A bright and wonderful day to you, my little chickens! Take a trip to the farm with us today, down on the ol’ homestead, as we discuss today’s word: cockalorum.

Cockalorum is a word meaning ‘a boastful and self-important person; a strutting little fellow’. For example, one might say, ‘Look at that cockalorum, eating all the cheese as if he had paid for it himself!’. The origin is not confirmed - it likely comes from the English word ‘cock’ meaning ‘rooster’, with -a- and Latin -lorum suffixed as a fanciful elaboration. It could also originate from a Dutch onomatopoeic dialect term ‘kockeloeren’ which is a word for the cry of a rooster, comparable to ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’. Cockalorum can also mean ‘boastful speech or crowing’ or ‘a game similar to leapfrog’. Come and join me for a game of cockalorum this afternoon, won’t you?

The word ‘cock’ itself has over eighteen different recorded meanings, including, ‘a male bird, such as a rooster or pigeon’, ‘the circle at the end of a rink in curling’, ‘a boastful tilt of the hat or head’, and of course, ‘vulgar slang for penis’. The word originated from Old English ‘cocc’, from Proto-Germanic ‘kukkaz’, probably of onomatopoeic origin. This is reinforced by the Old French word ‘coc’, also of imitative origin. The associating of the word ‘penis’ is attested since at least the 1610s, with the compound ‘pillicock’ also meaning ‘penis’ confirmed since 1325. 

‘Cock’ can also be used as verb, with several different meanings including ‘to prepare a gun or crossbow to be fired’, ‘to turn something upwards or to one side’, ‘to strut or swagger’, and my personal favourite, ‘to turn the eye obliquely and partially close its lid, as an expression of derision or insinuation’. 

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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