The story
- Latin · derived fromcōleus“sack, scrotum”
- Vulgar Latin · derived from*cōleōnem
- Old French · derived fromcoillon“testicle, vile fellow, coward, dupe”
- Middle English · inherited fromcoilon
- English todaycullion
From Middle English coilon, borrowed from Old French coillon (“testicle, vile fellow, coward, dupe”), from Vulgar Latin *cōleōnem, from Latin cōleus (“sack, scrotum”). Doublet of culeus and cojones.
Words from the same roots
Latincōleus all →
coleus
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.