codpiece

noun

cod·​piece ˈkäd-ˌpēs 

: a flap or bag concealing an opening in the front of men's breeches especially in the 15th and 16th centuries

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Tip o' the codpiece to my Hive Overmind co-blogger Ed Yong on Google+. —Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 1 Nov. 2011

There are codpiece jokes, torture jokes, Spanish Inquisition jokes that add nothing to the genre that Monty Python founded in 1971 and Donald Trump jokes. —Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 13 June 2022

Aside from everyone staying a safe length away from Gene Simmons' tongue and codpiece, there was no social distancing. —Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune, 24 Feb. 2021

There are undeniably moments, many of them wordless: a floundering Ferrell in a snow-white onesie with a homemade codpiece; a hamster-wheel stage stunt gone horrendously wrong. —Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 24 June 2020

Fashions change, and the current speed demons—cars such as the Pontiac SSEi—wear their prowess like a codpiece. —Martin Padgett Jr., Car and Driver, 15 June 2020

In 1941, a conservator discovered that some details had been changed; most provocatively, some men’s genitals, which Bruegel portrayed in prominent pouches called codpieces, had been painted over. —Judith H. Dobrzynski, WSJ, 21 Jan. 2020

Long before there were jockstraps, codpieces scandalized the world in both art and life. —Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian, 13 Dec. 2019

At some point in the artwork’s past, a vandal scratched or scribbled lines on five of its most prominent codpieces. —Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian, 13 Dec. 2019

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Word History

Etymology

Middle English codpese, from cod "bag, scrotum" (going back to Old English codd, akin to Middle Dutch codde "cylindrical piece of wood," Old Frisian kudda "cudgel," Middle Low German kudde, kodde "hog," Old Norse koddi "pillow, scrotum," all from a Germanic base denoting something distended and unevenly shaped) + pese piece entry 1

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above