk is of bullocks. 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 OEDs 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.
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.*Downloadable copy of Johnson's Dictionary, 6th Edition, Volume 1 and 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. , . p.134 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 and Advertising Standards Authority. The results of this jointly commissioned research were published in December 2000 in a paper called "Delete Expletives?".ASA Reports and Surveys , 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. , . 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".
Negative uses "Talking bollocks" and "bollockspeak" "Talking bollocks" generally means talking nonsense or bullshit,R Lingo, Talking Bollocks!: Totally Stupid Everyday Remarks, Crombie Jardine Publishing Limited, 2008., 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, , "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, , 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 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
A "bollocks" (singular noun) 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, , 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.
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. "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."
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.Oxford English Dictionary, online edition. Entry for "bollocking"
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".Roger Stutter, Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, Tonto Books, 2007, , . p.158
"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 referred to his mother "working her bollocks off" at home.Deborah Ross, "Boy George: Drama chameleon", The Independent, 13 May 2002
"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?"
"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". "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." 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 and newspaper industries, dropping a California Job type case of moveable type 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".
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 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,) 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 :-. This typography, using a dash following a colon -:, was used to introduce a list. Thus, it is a very early example of an emoticon.