pillicock

English

Alternative forms

• pilicock, pillicocke, pelicock, pillycock

Etymology

From Middle English pilkoc, equivalent to an uncertain prefix + cock (“a male chicken; slang term for a penis”). Compare the earlier surname Pylcock etc., as well as pillock, Scots pillie (“a penis”), Jutland regional Danish piller and pillerkok (“a penis”), regional Norwegian pill (“a penis”), and Swedish pillesnopp (“wiener, (small) penis”).

Noun

pillicock (plural pillicocks)

1. (archaic) A penis.
   • a. 1325, "Elde" in the Kildare Poems:

     Al þus eld me for-dede...
     Y ne mai no more of loue done,
     Mi pilkoc pisseþ on mi schone...

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene xi]:

     Edg. Pilicock sate on pelicocks hill, a lo lo lo.

   • 2013, Nick Buchanan, What Happens in Shakespeare's, King Lear, page 248:

     Edgar, riffing on the sound of the word ‘pelican’, jumps to an old nursery rhyme which starts with the word ‘Pillicock’. He omits the second line, favouring gibberish instead—or a hunting cry? The full couplet is:
     Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill
     If he's not gone, he sits there still.

2. (obsolete, endearing) A boy or man.
   • 1598, John Florio, A Worlde of Wordes:

     A pillicocke, a darling, or a wanton, or a minion.

Synonyms

• (penis): See Thesaurus:penis
• (darling): See Thesaurus:boy and man

Derived terms

• pillicock hill