bollix

madmouth simple past form should definitely be bollixt
May 14, 2009

reesetee Chief O'Brien played a bad guy on a TV program I watched just the other night. If only I could remember what it was.... Dec 10, 2008

bilby "In Court No. 4 at the Four Courts, a woman who alleged a serious verbal assault was in the witness box, and was asked by defence counsel:
'Can you tell the court what the defendant said?'
Woman: 'I'm a respectable woman; I couldn't possibly say those words in public.'
Kindly Judge: 'Perhaps it might preserve everone's dignity if the witness wrote the alleged word on a piece of paper.'
Having been given the piece of paper and a pen, the woman still appeared to be in difficulty, and the judge intervened to ask her: 'Is everything alright?'
To which the redoubtable Dublin woman replied:
'Is there one or two 'L's in bollix?'"
- Overheard In Dublin.
Dec 10, 2008

chained_bear I love Start-Rek! :) Also, let me take this opportunity to plug my list about testicles.

You're welcome. Dec 9, 2008

sionnach Orthography matters, people!

The verb is spelled "to bollix something (up)"
bollocks is a noun, which can either mean 'testicles' or 'rubbish'.

e.g. That's a load of bollocks.

The major kick in the bollocks left the plucky marsupial so bollixed up he had to get neuticles. Dec 9, 2008

yarb No - I have heard Irish people other than Keane use bollix to refer to bollocks, as in testicles. The American sense is indeed "bollocks up", "make a mess of", but bollix can actually mean your nuts in Ireland. Keane was perfectly correct to use it thus.

No-one's saying it makes sense (though I think it does), or that Irish expressions have to make sense, or indeed that expressions from any other part of the world need do so. What doesn't make much sense here is Keane's exhortation to McCarthy to stick it up his bollix. See also the Guns n' Roses song (I forget which) from one of the Use Your Illusion albums where Axl invites the listener to "suck my ass".

I like the citation from Chief O'Brien - a grievously under-cited Start-Rek character in my opinion.

Edit: the GnR song is Shotgun Blues. The subject of Axl's invitation appears to be unidentified record company executives:

"And you - you can suck my ass,
and I think it's so low-class.
Me - I'm just so concerned,
I'm still waitin' for your ass to burn." Dec 9, 2008

joxer66 the context yarb uses here is incorrect. Keanes use of the word bollix here is literally you can stick it in you ballocks - ballocks being another term for the male appendage. Irish expressions do not have to make sense and there is a certain poetic licence taken for the most part.

For an example by an irsh person of its (american) correct sense check out colm meaney in a start rek episode who couldnt put some techno gear together and in frustration throws the equipment away "ah this is bollixed" Dec 9, 2008

yarb "Mick, you're a liar; you're a fucking wanker. I didn't rate you as a player, I don't rate you as a manager, and I don't rate you as a person. You're a fucking wanker and you can stick your World Cup up your arse. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country! You can stick it up your bollix."

- Then captain of the Irish football team, Roy Keane, to national team manager Mick McCarthy, prior leaving the squad in Saipan, at World Cup 2002. Nov 16, 2007

skipvia My first exposure to this word was in Mad Magazine, in a parody of the beautiful spiritual "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen." To my deepest regret I remember it to this day.

"Nobody knows the bollix I've made.
Nobody knows my bungle." Oct 9, 2007