With apologies to Mark Twain for paraphrasing the title of one of his stories, I ask you non-USA residents whether the expression, "pop a sprog" is common where you live. A Canadian pen pal used the expression, the context clearly meaning "to give birth," but I've never heard it in the USA. Whence comes the expression?

Asa, I am a USA resident, and I agree with you that I have never heard of it. I am interested to find out more about the phrase.

I have never heard the expression used in the UK in quite this way, although "sprog" is a common enough slang expression for a child.

Richard English

As Richard says "sprog" is a common expression for a child and I have heard "she's popped" used to mean "given birth" (presumably the image intended being that of shelling peas) but I've never heard the two combined in the way suggested.

Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

Read all about my travels around the world here.

I'm in the U. S. and I never heard this before. It sounds more like a description of someone getting hurt: "OUCH! I think I just popped a sproggggggggggggggggggg!"

"Sprog" is entirely new to me, but I did find it in one on-line dictionary.

quote:

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BRITISH AND AUSTRALIAN SLANG
n: a baby or young child
v. Has she sprogged (=given birth) yet?

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According to an interesting account in Word Detective: The word originated in WWII and meant a new recruit or trainee, inferior in rank and social status. It came to mean "child" by about 1945. It seems to be a mutation of the older word "sprag", which had separate meanings around a core concept of "youth": (1) a lively young fellow (2) a young salmon or cod (3) a spray or twig from a bush or other plant.

While I had never heard of "sprog", now the phrase makes sense; I have heard people say, "I'm going to pop a baby".

If you had posted this question without revealing the answer, I would have been tempted to guess it meant taking a pill, probably an illegal or illicit one.

Sidenote: "Chocks" were (and maybe still are: I don't know) a children's multi-vitamin that, in the 60's, ran the advertizing slogan "Pop a Chocks!" It was pulled when it was pointed out that this sort of thing contributed to the drug culture zeitgeist (one of my favorite words!) of that time.

quote:

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Sidenote: "Chocks" were (and maybe still are: I don't know) a children's multi-vitamin ...

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EWWWWWWWWWW, I remember "Chocks"! They tasted like fruit flavored chalk to me.

Must've been high in calcium.