Words with Webster: Tocks, Plus Friendly Fill-Ins

We have two fun Friday features for you today. First up is Real Cat Webster, who has a cute anatomical word to share. After that, it’s on to Friendly Fill-Ins!

Words with Webster

Hi, everybody! It’s me, Real Cat Webster. Welcome to Words with Me. Today’s word is “tocks.” I think most of us know that “tocks” is a cute short term for “buttocks.” When I went to the dictionary to get the official definition, I found out that “tocks” isn’t even in there! Mommy uses, like, 12 different dictionaries for her job, and I looked up our word in all of them (even the medical dictionary!), and the only one that had it was the Urban Dictionary, which Mommy said is not the most authoritative source in the world—but hey, I had to use something, right? So, the Urban Dictionary’s top definition for “tocks” is

Slang for buttocks, particularly if the buttock of reference are teeny tiny or particularly cute.

Since our word comes from “buttocks,” I decided to use that word’s origins to get the deep history of “tocks.” So to the Oxford English Dictionary I went (yes, I looked up “tocks” there, and no, it wasn’t there). So, with the meaning “one of the two protuberances of the rump (of men and beasts). Usually in pl.,” our word first appeared in print way back in 1300 or thereabouts:

The heles atte buttokes, the kneon in aither eye. (Fragm. Popular Scottish, 320)

Whatever that means, right? There’s a quote from Chaucer (ca. 1405), but it sounded kind of dirty, so I decided to share this Shakespeare quote instead:

A Barbers chaire that fits all buttockes. (All’s Well That Ends Well, II.ii.16, ca. 1616)

Things got interesting—and confusing—when I tried to learn the origins of “buttock.” The OED says it’s from adding a suffix onto “butt,” but when I looked up “butt” (“the thicker end of anything”), it only showed up in print in the late 15th century, which is almost 200 years after “buttock.” And “butt” is “of obscure etymology.”

I took a nap then to clear my head, and when I woke up, I checked the Online Etymology Dictionary, which said that “buttocks” is

probably from Old English buttuc “end, short piece of land,” from Proto-Germanic butaz, from [Proto-Indo-European] root bhau- “to strike.”

By the time I read all about proto-this and proto-that, I couldn’t remember why I was looking up “buttocks” in the first place. Oh yeah.… It’s Tock-Tober!

  

Friendly Fill-Ins

And now it’s time for Friendly Fill-Ins, from 15andmeowing and McGuffy’s Reader. They are a fun way to learn a little bit about the authors of the blogs you read. The first two questions, answered by Real Cat Paisley this week, are from Ellen of 15andmeowing, and the next two, answered by old SoLT, are from Annie of McGuffy’s Reader.

Real Cat Paisley’s answers:

1. If I was a ghost, I would haunt Mommy, because she would probably enjoy it and I would like to still be around her. Also I would haunt the dog, because it would scare the bejesus out of her!

2. I always look cute and dainty when I drink out of our water fountain.

Old SoLT’s answers:

3. My favourite scary story is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

4. I will be so glad when it finally cools off for the season. This fall has had way too many 80-degree days!