Talk:Codswallop

What's with the sentence dangling at the very bottom of this entry?Ian Glenn 22:50, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

I always heard that the Codd bottle sometimes came supplied with a wooden opener, a cap with a dowel in it. You set the cap on top of the bottle and gave it a 'wallop' to open it. This etymology seems a lot more likely than the current Wikipedia version that has permeated the internet. There certainly seems to be no link between the word "wallop" and "rubbish" or bad quality, though the word itself means exactly what it says.

Here are some links that might be of interest, including a couple with a pictures of the opener.

http://www.bygonz.co.uk/codds.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Codd

http://www.go-star.com/antiquing/codd.htm

http://bottlediggers.netfirms.com/codds.html opener at that bottom

http://www.asiagrocery.com/sodapop.html modern version

http://www.bottlebooks.com/Codd/an_act_of_codd.htm

Thegallery (talk) 04:25, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

North American variant?
Evidently this has North American variants hogswallop, hog swallop, hog's wallop. At least, I confirm that in my own dialect I have this word, which means the same thing as "codswallop". Google finds 614 examples of "hogswallop", 262 examples of "hog swallop", and 4 examples of hog's wallop—with quotation marks around each search. -- Evertype·✆ 19:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

dictionary def
There is no substance in this "article" it should go .... Abtract (talk) 19:06, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I disagree with this. It is one of 35 articles about interjections. There is "substance" in it. No reason to delete. -- Evertype·✆ 20:03, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
 * It has a reference to the BBC site. That's not a reference? -- Evertype·✆ 22:07, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Have you read the BBC site? It says nothing of substance. Abtract (talk) 22:11, 11 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Isn't this an 'idiom' or at least an expression? I would hope Wikipedia has a place for this, if even a couple of you think it doesn't have 'substance'. My main concern though is about the truth of the term's history, because now there are a couple on the homepage and neither of them seems to be anything more than rumor. My version (at the top) has no more legitmacy as yet, but at least it seems to make more sense than what is listed. I have no doubt some bottle books of the past, or collectors perhaps, could help verify where the term came from. Thegallery (talk) 16:12, 12 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I goes in Wiktionary. Every word has an origin and etymology. Does WP do them all? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.19.159.213 (talk) 03:02, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

walloping the bottle to open it
I was told yesterday (while visiting the Black Sheep brewery) that these bottles were usually used for lemonade. When children wanted to displace the marble (but lacked the proper tool), the only way was with inertia; you'd bring the bottle down hard on its base, it would stop suddenly, but the marble wouldn't, thereby releasing the pressure. Much of the lemonade would spray out, and the resulting (often deliberate) soaking of nearby friends in lemonade would be referred to as "a codswallop". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.171.29 (talk) 02:43, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

I'd point the previous unsigned commenter to my initial post about the "wallop" being used to open the Codd bottle. I don't claim to be an expert, but the Codd itself started off as a normal bottle for carbonated beverages (lemonade) with a marble for a seal. When it was opened and the pressure was released the marble would fall quickly to the bottom and sometimes crack the whole thing. So initially they started making the bottom super thick to avoid the breakage. Next the pinch was added so the marble only fell a short distance. The problem with that though is every time you went to pour or drink the marble would quickly fall and seal the bottle again. The solution was to add dimple above the pinch to 'catch' the marble as you poured. I'm guessing much of the information is in the 'codd' listing, but I haven't looked. Thegallery (talk) 16:10, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

bollocks?
I was raised in london and the phrase "sweating my cods off" is used, meaning sweating my bollocks off, meaning i am very hot. Is this not a rhyming slang, cods wallop - bollock? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.7.253 (talk) 17:43, 28 May 2009 (UTC)