My grandmother and I were chatting about a friend of hers and the friend’s new grandbaby. “Poor thing is just as ugly as a dick,” grandma said. I was shocked, but I didn’t say anything. She went on, not even noticing I’d reacted to that word.
My grandmother is not one to use a vulgarity-- she has colorful language at times, but I’ve * never* heard her use any slang terms in reference to genitalia or sexual matters, or to speak of them casually.
Considering that, I didn’t want to embarass her by asking what she meant by “dick”-- she certainly didn’t mean “penis”. (I actually think she wouldn’t have said the word if she thought it had that connotation.)
So, what in the world could she have meant? Have you ever heard anyone else use that phrase?
Dick used to mean detective. Like in the W. C. Fields movie The Bank Dick. Maybe she was thinking of W. C. Fields.
Dick means ‘fat’ in German. Not the substance fat, but the fat physique. (Related to English “thick.”) That’s why Philip K. Dick called his alterego “Horselover Fat.”
“Milch cow” isn’t German-English, it’s been an English expression since the days of King Alfred or thereabouts.
English has always had that palatal variation where the same root can produce a “k” sound in one word, and when it’s palatalized by a following “e” or “i”, it can also produce a “ch” sound. Compare “speak” and “speach,” or “stink” and “stench.” Also “book” and “beech.” In ancient Germanic times, books were written on beech bark. Likewise, the Latin word for book, liber, originally meant the inner bark of a tree.
“Milk” comes from Old English meolc or milc. “Milch” comes from an inflected form of this Old English word, milce. Another example is “witch”, from the Old English word wicca but given a feminine ending, wicce. The modern revival of the word Wicca has given us another of these pairs. The palatalization of c by the following e gave the same results in Italian as in Old English.
I see what you’re saying, but it is also German-- “milch” is German for “milk.” Since my Grandma doesn’t speak Old English ( ) I’m going to have to stick with the assumption that it came from the strong German influence in this area.
Thanks for the info, though. It’s always interesting learning the origins of our language. Did you study Old English?
'I just Googled “The Ugly Dickling” and read the whole thing. A charming, if somewhat off-beat (Hee) story, although it has a sad climax. I give it four weenies.
I grew up on a farm, but never heard of anyone with a flock of penises. Probably the NorthEast Ohio winters were just too much for them, and if they were ever there, they shrunk to nothing. (Another hee) They probably extended in the Southern states.
Well, I have to go search the internet now. I really want one of those ‘Fractal Dick Generators’.
I think “ugly as a duck” is a much more common expression than “ugly as a dick.”
You know the old drinking song, right?
There’s also an old European car that looked like it was made with tin-snips and cast-off sheet-metal, (the Citroen 2 CV,) colloquially referred to as an “Ugly Duck,” in the same way that a Volkswagon Beetle is called a “Bug.”
Maybe Granny was frightened by a flasher at a young age and she still thinks they’re so ugly that she makes an exception to her no swearing rule.
And a baby with a duck’s head on it might be thought to be cute by Donald or Daisy, but probably not by many humans.
Anyway I recommend “The Ugly Dickling” to one and all.
) I’m going to have to stick with the assumption that it came from the strong German influence in this area.
