A ‘cock and bull story’ means a story that isn’t true. It’s a persistent myth that it’s because some town or village had two inns, one called the cock and another called the bull. You would hear one version of a story in a pub called the cock and another version in the bull. So if a story was doubtful it was a cock and bull story. It’s true that several places in England had two inns, one called the cock and the other called the bull.
But it’s very unlikely that the saying has anything to do with inns. The truth is that the phrase was originally ‘he/she told me a story about a cock and a bull’. Far more recently it was shortened to ‘he/she told me a cock and bull story’. There was probably once a story about a cock and a bull that has now been lost. There is no evidence the saying has anything to do with inns.
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