# Etymology of Chode (or Choad or Choda) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2001, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263 "2001-12-01T04:33:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GulDan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/22d042/32.png) [@GulDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GulDan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2001, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/1 "2001-12-01T04:33:39Z")
I’ve looked everywhere for the derivation of the word ‘Chode’ and have been unable to find it (not just the etymology, but the word itself). Any help would be greatly appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2001, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/2 "2001-12-01T04:47:53Z")
chode n or adj 1. a derogatory term. Notes: in many areas, refers to the portion of skip between the scrotum and anus. Therefore, being a chode is undesirable. In other areas, the word lacks a true translation, the closest equivalent being “moron.” (“You are such a chode!” or “You chode!”) Supplemental information provided by Ben Kirkham, Eau Claire, WI, USA, 4-6-97. Michael Venables adds the following: “My understanding of the origin of ‘chode’ runs something like this: while chode is used now for ‘moron’ its earlier use referred more to country bumpkins, hicks, or Okies. The main character of John Steinbeck’s classic Depression-era Okie novel The Grapes of Wrath is Tom Joad. We get ‘chode’ from ‘Joad’ due to poor enu nciation and ignorance of the source.” 2. a short, stubby penis from [http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wrader/slang/c.html](http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wrader/slang/c.html) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2001, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/3 "2001-12-01T06:52:29Z")
Hmm, the porn mags I’ve read (Hey! I was a convience store clerk, what the hell else am I gonna do? Wait on customers? Besides the cops _like_ when there’s an already opened copy in the store waiting for 'em.) choad was used as a synonym for semen. ---
**Author:** ![GulDan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/22d042/32.png) [@GulDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GulDan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2001, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/4 "2001-12-01T08:45:14Z")
I must admit that choad being a definition for semen is a new one for me. The only one’s that I’ve heard before are 1) skin between penis and anus, and 2) a short, squat, penis. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/5 "2001-12-02T02:06:21Z")
Lighter cites **choad** first in print in 1968, with a meaning at that time of “the penis.” He also cites the word **choan** from slightly later meaning “copulation.” The cite **Opus1** gave suggesting a derivation from the character **Joad** is unfounded, based upon Lighter not citing it. Yeah, I know. But unless the info provider can give a cite or some further info, it must be considered speculative. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/6 "2003-09-12T01:01:58Z")
It comes from the Hindustani word _cod_ (pronounced chode) meaning ‘fuck’. (Warning: this is a very rude word in Hindustani, so do not practice using it around your Indian friends unless they are, you know, really really good friends.) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/7 "2003-09-12T03:47:58Z")
**Jomo** I value your opinions on words that may have origins out of the mainstream US. I posted your reply above to the list over at the American Dialect Society, and Jesse Sheidlower, the editor of the US branch of the Oxford English Dictionary replied rather quickly, asking if you could suggest any logical way that the hindustani word entered the American teenager/young college student vocabulary in the 1960’s.? Any help here? ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/8 "2003-09-12T11:19:04Z")
I don’t know how authoritative this is, but from the [Jargon File](http://jargon.mu.nu/Archives/000334.html) on “choad”: > [@](#): > > Synonym for ‘penis’ used in alt.tasteless and popularized by the denizens thereof. They say: We think maybe it’s from Middle English but we’re all too damned lazy to check the OED. [I’m not. It isn’t. —ESR] This term is alleged to have been inherited through 1960s underground comics, and to have been recently sighted in the Beavis and Butthead cartoons. Speakers of the Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati languages have confirmed that ‘choad’ is in fact an Indian vernacular word equivalent to ‘fuck’; it is therefore likely to have entered English slang via the British Raj. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/9 "2003-09-12T11:35:58Z")
Also, “chaud” meant penis, in Polari, British gay slang dating back to around the 1950s. And “chaud’s mudge” meant foreskin. This would predate any US 1960s use, and provides a closer link to the British in India. [http://www2.prestel.co.uk/cello/Polari.htm](http://www2.prestel.co.uk/cello/Polari.htm) [http://www.thesisters.demon.co.uk/bible/lexicon.htm](http://www.thesisters.demon.co.uk/bible/lexicon.htm) [http://andrejkoymasky.com/lou/dic/c.html](http://andrejkoymasky.com/lou/dic/c.html) [http://www.geocities.com/gaylanguage/](http://www.geocities.com/gaylanguage/) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/10 "2003-09-12T12:12:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GulDan \* > **skin between penis and anus** No, no, the correct word for this is the “blarse” - because it’s not your bollocks, and it’s not your arse. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/11 "2003-09-12T15:46:59Z")
Chode is the past tense of chide, too. I got this from OED. ---
**Author:** ![alimarx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@alimarx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alimarx)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/12 "2003-09-12T15:51:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*No, no, the correct word for this is the “blarse” - because it’s not your bollocks, and it’s not your arse. 😃 \*\* I’ve heard this was called a “taint”, as in “'taint yer balls, 'taint yer butt”. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-chode-or-choad-or-choda/96263/13 "2003-09-14T03:40:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by refusal \* > \*\*Also, “chaud” meant penis, in Polari, British gay slang dating back to around the 1950s. And “chaud’s mudge” meant foreskin. This would predate any US 1960s use, and provides a closer link to the British in India. > > [http://www2.prestel.co.uk/cello/Polari.htm](http://www2.prestel.co.uk/cello/Polari.htm) > [http://www.thesisters.demon.co.uk/bible/lexicon.htm](http://www.thesisters.demon.co.uk/bible/lexicon.htm) > [http://andrejkoymasky.com/lou/dic/c.html](http://andrejkoymasky.com/lou/dic/c.html) > [http://www.geocities.com/gaylanguage/](http://www.geocities.com/gaylanguage/) \*\* **refusal**. If you can give me an actual cite of the term in print from the 1950’s or 1960’s in British works, I’d dearly love to see it. It doesn’t exist, IMHO. The sites you offer are rather modern and offer no actual cites from 1950-1980. Unless I missed it. There is NO evidence that it predates a 1960’s US usage. The American Dialect Society Mailing List is still actively discussing this. These guys, both US, British, and other, are pros. I’ll try to post further updates.