I've "bollixed" it all up

Hi S'Fool - It looks to me like the "date" for bollix is debatable. I did some quick checking and found 1937 but I also saw a possible Irish origin as well as middle and old English. I suggest if you don't hear from pdr in this thread to pm her and/or ask Medievalist for an opinion.

Isn't it amazing what we're all learning! Puma

S'Fool said:

Help!

I used the word bollix in my Victorian novel as meaning: bungled, FUBARed, totally messed up.

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Sorry, etymology has bollixed this up for you. All the variants on this have first citations in the 20th century: bollocksed, ballocksed, bolluxed, bollixed.

Puma said:

Hi S'Fool - It looks to me like the "date" for bollix is debatable. I did some quick checking and found 1937 but I also saw a possible Irish origin as well as middle and old English.

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Whoever said that deserves a ballocking. (Or a bollocking, whichever.) It's a 20th-century word. There are no earlier citations in the OED, and it's certainly not in the corpus of Middle English literature, let alone Old Irish or Anglo-Saxon.

Until the 20th century, "bollock/ballock" only meant "testicle".

After speaking with and English friend of mine, he has informed me that bollucks (or however it is spelled) is considered a very dirty word in England today. I am not sure of the historical implications but he was rather impressed with my use of the term in our recent conversation. I am learning to swear in as many languages as possible.

That's a load of bollocks, Weren! Meaning garbage, extremely low quality, or blatantly untrue. "I got off with this model last night, had a few drinks, ended up at her place, stayed the night." Bollocks! You lying sod!

Bollocks is used in casual everyday conversation so classifying it as a very dirty word doesn't quite ring true. No, you probably wouldn't want to employ it in polite company, e.g. at the dinner table with the board of directors as they're sizing you up for an exec job, but in lesser social situations it's unlikely to raise eyebrows.

"The dog's bollocks" is actually a compliment -- referring to something that's so good you'd want to lick it! "The lucky bugger's got a new motor, it's the dog's bollocks, a real babe magnet."

Sorry S'Fool, slight derail.

-Derek

S'Fool said:

For my Victorians I'm going with "a complete hash of the role" rather than "would bollix up the role" or whatever I originally wrote.

Waits warily for OED comments concerning "hash."

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You're good. There's a reference from 1833 from John Cardinal Newman of all people: "Froude writes up to me that we have made a hash of it."

Both chronologically accurate and squeaky-clean!

dpaterso said:

"The dog's bollocks" is actually a compliment -- referring to something that's so good you'd want to lick it! "The lucky bugger's got a new motor, it's the dog's bollocks, a real babe magnet."

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Now if that doesn't conjure up a happy image...

Bollixed is defined as messing up.

Bollocks refers to a bull's testicles.

I know Bollixed was in use during WW2 and no doubt in WW1. I realise this doesn't help for the Victorian Era, but may have been in use in the military during that time.

I have had a happy pint of Guinness or three in a quaint Irish Public House called "The Dog's Bollix".

I agree with Derek re it's use. I think it is used also in "Coronation St" from time to time - that quintessential Northern England soap opera.

Why don't you...

keep the online etymological dictionary open as you work s'fool? The url is in our HISTORICAL RESOURCES stickied at the top of this message board. It will help you check up a word before you use it.