"Eschew," "BOLLIX," "Scuttlebutt," 2

       To “bollix” up is “to bungle, confuse; mess up,”  “to throw into disorder.”  But why does the OED say it is “coarse slang”?  British sensitivity to sexual matters?  The word is a variation of bollocks or ballocks: testicles.  This further comes from Middle English balloks and from Old English beallucas, thence back to Indo-European bhel- “to blow, swell; with derivatives referring to various round objects and to the notion of tumescent masculinity.”

       Yes, ball comes from the same root, as does indeed even phallus.  Nothing can botch things and throw them into disorder more than a man’s private parts, and that’s where we’re at, all bollixed up.

       (Tomorrow, "scuttlebutt.")