The following podcast contains explicit language.

From New York City, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.

I'm John McWhorter and let's say we're in Jamaica.

I was not too terribly long ago.

And I remember I was sitting in a cab and I saw a sign.

I saw a billboard on the street.

And it was advertising cock soup.

Really?

Cock soup.

I found myself thinking as I passed it, there is no way that the mother in that

picture is giving her child penises floating in broth.

There's just no way.

And so then I had to think to myself, oh, wait a minute.

Wait, different English.

And so I guess in Jamaica and probably other places, cock still can mean chicken.

And so it's chicken soup.

Cock soup, chicken soup.

And then I thought, well, wait a minute.

Isn't there something like in Scotland that's soup called cockleaky?

Once again, that couldn't be penises leaking.

It's chicken and leaks, which actually looks pretty good.

I think I'm going to try that.

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