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Cock and bull story

English phrase

English phrase

"Cock and bull story" is an English-language idiom for a far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity. It is often used to describe a description of events told by someone who is being deceitful or giving an excuse, perhaps unconvincingly. The first recorded use of the phrase in English was in John Day's 1608 play Law-trickes or Who Would Have Thought It:

The inns on Watling Street

The Cock and the Bull inns in Stony Stratford were staging posts for rival coach lines on Watling Street, the LondonBirmingham turnpike road. It is said that local people, regarding the passengers staying at the inns as a source of news, were told fanciful stories; there was even rivalry between the two inns as to who could tell the most outlandish story.{{cite web |access-date=5 March 2021

According to another source, the rival inns were in Fenny Stratford, a nearby town also on Watling Street, but no such hostelries exist there today.

There is no reliable support for the Watling Street etymology of the phrase and it is disputed as folk etymology.

Notes

References

References

  1. Day, John. (1608). "Law-trickes'' or ''Who Would Have Thought It".
  2. {{National Heritage List for England
  3. {{National Heritage List for England
  4. (1936). "The Old Towns of England". [[Batsford Books]].
  5. Martin, Gary. (11 December 2023). "A cock and bull story".
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