ChatterBank2 mins ago
c0ck and bull
6 Answers
tried to search but it didn't show ?.... where does it come from?
Answers
1 to 6 of 6
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by Metz. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
Here's and intersting dissertation on your question from The Straight Dope :
Mother Goose's A **** And Bull Story:
The ****'s on the housetop, blowing his horn:
The bull's in the barn a-threshing of corn:
The maids in the meadows are making of hay:
The ducks in the river are swimming away.
"**** and bull"--a fabricated story meant to deceive and/or amuse. There's a French variation, coq-a-l'ane (**** to donkey), and believe it or not a Scottish derivative of the French variation--"**********." The first known use of the phrase was in John Day's 1608 play Law-trickes or Who Would Have Thought It: "What a tale of a **** and a bull he told my father." But the term was evidently proverbial before that.
There are competing theories about the origins of "**** and bull." One source claims that the phrase is a corruption of "a concocted and bully story," with "bully" being a further corruption of the Danish bullen, which means exaggerated.
Nonsense, say other sources. The Phrase Finder suggests the phrase came about when coaches would carry travelers to one of two inns that were close to each other on the old London Road at Stony Stratford near Buckinghamshire, England. Rivalries arose between the groups of travelers who favored one inn over the other, and boastful tales were exchanged. The names of the two inns? The **** and the Bull, of course.
The Word Detective passes along a similar story involving just one inn, the **** and Bull, but finds it doubtful. The more likely explanation, Word Detective ventures, is that the expression refers to old fables featuring talking animals, a notion that the French "**** to donkey" tends to corroborate. We've seen similar usages arise in our own time, leading me to think Word Detective has it right and that alternative theories are not just **** and bull stories but--dare I say it?--mickey mouse. <
Mother Goose's A **** And Bull Story:
The ****'s on the housetop, blowing his horn:
The bull's in the barn a-threshing of corn:
The maids in the meadows are making of hay:
The ducks in the river are swimming away.
"**** and bull"--a fabricated story meant to deceive and/or amuse. There's a French variation, coq-a-l'ane (**** to donkey), and believe it or not a Scottish derivative of the French variation--"**********." The first known use of the phrase was in John Day's 1608 play Law-trickes or Who Would Have Thought It: "What a tale of a **** and a bull he told my father." But the term was evidently proverbial before that.
There are competing theories about the origins of "**** and bull." One source claims that the phrase is a corruption of "a concocted and bully story," with "bully" being a further corruption of the Danish bullen, which means exaggerated.
Nonsense, say other sources. The Phrase Finder suggests the phrase came about when coaches would carry travelers to one of two inns that were close to each other on the old London Road at Stony Stratford near Buckinghamshire, England. Rivalries arose between the groups of travelers who favored one inn over the other, and boastful tales were exchanged. The names of the two inns? The **** and the Bull, of course.
The Word Detective passes along a similar story involving just one inn, the **** and Bull, but finds it doubtful. The more likely explanation, Word Detective ventures, is that the expression refers to old fables featuring talking animals, a notion that the French "**** to donkey" tends to corroborate. We've seen similar usages arise in our own time, leading me to think Word Detective has it right and that alternative theories are not just **** and bull stories but--dare I say it?--mickey mouse. <
The French term "coq-a-l'ane" has the same meaning. This was later taken up in Scots as "**********", again with the same meaning.
The first citation in English is from Robert Burton's The anatomy of melancholy, 1621:
"Some mens whole delight is to talk of a **** and Bull over a pot."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/****%20and% 20bull%20story.html
Unfortunately, the origins of "**** and bull story," which first appeared in English around 1620, are a bit fuzzy. Perhaps the most frequently-heard explanation ties the phrase to an old English roadside inn of the period supposedly called The **** and Bull. Weary travelers, it is said, would often pass the evenings regaling each other with fantastic tales of their exploits and adventures, and so such stories became known as "**** and Bull tales." Predictably, however, no such inn can be proven ever to have existed, making this theory, if not a "**** and bull story" itself, at least highly suspect.
A more likely explanation is that "**** and bull story" originally referred to the sort of folk tale or fable, popular at the time, populated by talking animals. A parallel of "**** and bull" can be found in French, where the same sort of whopper is known as a "coq-a-l'ane," or "**** to donkey" story. (The French "coq-a-l'ane," incidentally, was imported into Scots, the language of Scotland, as "**********," meaning a fantastic or satirical story.)
http://www.word-detective.com/030201.html#**** *******
The first citation in English is from Robert Burton's The anatomy of melancholy, 1621:
"Some mens whole delight is to talk of a **** and Bull over a pot."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/****%20and% 20bull%20story.html
Unfortunately, the origins of "**** and bull story," which first appeared in English around 1620, are a bit fuzzy. Perhaps the most frequently-heard explanation ties the phrase to an old English roadside inn of the period supposedly called The **** and Bull. Weary travelers, it is said, would often pass the evenings regaling each other with fantastic tales of their exploits and adventures, and so such stories became known as "**** and Bull tales." Predictably, however, no such inn can be proven ever to have existed, making this theory, if not a "**** and bull story" itself, at least highly suspect.
A more likely explanation is that "**** and bull story" originally referred to the sort of folk tale or fable, popular at the time, populated by talking animals. A parallel of "**** and bull" can be found in French, where the same sort of whopper is known as a "coq-a-l'ane," or "**** to donkey" story. (The French "coq-a-l'ane," incidentally, was imported into Scots, the language of Scotland, as "**********," meaning a fantastic or satirical story.)
http://www.word-detective.com/030201.html#**** *******
1 to 6 of 6
