Where did the expression "junk" originate?

Junk is also a type of boat….I wonder if that is somehow involved.

The first place I heard the term was on this SNL skit with Justin Timberlake. (There are two versions around, one says ‘Dick’ one says ‘Junk’ for GP-rated audiences) But I’d guess the term precedes the skit.

The skit is hilarious but I never considerred genitalia ‘junk’, not sure why anyone does.

I love language and usually slang and colloquialism amuse, enlighten and entertain me. Not in this case,

I don’t know why, but the word, used in this context, rubs me the wrong way.

In the tiny minds of peculiar folk.

“Junk” means worthless stuff . . . go figure (spoken by a lesbian) . . .

I looked at the online dictionary and several other places, and they all say they don’t know when this started happening. The best I could find was an article in the Star Tribune that reports the earliest printed use occurring in 1986. They claim that because the author published in many gay magazines, this offers greater credibility to the origin.

It does seem to be a relatively recent locution. It’s one I hate. I don’t understand why our balls should be thought to be junk. But it seems like a very popular usage these days. May it go away as quickly as it has arrived.

I don’t know the origin but I don’t find it any more insulting than common names for female anatomical parts such as boobs, which also has a negative connotation or cunt.

So maybe it’s some of those anti-male type women who are perpetuating this insult on men just to to try to even things up for cunt and boobs? What about tatas? Pussy? Omg. The hundreds of other slang terms one could find in the slang dictionaries?

@wundayatta – that’s what I was thinking, it is probably a feminist conspiracy. Really though, as @noodle_poodle said, the source could be a rather attractive looking chinese sailboat. Junk as opposed to cunt is really not that bad a deal, now prick or dickhead is another story!

Here are the responses when this question was asked on Fluther in 2010 . . .

Actually in it’s context, ‘junk’ doesn’t mean ‘dick’.. It refers to the whole caboodle.. You know, the bat, the balls and the bag they come in.