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Nov 28, 2024
This week’s themeWords that sound dirty, but aren’t This week’s words autogamy nudifidian titman cocky pussivant
“As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating!”
Gaston in Beauty and the Beast Video: Disney
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargcocky
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
adjective: Brashly confident.
ETYMOLOGY:
From cock, from Old English cocc (rooster). Earliest documented use: 1549.
NOTES:
If you’ve ever heard a rooster strutting his stuff and crowing
like it owns the barnyard, you’ll understand how the word cocky means
what it means. Once used to describe a lecherous man, it now refers to
someone with arrogance turned up to eleven. Think of it as the verbal
equivalent to a rooster with his chest puffed out and a strut that says,
“Yeah, I’m all that.” Also see:
cockalorum,
cock-a-hoop, and
cock of the walk.
USAGE:
“‘We were so cocky, because we were so popular,’ [Randall] Park said.” Hua Hsu; Late Shift; The New Yorker; Feb 27, 2023. See more usage examples of cocky in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Normal is the average of deviance. -Rita Mae Brown, writer (b. 28 Nov 1944)
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