What does Rantallion mean?
Rantallion is a noun.
It means: One whose scrotum is so relaxed as to be longer than his penis, i. e. whose shot pouch is longer than the barrel of his piece.
From: The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, by Grose, dated 1788
Who knew!
Of all the words we see, of all the words we have never seen, surely rantallion must be one of the strangest words. To find it necessary to define such a thing with a single word seems like a frivolous use of time to me.
But maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about. Back in the late 18th century there could have been armies of wordsmiths crawling round the ale houses, coffee houses and pie shops looking for new, interesting and unusual words to add to the dictionary.
Samuel Johnson had just published his dictioanry in 1755, so, possibly, word fever may have still been rife in the neoclassical period in the England.
'Rantallion' may have been as common as 'bollox' is these days.
The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, by Grose
You can still get your grubby hands on the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, see below.
