The OED states (with abbreviations expanded): "Probably a derivative of Teutonic ball-, of which the Old English representative would be inferred as beall-u, -a, or -e".
From the 17th to the 19th century, bollocks or ballocks was allegedly used as a slang term for a clergyman, although this meaning is not mentioned by the OED's 1989 edition.
By the mid-17th century, at least, it had begun to acquire coarse figurative meanings (see § Bollocking), for example in a translation of works by Rabelais.
The results of this jointly commissioned research were published in December 2000 in a paper called "Delete Expletives?".
[9] A survey of the language of London teenagers (published in 2002) examined, amongst other things, the incidence of various swearwords in their speech.
[11] Some campaigners, particularly the Liberal Democrats, hoping to stop the UK's departure from the European Union adopted the slogan, "Bollocks to Brexit".
When queried about the propriety of the use of this term in Parliament in January 2019, the Speaker of the House, John Bercow ruled that the use of the word in Parliamentary speech was "not disorderly".
Another example is "I told Maurice that he was talking bollocks, that he was full of shit and that his opinions were a pile of piss.
Etymologist Eric Partridge and the Oxford English Dictionary believe the term comes from the now obsolete typographical sequence of a colon and a dash :-.
There is a beer brewed in England by the Wychwood Brewery called the Dog's Bollocks,[36] as well as a lager cocktail.
[40] Pinter used a similar phrase in an open letter, published in The Guardian, and addressed to Prime Minister Tony Blair, attacking his co-operation with American foreign policy.
The letter ends by saying "Oh, by the way, meant to mention, forgot to tell you, we were all chuffed to the bollocks when Labour won the election.
"[41] The 2007 Concise new Partridge dictionary of slang and unconventional English quotes "bollards" as meaning "testicles" and that it is a play on the word bollocks.
[47]Perhaps the best-known use of the term is in the title of the 1977 punk rock album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols.
Testimony in a resulting prosecution over the term demonstrated that in Old English, the word referred to a priest, and could also be used to mean "nonsense".
Defence barrister John Mortimer QC and Virgin Records won the case: the court ruled that the word was not obscene.
[1] In a summary for the defence, Mortimer asked, What sort of country are we living in if a politician comes to Nottingham and speaks here to a group of people in the city centre and during his speech a heckler replies "bollocks".
[49]Tony Wright, a Leicestershire trader, was given an £80 fixed penalty fine by police for selling T-shirts bearing the slogan "Bollocks to Blair".
This took place on 29 June 2006 at the Royal Norfolk Show; the police issued the penalty notice, quoting Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 which refers to language "deemed to cause harassment, alarm or distress".