Etymology: Probably ultimately imitative of the bird's call. Compare early modern Dutch kocke (late 16th cent. in Kiliaan, labelled archaic; compare also the early modern Dutch diminutive form coxkijn girl of loose morals, coquette (c1530)), German regional (Rhineland) kock (in children's language), Old Icelandic kokkr (in an isolated attestation), Swedish kock (1614, now regional), Old Danish kok (in late sources: c1500 (apparently earlier in the compound syokok , lit. ‘sea-cockerel’, of uncertain meaning); Danish regional kok ), and Anglo-Norman and Old French cok , Middle French, French coq cockerel (1121–35), denoting other birds (c1200 in Anglo-Norman), important (especially self-important) person (1467), denoting fish (1611 in Cotgrave), and its apparent etymon post-classical Latin coccus (in an isolated attestation in some late 8th- and 9th-cent. manuscripts of the Salic Law: see below). The relationship between the forms in the various languages is unclear. The evidence suggests that the word arose in the Vulgar Latin of northern Gaul, and was subsequently borrowed from Latin (or, later, French) into Old English and other Germanic languages of the region. However, as a word of probable imitative origin, it may have been independently re-formed at different times; similar but apparently unrelated forms are attested in several other languages, compare e.g. Old Church Slavonic kokotŭ , Finnish kukko , both in the sense ‘cockerel’, and also Sanskrit kukkuṭa wild cock, junglefowl (compare kukkuṭ , denoting its call); compare also cock-a-doodle-doo n. and int. and the foreign-language parallels cited at that entry.Although now the usual word for the male of the domestic chicken in both English and French, it is not so more widely in either Germanic or Romance; the latter has chiefly reflexes of classical Latin gallus (see galline adj.), the former of the Germanic base of Gothic hana (see hen n.¹). (The usual word in Old English is hana (compare variant reading in quot. OE at sense A. 1), which barely survives into early Middle English, where it has been supplanted by the present word.) It would be possible phonologically to posit the existence of a Germanic base, standing in ablaut relation to the base of chicken n. (compare the Germanic forms cited at that entry), but given the probable imitative origin of both words, this seems unlikely. Also the isolated attestation of post-classical Latin coccus in one (later, mixed) text of the Salic Law (7. 6; in MSS 7 (9th cent.) and 9 (late 8th cent.)), ‘si quis coccum aut gallinam furaverit’, where other manuscripts have gallum and the Frankish Malberg glosses have annas , cannas (for channas , representing an original Frankish form *han- ), rather favours its being Romance. The earliest attestations in Old French are chiefly in northern (Flanders, Picardy) and Anglo-Norman sources. Early use in names. With use with reference to persons (see branch A. IV.) compare early use of forms of cock as a personal name, byname, surname, or nickname, e.g. Godui Coccesune (late 11th cent.), Osbern Cocc (late 12th cent.), Koc filius Pertuin (1230), William le Cock (1271), Cock le Botiller (1281), Cok mon garcon , a groom of John de Langeford (1293), Nicholas Cock (1297), etc., although some of these examples could alternatively be interpreted as showing shortened forms of cook n.¹ Earlier currency of sense A. 13 is probably implied by the building name Coksmithes in Bristol (1329) and the place name Cokfosters , Hertfordshire (1524, now Cockfosters); compare the attributive use at Compounds 1c. Use to denote the penis. The association of the cockerel with sexual voracity, and hence with the (typically ithyphallic) male genitals, dates back to antiquity; see L. Y. Baird ‘Priapus gallinaceus: the role of the cock in fertility and eroticism in classical antiquity and in the middle ages’ in Stud. Iconogr. 7– 8 (1981–2 ) 81–111. In use denoting the penis (see sense A. 9a) probably further reinforced by a perceived similarity with the erectile properties of a cock's comb when the bird is sexually aroused, and also a resemblance between the scrotum and the bird's wattles. Compare (in the same sense) Danish regional kok (c1700), and German Hahn (1741; a parallel use of Hahn cockerel (see hen n.¹); also in the diminutive form Hähnchen ; much earlier currency is implied by the triple visual pun (tap ~ penis ~ cockerel) in Dürer's woodcut Das Männerbad (c1498)). Although it is earliest attested in compounds, currency of the word in uncompounded use in this sense in Middle English is implied by the following punning examples:a1450 in R. H. Robbins Secular Lyrics 14th & 15th Cent. (1952) 41 I haue a gentyl cook..& euery nyȝt he perchit hym in myn ladyis chaumbyr.?1518 Cocke Lorelles Bote sig. C.iij Many whyte nonnes with whyte vayles That was full wanton of theyr tayles To mete with Cocke they asked how to do.Earlier currency is either shown or implied by the following example from a seal matrix depicting an erect penis:c1300 Inscription on Seal Matrix in Norfolk Archaeol. 44 (2002) 135 ias.tidbavlcoc [i.e. James Tidbaul (= Theobald) cock].It is uncertain whether in this example coc is to be taken literally (in the sense ‘penis’) or whether it shows the hypocoristic suffix -cock (see discussion below), in which case the image would represent a visual pun. In sense A. 10 perhaps after French coquille female genitals (early 16th cent. in Middle French; transferred use of coquille cockle n.²). Use denoting a spout. In use denoting a spout or tap (see sense A. 15) apparently so called because the key of the tap was originally often fashioned in the form of a cockerel (as e.g. on a bronze aquamanile, cast in Nuremberg in c1400; with the semantic motivation compare French robinet tap, spigot: see robinet n.), in later use probably reinforced by association with the sense ‘penis’ (in its urinary function). Compare Middle French, French regional (Poitou, Champagne) coq (1573), Italian gallo (1556; obsolete in this sense), and Dutch haan (16th cent.; obsolete in this sense), Middle Low German hāne , German Hahn (1449), all in the sense ‘tap, spigot’. Use with reference to firearms. In sense A. 17 so called from its original shape resembling the profile of a cockerel; compare (in the same sense) Dutch haan (late 16th cent.), Middle Low German hāne , German Hahn (1568); compare also rare Middle French, French coq (16th cent.; obsolete in this sense; probably after German). (There is no connection with Italian cocca notch of an arrow: see cock n.⁹ and discussion at that entry.) Other specific senses. In sense A. 7a short for woodcock n., probably so called from the habit of the bird to perform its regular courtship display (with slow wingbeats and distinctive calls) at dusk and dawn; compare rode v.² 2. In sense A. 14 perhaps influenced by Welsh Romani kåk uncle (Romani kako ; apparently ultimately < an Indian language). In senses A. 16, A. 18, and A. 19, all of which denote projecting pieces of metal in various technical contexts, perhaps influenced by cock v.¹ II. Compare also Danish kok upright top or crest on something (c1700; obsolete in this sense). In use in clock- and watchmaking (see sense A. 19) probably after French coq (1641 in this sense); compare also German Hahn (19th cent. or earlier). In sense A. 20 perhaps short for cockee n. (although this is first attested slightly later). In sense A. 21 after cock-and-bull story at Phrases 1e(b). With attributive use in the sense ‘chief, pre-eminent’ (see Compounds 1c) perhaps compare earlier cock-horse n. 2. The hypocoristic suffix -cock. The relationship of the present word to the Middle English hypocoristic suffix -cock is uncertain and disputed. The suffix is widely attested as an element in (male and female) forenames from the late 12th cent. onwards, e.g. Salecoc (1193), Hellecoc (1202), Alecoc (1204), Adecok (1246), etc. (compare meacock n., nodcock n., Plotcock n.), and has sometimes been seen as deriving from cock n.¹ (perhaps compare branch A. IV.); however, it is probably more likely to show an alteration of -kin suffix after -ock suffix. See further P. McClure in Nomina 28 (2005) 5–42.