Cock

The cock has been connected with magic practice in various parts of the world throughout the ages. It is the herald of the dawn, and examples abound of assemblies of demons and sorcerers where its shrill cry, announcing daybreak, has put the infernal Sabbat to rout. It is said that to avert such a contingency, sorcerers used to smear the head and breast of the cock with olive oil or place around his neck a collar of vine-branches.

In many cases the future was divined through this bird. It was also believed that in its stomach was found a stone, called lappilus alectorius, from the Greek name of the bird, that gave strength and courage and is said to have inspired the gigantic might of Milo of Crotona in the sixth century B.C.E.

Originally a native of India, the cock arrived in Europe in early times via Persia, where it is alluded to in the Zoroastrian books as the beadle (messenger) of the sun and terror of demons. Among the Arabs, it was said that it crowed when it became aware of the presence of jinns. The Jews received their concept of the cock as a scarer of evil spirits from the Persians, as did the Armenians, who said that it greets the guardian angels with its clarion call, who descend to earth with the day, and that it gives the keynote to the angelic choirs of heaven to commence their daily round of song.

In India, too, and among the pagan Slavs, it was supposed to scare away demons from dwelling places and was the first living creature introduced into a newly built house. The Jews, however, believed that it was possible for the cock to become the victim of demons and that it should be killed if it upsets a dish.

The cock was used directly in magic practice. In Scotland, it was buried under the patient's bed in cases of epilepsy. The Germans believed that if a sorcerer threw a black cock into the air, thunder and lightning would follow, and among the Chams of Cambodia, a woman who wished to become a sorceress sacrificed a live cock on a termite's nest, cutting the bird in two from the head to the tail and placing it on an altar, in front of which she danced and sang in the nude until the two halves of the bird came together again and it came to life and crowed. The name of the cock was pronounced by the ancient Greeks as a cure for the diseases of animals, and it was said by the Romans that locked doors could be opened with its tail feathers. The bird was pictured on amulets in early times and also figured as the symbol of Abraxas, the principal deity of a Gnostic sect.

The cock was regarded as the guide of souls to the under-world, and in this respect was associated by the Greeks with Persephone and Hermes. The Slavs of pagan times sacrificed cocks to the dead and to the household serpents, in which they believed their ancestors to be reincarnated. Conversely, the cock was pictured as having an infernal connection, especially if its color was black. Indeed, it was employed in black magic, perhaps the earliest instance of this being in the Atharva Veda, an ancient Hindu scripture. A black cock was offered up to propitiate the Devil in Hungary, and a black hen was used for the same purpose in Germany. The Greek sirens, the Shedim of the Talmud, and the Izpuzteque, whom the dead Aztec encounters on the road to Mictlán, the Place of the Dead, all have cock's feet. Cocks are also sacrificed in the Voudou and Santeria ceremonies of the West Indian islands.

There is a widespread folk belief that once in seven years the cock lays a little egg. In Germany it is necessary to throw this over the roof, or tempests will wreck the homestead; but should the egg be hatched, it will produce a cockatrice or basilisk. In Lithuania the cock's egg should be put in a pot and placed in the oven. From this egg is hatched a kauks, a bird with a tail like that of a golden pheasant, which, if properly tended, will bring its owner great good luck. A chronicle of Basel in Switzerland mentions that in the month of August 1474 a cock in that town was accused and convicted of laying an egg and was condemned to death. He was publicly burned along with his egg, at a place called Kablenberg, in sight of a great multitude of people.

In Oldenburg, Germany, a black cock was used to divine witches. The heart, lungs, and liver were pierced with needles and placed in a sealed vessel over a fire, while everyone present kept strict silence. When the heart boiled or became ashes, the witch would be evident, since she would feel a burning pain in her body and beg to be released.

The cock was also regarded as having a connection with light and with the sun, probably because of the redness of his comb and the fiery sheen of his plumage, or perhaps because he heralds the day. It is the cock who daily wakens the heroes in the Scandinavian Asgard.

(See alectromancy )

cock¹ / käk/ • n. 1. a male bird, esp. a rooster. ∎  [in comb.] used in names of birds, esp. game birds, e.g.,moorcock. ∎  Brit. a male lobster, crab, or salmon.2. vulgar slang a penis.3. a firing lever in a gun which can be raised to be released by the trigger.4. a stopcock.• v. [tr.] 1. tilt (something) in a particular direction: she cocked her head slightly to one side. ∎  bend a (limb or joint) at an angle. ∎  (of a male dog) lift (a back leg) in order to urinate.2. raise the cock of (a gun) in order to make it ready for firing.PHRASES: at full cock (of a gun) with the cock lifted to the position at which the trigger will act.cock one's ear (of a dog) raise its ears to an erect position. ∎  (of a person) listen attentively to or for something.cock of the walk someone who dominates others within a group.cock a snooksee snook² .cock² • n. dated a cone-shaped pile of hay, straw, or other material.• v. [tr.] archaic pile (hay, straw, or other material) into such a shape.

cock proverbially protective of its hens and noted for aggression; the cock traditionally crows at first light or cockcrow, and is used in cockfighting.

A cock is the emblem of St Peter (see Peter1) and St Vitus.
cock-a-doodle-doo used to represent the sound made by a cock when it crows, and from this, a child's name for a cock.
cock and bull story an incredible tale, a false story; the expression ‘talk of a cock and a bull’ is recorded from the early 17th century, and apparently refers to an original story or fable, now lost.
Cock of the North, in a Jacobite song of c.1715, a nickname given to the Duke of Gordon.
cock-of-the-walk reflecting the dominance of the male bird, a person whose supremacy in a particular circle or sphere is undisputed; the phrase is recorded from the mid 19th century.
Cock Robin a familiar name for a male robin, especially in nursery rhymes.
every cock will crow upon his own dunghill everyone is confident and at ease on their home ground. The saying is recorded in English in the mid 13th century. A similar idea is found in Latin of the 1st century ad, in Seneca's ‘gallum in suo sterquilinio plurimum posse [the cock is most powerful on his own dunghill].’ The work, Apocolocyntosis, is a satire on Claudius's deification at his death, and as gallus means both a cock and a Gaul, Seneca is punning on Claudius's provincial origin and interests.
that cock won't fight that won't do; the expression, which refers to cockfighting, is recorded from the late 18th century.

cock 1 male domestic fowl OE.; male bird XIV; in various transf. applications, the earliest (XV) being ‘spout, tap’ paralleled by G. hahn cock; the latter, like Du. haan, is also used, as cock is (XVI), for the discharging mechanism of firearms. OE. cocc, kok = ON. kokkr, prob. f. medL. coccus, of imit. orig.; reinforced in ME. by (O)F. coq. The native Gmc. word is repr. by OE. hana (see HEN).
Hence cock vb. set or stick up (assertively) XVII; prob. from the attitude of fighting-cocks; whence a new sb. upward turn. XVIII.

cock 2 heap of hay. XIV. immed. source uncertain; perh. Scand. (cf. Norw. kok heap, lump, Da. dial. kok haycock, Sw. koka clod), but an OE. *cocc hill has been assumed for the place-names Cookham (Coccham VIII), Coughton (Cocton XIII).
Hence as vb. XIV.