Press

Herring in the OED

SECOND EDITION 1989
boner
slang (orig. U.S.).
A mistake, a blunder.
1912 Amer. Mag. June 200/1 Boner a stupid play; a blunder in the science of the game. 1913 Ibid. Sept. 94/3 Got his signals mixed and pulled a boner. 1933 Passing Show 9 Dec. 9/3 Poor Carol... She made a boner to-night... Ronnie was simply livid. 1960 Spectator 7 Oct. 509 This Government has made about every boner possible.

DRAFT ADDITIONS JUNE 2006
boner, n.
slang (orig. U.S.). An erection of the penis. Hence fig.: a strong attraction to or state of excitement about something specified.
1962 C. SIGAL Going Away 68 The little dog used to raise a boner every time it walked into a room where Rickie was present. 1966 R. FARIÑA Been Down So Long It looks like Up to Me 283 She caught me with a boner, dammit, bound to stick in her memory, get her all screwed up. 1991 Village Voice (N.Y.) 26 Feb. 36/3, I had all the access an English major with a boner for rock could hope for. 2001 J. FRANZEN Corrections 269 What gave him the real techno boner, however, was a radio-controlled toy automobile, much advertised on television lately. 2003 R. HERRING Talking Cock 51 In the caves of Lascaux..some randy troglodyte etched this clearly human figure, with an even clearer boner.




DRAFT ENTRY Sept. 2006
scrote, n.
orig. Police slang and Prison slang. Now chiefly Brit.
A worthless or despicable person; a yob or hooligan. Also: the scrotum.
1975 D. CLEMENT & I. LA FRENAIS Porridge 2nd Ser. i. 140/1 D'you know I was only out the cell for half an hour, but in that time some scroat whipped the rest. 1975 J. WAMBAUGH Choirboys v. 33 If you ever backed down for even a moment in dealing with assholes and scrotes the entire structure of American law enforcement would crash to the ground. 1984 Social Probl. 32 148 Police commonly use negative stereotypes (e.g., ‘animals’, ‘scrotes’, ‘assholes’) in dealing with persons displaying specific attitudes, behaviors, or characteristics. 2003 R. HERRING Talking Cock 206 She managed to nick my scrote in a few places, which stung a bit, so I asked her to rub in some post shave balm. 2005 FHM Jan. 231/2 Easy-drinking French fizz lacking the ‘complexity’ of champagne, but it'll happily slide down the throats of ignorant Brit scrotes like us.


wood, n.
[Â…]
DRAFT ADDITIONS SEPTEMBER 2006
wood, n.1
slang (orig. Brit.). The penis; (now usually) an erection (chiefly in to get wood).
1985 B. MCCONVILLE & J. SHEARLAW Slanguage of Sex 278/1 Wood, the penis, especially if erect. First used by male blacks in the UK (from the 50s onwards). 1994 Top Ten in alt.supermodels (Usenet newsgroup) 9 Feb., Long legs and an athletic body, I'm getting wood thinking about her! 1996 Guardian (Nexis) 21 Mar. 17 Will..[he] be able to get it up or, to use the porn industry term, ‘get wood’? 2003 R. HERRING Talking Cock 156 The first inkling of what really causes men to get wood came in 1863 when Conrad Eckhard attached an electric current to nerves in the sacral spinal cord of a dog.