"Bollocks" is a word of Anglo Saxon origin, meaning "testicles". The word is often used figuratively in English, as a noun to mean "nonsense" or conversely to mean "top quality" or "perfection", an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, and an adjective to mean "poor quality" or "useless". In this respect, the term could be said to be a contranym. Similarly, the common phrases "Bollocks to that!" or "That's a load of old bollocks" express a distaste for a certain task, subject or opinion; "the dog's bollocks" expresses the opposite, namely admiration, pleasure or approval.

Perhaps the best-known use of the term is in the title of the 1977 punk rock album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Testimony in a resulting prosecution over the "obscene" term demonstrated that in Old English the word referred to a priest, and could also be used to mean "nonsense".

The word has a long and distinguished history, with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) giving examples of its usage dating back to the 13th century. One of the early references is John Wycliffe's Bible (1382), Leviticus xxii, 24: "Al beeste, that ... kitt and taken a wey the ballokes is, ye shulen not offre to the Lord..." (any beast that is cut and taken away the bollocks, you shall not offer to the Lord, i.e. castrated animals are not suitable as religious sacrifices).

The OED states (with abbreviations expanded): "Probably a derivative of Teutonic ball-, of which the Old English representative would be inferred as beall-u, -a, or -e".

The Teutonic ball- in turn probably derives from the Proto-Indo-European base *bhel-, to inflate or swell. This base also forms the root of many other words, including "phallus".

From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, bollocks or ballocks was allegedly used as a slang term for a clergyman, although this meaning is not mentioned by the OED's 1989 edition. For example, in 1864, the Commanding Officer of the Straits Fleet regularly referred to his chaplain as "Ballocks". It has been suggested that bollocks came to have its modern meaning of "rubbish" because clergymen were notorious for talking rubbish during their sermons.[1]


[edit] Alternative spellings
"Ballock" is a variation of "bollock", which was in everyday usage in the medieval period, albeit rarely heard today. The connection with "ball" in the sense of "testis" is evident.

The word is sometimes spelled as bollox or bollix usually in order to make it appear less vulgar. In this case its meaning is "to bungle", for example, "The project was going well, but my boss bollixed it up." This is the sense in which the term "bollix" is generally used in American English, where the term "bollocks" is generally known only from the title of the Sex Pistols album, and its original meaning is almost unknown. "Bollixed up" is sometimes considered an out-of-date expression[citation needed] that has largely been replaced by phrases such as "screwed up," as the latter term has gradually lost most of its previously vulgar connotation. This spelling remains current in Ireland, however, for example in the phrase "You're a bollix" (fool or unpleasant person).

"Bollix" may also be used to refer to a particularly nasty or awkward person, particularly in Ireland, as in "He's a right Bollix".

A modern folk etymology claims that the correct singular of the word should not be "bollock", but rather "pillock", commonly used as another British English insult (though usually without the testis connotation). However, it appears that this is erroneous, and that the two words are connected only by similarities in the spelling. Both "pillock" and "cock" are probably shortened forms of the Middle English "pillicock", a slang term for "penis".


[edit] Severity
The relative severity of the various profanities, as perceived by the British public, was studied on behalf of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, BBC and Adve

Liam Murphy(1946-) is a full time WIT lecturer, sexual vanilla, bollocks and part time play critisizer, he is best known for his formation in 1982 along with Elliot Payne of the pop-rock group "Sexual Cockney Vanilla", this band was hugely unsuccesful, releasing only two demos, one entitled "John-Joe is a penis" and the other " Shiney Arse", though this time was " a great time for the lads" they made little money and had to go back to full time employment.
Sexual Vanilla is best known for his personality, hairy arse, rambling stories and infectious catchphrase "oh shit"


(Up yours Wikipedia, u shits for deleting this)