Plonker

[hal]

origins of 'plonker' in its vulgar usage?

[laurentwink]

my cousin used to tell me that it is a donkeys whatsit!

[Quizmonster]

In its more 'kindly' use, meaning 'idiot' - as in 'Only Fools and Horses' later - it did not appear until the mid 1960s. I often wondered whether Del-Boy's script-writers meant it as a variant of 'plunger'...after all, he did often call Rodney a 'dipstick', too.

There is little doubt how 'dipstick' came to have a crude meaning, apart from the rhyming element. (I need to be circumspect here, I suppose.) You need think only of the function of that device in a car's engine to see what anatomical part it is a synonym for and most nicknames for that are also used to mean 'idiot'.

[FredPuli]

QM: re 'dipstick'. I'm still trying top work out which part of the body has two lines on it to show 'high' and 'low'. Any clues ?

[Quizmonster]

You could have them tattooed on, Fred. They might make an interesting conversation-piece for one's lady-friends! I'm reminded, however, of the Billy Connolly story in which he planned to have a rudely-dismissive two-word phrase tattooed on his anatomy for the benefit of men getting too close in public conveniences. Sadly, though, he found there wasn't enough space! Cheers

[dudley_rush]

Just out of interest, according to the 1968 UK film All Neat in Black Stockings the term plonker originally referred to a man who shares his girlfriend with his mates. Not a very nice trait, really.