Origin of the phrase

[Hopkirk]

Where does the phrase cock up come from?

Is it as rude as it sounds, as it is used so freely?

[marval]

This might help.

http://www.phrases.or...meanings/cock-up.html

[HowardKennitby]

Cassell's Slang Dict.

[1920s+] [originally military slang] an error; a blunder, but with undertones of cock = penis.

[Hopkirk]

I'll go with Marvel's link.

I like the idea that a hunter makes a mistake and scares the birds, so a cock up is the quarry fleeing.

[marval]

Glad to help Hopkirk.

[Mick-Talbot]

Dunno but George Osbourne has just said he thinks we should re-double our efforts and he is 110% focused on the economy.

not a very bright thing for a Chancellor of the Exchequer to say.


DC Has just said the exact same thing .... What The Funicular

[HowardKennitby]

From OED

cock-up, cockup, n. and a.
[f. cock up verbal combination: see cock v.1]
A. n.
1. A distinct turn up at the end or tip.
1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 429 The cock-up of the nose, which seems_to be snuffing up intelligence.
2. A hat or cap cocked or turned up in front.
_1693 in Sc. Presbyt. Eloquence (1738) 129, I have been this Year of God preaching against the Vanity of Women, yet I see my own Daughter in the Kirk Even now have as high a Cockup as any of you all.
1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxv, Your cockups and your fallal duds---see what they a' come to.
3. A fresh-water and estuarian fish of India (Lates calcarifer).
[Origin of name uncertain: see Yule.]
1845 Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 283 Cockup, crabs, lobsters, shrimps.
1854 Badham Halieut. 114 The Lates Nobilis of the erudite, somewhat freely rendered _cock-up-fish' by the Bengalese.
4. A blunder, a mistake, a confused situation. slang.
1948 Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang 44 He made a complete cock-up of his orders.
1959 I. Jefferies 13 Days xiii. 206 _I was thinking of going out to Tikvah today, sir,' I said, and did I make a cock-up of that job.
1964 J. Porter Dover One i. 11 George turned the local boys on it and you've never seen such a cock-up in your life!
B. adj.
1. Cocked up, turned up at the tip.
1832 L. Hunt Poems, To J. H. i, With cock-up nose so lightsome.
2. Printing. Having the top much above the top line of the other letters: applied to a large type used for an initial of a book or part.
1838 Timperley Printer's Manual 58 The first word_is generally put in small capitals, either after a capital of its own body, or one

[parkie]

I've only just seen this thread Hoppy. My understanding of this term is that it is
a printing term and was actually 'coq up' when things went wrong. I have seen the word coq in relation to printing but not the term 'coq up' as such.