One of the more unusual idioms in English is cock n bull or things referred to as cock and bull stories. In the earliest manner in which they were used, these were not slang phrases. Cock is the male rooster and the bull is the male cow. A cock n bull story, tale or excuse is one that is false, meant to impress, fairytalesque, or hard to believe. Its first written use occurs in the early 17th century.
There’s some dispute on origin of this idiomatic phrase. Many believe that the cock n bull story is tied directly to two inns in England called the The Cock and The Bull. These may have existed before the 17th century and both were inns where coaches of travelers stopped for refreshment prior to journeying farther. One practice that can be traced even farther back than the existence of these inns is that of travelers making up tales to entertain each other during exceedingly long rides. This idea is fully explored in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, where each traveler tells a tale in order to impress or delight the others.
This business of telling tales at inn stops or along the road could make journeys far less tedious, and people studying literature see its repetition in numerous novels where coach rides are featured. Charles Dickens very frequently used coaches as moment when exposition occurs or when tales are told. Sometimes tales of coaches are relayed instead in other venues, and they could be so fantastical, that they were clearly unlikely to be believed. Another interpretation of cock n bull is that it refers to all fiction; some people of certain religious beliefs refused to read novels or viewed them as simply lying for pleasure.
A second origin story exists for the expression cock n bull. It could be that this is a poor translation of the French idiom coq-a-l’ane, which may translate as rooster to donkey. This may have been translated incorrectly into English as cock n bull because the sounds are similar.
Today the expression may be used more pejoratively to cast doubt on any stories that seem too unreal to be true. This is especially the case when a fantastical story is used to justify why homework or some other task wasn’t completed. When the cock n bull story is used as an excuse, it may simply be dismissed as outright lies. Yet the original intent of the idiom was more for entertainment instead of deception. In this respect, the quality of the cock n bull story was judged by its deceit, and the more fantastical or silly, the better.
