Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
codpiece. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
codpiece, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
codpiece in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
codpiece you have here. The definition of the word
codpiece will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
codpiece, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From cod (“bag, pouch, scrotum”) + piece.
Pronunciation
Noun
codpiece (plural codpieces)
- A part of male dress in the 15th and 16th centuries, worn in front of the breeches to cover the male genitals.
1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals): , Act III, Scene III, line 130.
- Borachio: Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion is, how giddily ’a turns about all the hot-bloods between fourteen and five-and-thirty, sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh’s soldiers in the reechy painting, sometime like god Bel’s priests in the old church-window, sometime like the shaven Hercules in the smirch’d worm-eaten tapestry, where his codpiece seems as massy as his club?
- A conspicuous protection for the male genitals in a suit of plate armor.
1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 21:On some suits were screwed large iron cod-pieces; these, according to tradition, were intended to prevent the ill consequences of those violent shocks received in charging, either in battle, or at a tournament. Same say, they were meant to contain sponges for receiving the water of knights, who in the heat of an engagement might not have any more convenient method of discharging it. But most probably, they were rather constructed in conformity to a reigning fashion in the make of the breeches of those times.
Translations
part of male dress to cover genitals
protection for the male genitals in suit of armor
See also