pillicock

plural pillicocks · alternative pilicock · alternative pillicocke · alternative pelicock · alternative pillycock

1. archaicA penis.

   Edg. Pilicock sate on pelicocks hill, a lo lo lo.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene xi]

   2 more examples

   Al þus eld me for-dede... Y ne mai no more of loue done,

   a. 1325, "Elde" in the Kildare Poems

   Edgar, riffing on the sound of the word ‘pelican’, jumps to an old nursery rhyme which starts with the word ‘Pillicock’. He omits the second line, favouring gibberish instead—or a hunting cry? The full couplet is: Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill If he's not gone, he sits there still.

   2013, Nick Buchanan, What Happens in Shakespeare's, King Lear, page 248

   Synonyms: penis

2. endearingobsoleteA boy or man.

   A pillicocke, a darling, or a wanton, or a minion.

   1598, John Florio, A Worlde of Wordes