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Merkin vs Codpiece - What's the difference?

merkin | codpiece |

As nouns the difference between merkin and codpiece

is that merkin is a woman's pubic wig. Worn for nude stage appearances and by women after shaving their pubic hair (originally to eliminate lice, etc.; now often as a fashion item) while codpiece is a part of male dress in front of the breeches to cover the male genitals, sometimes made very conspicuous in former times.

merkin

English

Etymology 1

1617, probably a variant form of malkin.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A woman's pubic wig. Worn for nude stage appearances and by women after shaving their pubic hair (originally to eliminate lice, etc.; now often as a fashion item).
  • A mop for cleaning cannon.

    • See also

    (wikipedia merkin) (merkins) * codpiece * vonk

    Etymology 2

    From the similar pronunciation to American .

    Alternative forms

    * 'merkin, Merkin, 'Merkin; murkin, 'murkin, Murkin, 'Murkin

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (British, slang, pejorative) An American.
    • ----

    codpiece

    English

    (wikipedia codpiece)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A part of male dress in front of the breeches to cover the male genitals, sometimes made very conspicuous in former times.
  • * , 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 soliders 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 , , 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.

    See also

    * merkin * vonk