poppycock
nonsense
TRANSLATION
der Quatsch
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
“The hon. Gentleman is talking POPPYCOCK. He knows perfectly well that about two thirds of the people covered by wages councils are paid more than the minimum wage set by those councils.”
(Michael Forsyth, Minister of State in the House of Commons on Tuesday 7 July 1992)
(Michael Forsyth, Minister of State in the House of Commons on Tuesday 7 July 1992)
Did you
know?
poppycock
Poppycock means nonsense; rubbish; senseless chatter.
Many people use this word without knowing its unpleasant origin. Poppycock comes from Dutch pappekak, which literally means "soft feces." (die Fäkalien) The pappe- in Dutch pappekak supposedly goes back to a Latin baby-talk word for "soft food," while the -kak derives from Latin cacare, meaning "to defecate" - and yes, it's a linguistic relative of English "caca." The first recorded use of poppycock was in 1865 when a writer noted:
"You won't be able to find such another pack of poppycock gabblers as the present Congress of the United States."
Note: Poppycock is not linked to the sense of cock for rubbish (as in phrases like that's a load of old cock), this is a shortened form of “cock and bull story”, which comes from a fable concerning a bull and a cockerel.
Poppycock means nonsense; rubbish; senseless chatter.
Many people use this word without knowing its unpleasant origin. Poppycock comes from Dutch pappekak, which literally means "soft feces." (die Fäkalien) The pappe- in Dutch pappekak supposedly goes back to a Latin baby-talk word for "soft food," while the -kak derives from Latin cacare, meaning "to defecate" - and yes, it's a linguistic relative of English "caca." The first recorded use of poppycock was in 1865 when a writer noted:
"You won't be able to find such another pack of poppycock gabblers as the present Congress of the United States."
Note: Poppycock is not linked to the sense of cock for rubbish (as in phrases like that's a load of old cock), this is a shortened form of “cock and bull story”, which comes from a fable concerning a bull and a cockerel.
