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What is the origin of the word ‘codswallop’?

Posted on April 22, 2009

The word codswallop, primarily a British English term meaning “nonsense”, is an interjection of uncertain origin.

Popular etymology claims an ancient and vernacular origin for the word, with cod being interpreted as in codpiece. The wallop component can be referred to separately: Merriam-Webster gives it as the Middle English “walopen”, meaning to gallop.

Another popular etymology places the word’s origins in the brewing industry.[citation needed] In 1876, British soft drink maker Hiram Codd designed and patented a bottle designed specifically for fizzy drinks. Though his Codd-neck bottle was a success in the fizzy drink industry, alcohol drinkers disparaged Codd’s invention, often saying it was only good for “wallop” (a slang term for beer in the late-19th century).[citation needed] The term soon became “Codd’s Wallop” and was eventually used for anything of low-quality or rubbish. However, others argue that Hiram Codd’s drink, despite its popularity, is likely not the derivation, as the first recorded use of codswallop did not occur until the 1960s, over 90 years after the term for beer fell out of use. Also, if it were the derivation, we would expect to see it exist sometimes in the form of ‘Codd’s Wallop’ and for an intermediate spellings of ‘coddswallop’ to be found.

Contrary to the critics quoted above, many people with working class English ancestry recall the use of the term in the 1930s & 1940s in northern England.[citation needed]My father,Donald Hutcheson (1914-1998)used the words in the 1940’s and 50’s to mean rubbish, however I was made aware that there was a ‘rude’ conotation that he did not wish to elaborate on. I do not think that his sister Mary Whitehouse used the expression.

When cod was landed it went into the sheds for cleaning & preparation. The cold & wet waste trimmings from what were large fish would hit the ground with a distinctive sound, “wallop”. By association, the word codswallop became used for any significant amount of sloppy rubbish & from there, for signifcant spoken/written rubbish.

What is the origin of the word ‘codswallop’?

The story goes that a gentleman by the name of Hiram Codd patented a bottle for fizzy drinks with a marble in the neck, which kept the bottle shut by pressure of the gas until it was pressed inwards. Wallop was a slang term for beer, and Codd’s wallop came to be used by beer drinkers as a derogatory term for weak or gassy beer, or for soft drinks.

This theory has appeared in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, but there are problems with it. Codswallop is not recorded until the mid-20th century, rather a long time after Codd’s invention, and there are no examples of the spelling Codd’s wallop, which might be expected as an early form. These are not conclusive disproof of the theory – it is conceivable that the term circulated by word of mouth, like many slang terms, and that the connection with Codd’s bottle had been forgotten by the time that the term was written down – but they do shed doubt on the tale.

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