Definition of cock

The word "cock" has a rich history dating back to Old English and Germanic roots. In Old English, the word "coc" or "cok" referred to a rooster, a male chicken, or a peacock. This is also the source of the Middle English word "cock" meaning a male gallinule, a type of domestic fowl. The word "cock" also has a nautical connotation, as a "cock" was a type of mast or spar on a ship. Additionally, in the 17th century, "cock" referred to the shape of a vessel's funnel as in "funnel-shaped cock." The modern usage of "cock" as a slang term for a male's genitalia is believed to have originated in the 17th-18th centuries in England, possibly due to the resemblance of the appendage to a rooster's comb.