yarbles
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈjɑː(ɹ)bəlz/
Forms: form: yarble
form: yarblockos
Etymology: Yarbles was coined by Anthony Burgess in 1962, when he introduced it as slang for "testicles" within the invented dialect Nadsat of his dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange. The word is generally understood to be a derivation from Russian яблоко (jabloko, “apple”), owing to the variant form "yarblockos" used within the same novel. Jabloko does not have the equivalent vulgar connotation among Russian speakers, although яйца (jajca, literally “eggs”) does, which may have influenced the word. Green's Dictionary of Slang posits an possible alternate origin as yarb + balls: a combination of the antiquated, sometimes-derogatory English dialect word "yarb" with the vulgar colloquialism "balls". Others have suggested a connection to marbles via the methods of English rhyming slang.
Senses: examples: text: "Come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly, thou."
ref: 1962, Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange, 1st edition, London: William Heinemann, page 16:
text: I mean, who could ever forget the touching moment in [The] Monster Squad when a pre-teenager kicks the Wolfman in the nuts and utters the classic line "The Wolfman has yarbles!"
ref: 1988 March, Ed Naha, “1987: The Movies”, in Science Fiction Chronicle, volume 9, number 6, New York: Algol Press, →ISSN, page 40:
glosses: Testicles.
examples: text: "I'm not worried. This kid's got giant yarbles."
"Giant yarbles make bigger targets," I say. "Maybe he ought to wear more than a loincloth."
Ockham laughs. Slaps me on the back. "Didn't know you had a sense of humor, chief."
ref: 2010, David Macinnis Gill, Black Hole Sun, 1st pbk. edition, New York: Greenwillow Books, published 2012, →ISBN, page 142:
synonyms: word: balls
word: bollocks
word: cojones
word: guts
word: nerve
word: chutzpah
word: audacity
word: balls
word: bield
word: boldhead
word: boldness
word: bravehood
word: braveness
word: bravery
word: courage
word: courageousness
word: daring
word: fearlessness
word: grit
word: guts
word: heart
word: intrepidity
word: intrepidness
word: mood
word: nerve
word: ovaries
raw_tags: for women
word: pecker
word: pluck
word: spunk
word: steel
word: undauntedness
word: valour
glosses: Courage, fortitude, or machismo.
examples: text: Well, my droogs, this is a load of yarbles. Right now at New World Stages, a risible British adaptation of A Clockwork Orange is doing a bit of the old ultraviolence to its audience.
ref: 2017 September 25, Helen Shaw, “A Clockwork Orange”, in Time Out, New York:
synonyms: word: bollocks
word: horseshit
word: absurdity
word: all my eye
word: all my eye and Betty Martin
word: applesauce
word: bafflegab
word: balderdash
word: balls
word: baloney
word: banana oil
word: Bandini
word: baragouin
word: batcrap
word: batshit
word: bilgewater
word: blah
word: blather
word: blatherskite
word: bobbins
word: bollocks
word: bosh
word: BS
word: bull
word: bullcrap
word: bulldust
word: bull feathers
word: bullshit
word: bullspeak
word: bunk
word: bunkum
word: bushwah
word: clamjamfrey
word: claptrap
word: cobblers
word: codswallop
word: crap
word: crock
word: crock of shit
word: double Dutch
word: double talk
word: doublespeak
word: dribble
word: drivel
word: eyewash
word: fiddle-faddle
word: flapdoodle
word: flim-flam
word: flizz
word: flummery
word: folderol
word: foolishness
word: footle
word: framis
word: fuckery
word: fuckry
word: fudge
word: galimatias
word: garbage
word: garble
word: gibber
word: gibberish
word: gobbledygook
word: gossip
word: Greek
word: guff
word: gup
word: hoax
word: hocus-pocus
word: hogwash
word: hokum
word: hooey
word: horsefeathers
word: horse hockey
word: horse piss
word: horse puckey
word: horseshit
word: humbug
word: Irish bull
word: jabber
word: jargon
word: jibber-jabber
word: jimjam
word: jive
word: junk
word: lallation
word: macaroni
word: malarkey
word: manure
word: meaninglessness
word: moonshine
word: mumbo jumbo
word: nertz
word: nonsense
word: pie in the sky
word: piffle
word: pigswill
word: poppycock
word: prattle
word: put-on
word: rhubarb
word: rhubarb rhubarb
word: rigmarole
word: rot
word: rubbish
word: ruse
word: santorum
word: shit
word: shite
word: skimble-skamble
word: squit
word: stuff
word: stuff and nonsense
word: tommy-rot
word: tosh
word: tush
word: trash
word: tripe
word: twaddle
word: wass
word: whiff-whaff
word: word salad
glosses: Nonsense; something of unacceptably poor quality.
examples: text: James Brown looked a tool on C4's Withnail Weekend. Brown's crew at Loaded was credited with inventing the Withnail drinking game "I Demand to Have Some Booze". Utter yarbles. Fact: the game, where viewers simultaneously enjoy beverages identical to those consumed by characters on screen, was introduced by a journalist on the Evening Standard's London Life section in the mid-1980s.
ref: 1999 August 1, “Pandora”, in The Independent, London:
synonyms: bollocks
bullshit
misinformation
glosses: Information that is false or otherwise misleading.