cock-and-bull story
noun
Forms cock-and-bull stories
Synonyms
Banbury story of a cock and a bull fairytale fairy tale fairy story song and dance
Etymology
Unknown. The phrase is noted as similar in meaning and form to French coq-à-l'âne (“satire, incoherent story”, literally “cock to the ass”) which was borrowed into Scots as cockalane.
Theories of the term's ultimate origin include allusions to stories which feature talking animals and that the term refers to gossip typical of what were historically two coaching inns, The Cock and The Bull, in Stony Stratford, England.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “cock-and-bull story”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details