What does “balls” mean as a reply word or interjection?
Here’s a question again in Jeffery Archer’s The Prodigal Daughter. Richard (husband of Florentina Kane, the heroine of the novel) finds in The Wall Street Journal that Jake Thomas, chairman of Lester’s Bank, took a countermeasure to block Richard’s cornering the stock of the bank in an attempt to take over the chairmanship. It goes:
Richard swore uncharacteristically as he left the table and walked toward the phone, leaving his coffee to go cold.
“What did you say?” said Florentina.
“Balls,” he repeated, and passed her the paper. She read the news while Richard was dialing.
“What does it mean?”
“It means that even if we do acquire 51% of the present stock, Thomas’s authorized issue of further two million shares make it impossible to defeat him.”
– The Prodigal Daughter, Page 244.
I don’t know what “balls” means as Florentina asked back to her husband. I looked for definitions of “balls” pertinent to the usage in the above quote in CED, OED, and Merriam-Webster without success.
What does “balls” mean? Is it used casually in daily conversation?
Solution 1:
"Balls!", and the synonymous "Bollocks!" which is more common in this usage, are essentially just vulgar exclamations usually expressing annoyance regarding a situation, or rejection of something previously said.
In my experience Americans 1 rarely use either of the above. In terms of "vulgarity" it probably falls somewhere between "Dammit!" and "Fuck [it]!", but exactly where is subjective. In terms of semantic content when used as an exclamation, there's no meaningful reference to testicles.
1 See this earlier question for confirmation that balls/bollocks are primarily BrE. Hemmingway often wrote things like "Don't talk balls!", where semantically balls/bollocks = nonsense, but I don't think I've ever heard an American use "[Oh] balls!" as a standalone exclamation (I've encountered AmE [Oh] bollocks!" with various spellings, but it's relatively rare on that side of the pond).
As to "used casually in conversation", that really depends on the social context and the normal vernacular of the speaker. But my guess is that in Archer's context, Richard uses balls because it's slightly less offensive than bollocks, which is more common among speakers who swear habitually (but because Richard doesn't habitually swear he doesn't know his usage is slightly non-standard).
Also note that Florentina has to ask him to repeat the word because she wasn't certain what he'd said. That's partly because even British women rarely hear or use either word (it's a male thing! :)
Solution 2:
A clue is given in the text you quote:
“Balls,” he repeated.
As he's repeated that, there must have been a mention immediately before it. The line which refers to Richard saying something immediately prior to that is
Richard swore uncharacteristically
which gives some indication of the type of exclamation. One can then go to a dictionary.
- Testicles.
- [mass noun] Courage or nerve.
- [mass noun] British Nonsense; rubbish (often said to express strong disagreement).
ODO
It can be seen that sense 3 is getting towards being appropriate, although disagreement may not be entirely correct. Balls can also be used as a swear-word expressing extreme disappointment or annoyance.
Dictionary.com has a fuller definition, from Collins, showing it as an interjection.
balls (bɔːlz)
— pl n
- the testicles
- by the balls so as to be rendered powerless
- nonsense; rubbish
- courage; forcefulness
— interj
5. an exclamation of strong disagreement, contempt, annoyance, etc
usage Both its anatomical senses and its various extended senses nowadays have far less impact than they used to, and seem unlikely to cause offence, though some older or more conservative people may object. Interestingly, its use in the sense of courage is exactly paralleled in the Spanish term «cojones»
Collins' usage note indicates that it can be used more or less casually, but because of the anatomical reference it might be unwise to use it in more sensitive company.