Simcock

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small tap or valve used to regulate or shut off the flow of water, gas, or other fluid through a pipe or container
2. A valve or faucet designed to control the passage of liquid or gas in a pipe or apparatus
3. A controlling device consisting of a valve mechanism that allows you to start, stop, or adjust the flow of fluid or gas

Etymology: In English, a "simcock" was a simpleton, someone easily fooled. The woodcock, a long-billed bird that was thought to walk into snares without suspicion, gave English speakers a whole set of words for dupes, including "woodcock" itself. "Simcock" appears to belong to that group, pairing the bird with "sim," an older word for silly or simple, though the exact sense of "sim" in this compound is uncertain. The word also survives as a surname, and some dictionaries list it as a dialect term, which suggests it was more common in regional speech than in the written standard. The bird-based insults share a logic: the woodcock was taken as a symbol of foolishness, so naming a fool after it was a natural step. The details of how "simcock" was first coined and spread are not well documented, so its precise path into English remains unclear.