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“Bollocks” (not to be confused with the word “bollix,” meaning “to make a mess of”) is a fine old Anglo Saxon word, which means, among other things, testicles. “The dog’s bollocks” is a term which originally appears to have come out of the printing industry, and refers to the now-abandoned habit, when introducing a list, of putting a dash after a colon, to create this vivid shape :-
It is, therefore, a very early example of an emoticon. Presumably a smiley one, given the context in which it came to be used.
“The dog’s bollocks” is a term which originally appears to have come out of the printing industry, and refers to the now-abandoned habit, when introducing a list, of putting a dash after a colon, to create this vivid shape :-
but the dog's bollocks means something brilliant; what's brilliant about a list?
QI suggested both "dog's bollocks" and "bog standard" were derived from some board game that was sold in both "box deluxe" and "box standard" versions“The dog’s bollocks” is a term which originally appears to have come out of the printing industry, and refers to the now-abandoned habit, when introducing a list, of putting a dash after a colon, to create this vivid shape :-
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