I suspect different reasons for the British coins, but have yet to find them. ", "Why do you want to make a monkey out of me? pair of nickers/pair of knickers/pair o'nickers = two pounds (2), an irresistible pun. monkey (plural monkeys) . Monkey (London via India) London slang for 500. MONKEY. ", "Wheres the originality? In the US a nickel is more commonly a five cent coin. Pub - public house, drinking establishment. denoting a small light structure or piece of equipment contrived to suit an immediate purpose. Grand - a thousand (colloquial) usually referring to money. mill = a million dollars or a million pounds. I'm convinced these were the principal and most common usages of the Joey coin slang. I personally feel (and think I recall) there was some transference of the Joey slang to the sixpence (tanner) some time after the silver threepenny coin changed to the brass threepenny bit (which was during the 1930-40s), and this would have been understandable because the silver sixpence was similar to the silver threepence, albeit slightly larger. Much of it derives from the designs on the notes - five pounds, ten pounds, twenty pounds. The actual setting was in fact Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Your response is private Was this worth your time? For ex: I spent over a hundred quid last weekend without even realising it! jack = a pound, and earlier (from the 1600s), a farthing. Rosie - Cockney rhyming slang for tea from "Rosie Lee.". 5. is commonly used to represent that someone is trying to avoid spilling a secret or saying something inappropriate. Easy when you know how.. g/G = a thousand pounds. * /There is [] A Dictionary of American Idioms monkey ASAP: a popular term that stands for as soon as possible and is now used pretty much globally. This is what I call brass monkey weather. Loaded - having a great deal of money; rich or alternatively under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Equivalent to 10p - a tenth of a pound. However, when it comes down to money, it is probably worth getting your head around the lingo, to prevent you handing over, or receiving, a wildly incorrect amount because you got the wrong word. Cockney rhyming slang for pony. Blag - a robbery (noun), to rob or scrounge (verb). Porkies . Chip and chipping also have more general associations with money and particularly money-related crime, where the derivations become blurred with other underworld meanings of chip relating to sex and women (perhaps from the French 'chipie' meaning a vivacious woman) and narcotics (in which chip refers to diluting or skimming from a consignment, as in chipping off a small piece - of the drug or the profit). Cockney rhyming slang is a form of English slang which originated in the East End of London . In his stand-up show, British comedian Michael MacIntyre said: "You can actually use any word in the English language and substitute it to mean drunk. nicker = a pound (1). Crusty - usually young homeless or vagrant person stereotypically dreadlocked; can also mean angry or irritated. Origin: US/UK. Not always, but often refers to money in coins, and can also refer to riches or wealth. Answer (1 of 27): There is commonly held belief that the term was brought back by returning British soldiers in the days of the Raj, alluding to the idea that the 25 rupee note bore a picture of a pony (the same theory attempts to explain 500 being a 'monkey').The problem with this idea is this:. Read more. The term has since the early 1900s been used by bookmakers and horse-racing, where carpet refers to odds of three-to-one, and in car dealing, where it refers to an amount of 300. ", "The children will get up to monkey business if we do not keep our eye on them.". Cheeky Monkey. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a recent source of new expressions as is popular music such as grime. Jessie - originally Scottish slang for weak or effeminate man. french/french loaf = four pounds, most likely from the second half of the 1900s, cockney rhyming slang for rofe (french loaf = rofe), which is backslang for four, also meaning four pounds. monkey meaning: 1. an animal that lives in hot countries, has a long tail, and climbs trees. . "He started an exercise routine and his wife copied it. Meaning. Logically, it follows that you'd have 240 pence to a pound. Crazy. Originally (16th-19thC) the slang word flag was used for an English fourpenny groat coin, derived possibly from Middle Low German word 'Vleger' meaning a coin worth 'more than a Bremer groat' (Cassells). Zebra Crossing - black and white pedestrian crossing. Whinge - to complain, thus a whinger is a person who complains, whines. Also relates to (but not necessairly derived from) the expression especially used by children, 'dibs' meaning a share or claim of something, and dibbing or dipping among a group of children, to determine shares or winnings or who would be 'it' for a subsequent chasing game. I just threw in an extra slang term for free. Hog also extended to US 10c and dollar coins, apparently, according to Cassells because coins carried a picture of a pig. Bevvy - (alcoholic) drink, usually beer, from "beverages". They have more fun than a barrel of monkeys. From there it came to mean home and was reattached to Drum and Bass. Jelly - fruit-flavored gelatin dessert or slang for valium as in "jellies". Let's get serious about the project." "They have been monkeying around so they did not get anything done." To make a monkey out of someone 'To make a monkey out of someone' means to make someone look silly. Notes: Money in general; reference to banknotes from a bank. Nobble - disable, try to influence or thwart by underhand or unfair methods, steal. See yennep. monkey = five hundred pounds (500). If someone has the cheddar, it means they must be making bank. If youre in London you may overhear many other terms for money and many of these will come from cockney rhyming slang. Monkeys are primates. Brewer says that the 'modern groat was introduced in 1835, and withdrawn in 1887'. wonga = money. Gobsmacked - slang for totally surprised, shocked. Possibly connected to the use of nickel in the minting of coins, and to the American slang use of nickel to mean a $5 dollar note, which at the late 1800s was valued not far from a pound. Odds and sods - this and that; bits and pieces. Bloody hell: To express anger, shock or surprise. Other intriguing possible origins/influences include a suggested connection with the highly secretive Quidhampton banknote paper-mill, and the term quid as applied (ack D Murray) to chewing tobacco, which are explained in more detail under quid in the cliches, words and slang page. There are many different interpretations of boodle meaning money, in the UK and the US. Filters. EXPLANATION: While this London-centric slang is entirely British, it actually stems from 19th Century India. Proper - done well; cf. clod = a penny (1d). sovs = pounds. Equivalent to 12p in decimal money. Cassells implies an interesting possible combination of the meanings kibosh (18 month sentence), kibosh (meaning ruin or destroy) - both probably derived from Yiddish (Jewish European/Hebrew dialect) words meaning suppress - with the linking of money and hitting something, as in 'a fourpenny one' (from rhyming slang fourpenny bit = hit). Earlier 'long-tailed finnip' meant more specifically ten pounds, since a finnip was five pounds (see fin/finny/finnip) from Yiddish funf meaning five. The re-introduction of the groat thus enabled many customers to pay the exact fare, and so the cab drivers used the term Joey as a derisory reference for the fourpenny groats. However, in the UK, someone that's "p*ssed" is most probably drunk. wedge = nowadays 'a wedge' a pay-packet amount of money, although the expression is apparently from a very long time ago when coins were actually cut into wedge-shaped pieces to create smaller money units. From the 1960s, becoming widely used in the 1970s. This would be consistent with one of the possible origins and associations of the root of the word Shilling, (from Proto-Germanic 'skell' meaning to sound or ring). `Ton in this sense may come from the name for a measurement of 100 cubic feet. Scottish Slang for Money. wad = money. We live it, we breathe it, we make our living from it. Also meant to lend a shilling, apparently used by the middle classes, presumably to avoid embarrassment. Bullseye (fifty pounds sterling). 6. Anyone would think the Brits like a drink. Dib was also US slang meaning $1 (one dollar), which presumably extended to more than one when pluralised. The term monkey came from soldiers returning from India, where the 500 rupee note had a picture of a monkey on it. This section is in advanced English and is only intended to be a guide, not to
We also list many of Britain's museums, churches, castles and other points of interest. Britain-Visitor.com provides travel information on Britain's cities and the essential when and where and how to get there. Referring to 500, this term is derived from the Indian 500 Rupee note of that era, which featured a monkey on one side. As well as quid, we have a whole series of words that we use to refer to money, such as: Dosh is uncountable, so you cant have doshes! This means that something is incredibly expensive. British slang & colloquialisms: see an A-Z listing of British slang, colloquialisms and dialect words and phrases including Cockney rhyming phrases. While some etymology sources suggest that 'k' (obviously pronounced 'kay') is from business-speak and underworld language derived from the K abbreviation of kilograms, kilometres, I am inclined to prefer the derivation (suggested to me by Terry Davies) that K instead originates from computer-speak in the early 1970s, from the abbreviation of kilobytes. oner = (pronounced 'wunner'), commonly now meaning one hundred pounds; sometimes one thousand pounds, depending on context. Queen mum- Cockney rhyming slang for bum. Usually now meaning one pound coins. Ice Cream Vans - mobile ice cream vendors (read more). tom/tom mix = six pounds (6), 20th century cockney rhyming slang, (Tom Mix = six). A clodhopper is old slang for a farmer or bumpkin or lout, and was also a derogatory term used by the cavalry for infantry foot soldiers. Silver threepences were last issued for circulation in the United Kingdom in 1941 but the final pieces to be sent overseas for colonial use were dated 1944. A nicker bit is a one pound coin, and London cockney rhyming slang uses the expression 'nicker bits' to describe a case of diarrhoea. carpet = three pounds (3) or three hundred pounds (300), or sometimes thirty pounds (30). In the US a ned was a ten dollar gold coin, and a half-ned was a five dollar coin. Slang. Note that this thesaurus is not in any way affiliated with Urban Dictionary. 'Monkey's uncle' is used as an expression of surprise. The Joey slang word seems reasonably certainly to have been named after the politician Joseph Hume (1777-1855), who advocated successfully that the fourpenny groat be reintroduced, which it was in 1835 or 1836, chiefly to foil London cab drivers (horse driven ones in those days) in their practice of pretending not to have change, with the intention of extorting a bigger tip, particularly when given two shillings for a two-mile fare, which at the time cost one shilling and eight-pence. brass = money. While the origins of these slang terms are many and various, certainly a lot of English money slang is rooted in various London communities, which for different reasons liked to use language only known in their own circles, notably wholesale markets, street traders, crime and the underworld, the docks, taxi-cab driving, and the immigrant communities. Our last slang term for money and again animal related we have a monkey M-O-N-K-E-Y, no not the animal but actually meaning 500 pounds. We say a heap of dosh or heaps of dosh. Variations on the same theme are motser, motzer, motza, all from the Yiddish (Jewish European/Hebrew dialect) word 'matzah', the unleavened bread originally shaped like a large flat disk, but now more commonly square (for easier packaging and shipping), eaten at Passover, which suggests earliest origins could have been where Jewish communities connected with English speakers, eg., New York or London (thanks G Kahl). MORE : How many medals has Great Britain won at the Winter Olympics? (m ki) n., pl. Less common variations on the same theme: wamba, wanga, or womba. In the 18th century 'bobstick' was a shillings-worth of gin. jacks = five pounds, from cockney rhyming slang: jack's alive = five. Spruce probably mainly refers to spruce beer, made from the shoots of spruce fir trees which is made in alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties. The official Urban Dictionary API is used to show the hover-definitions. Machair - fertile low-lying grassy plain in the Outer Hebrides. What does Monkey mean in slang? Try English Trackers' professional editing and rewriting service. When writing in English you put the currency symbol in front of the digits, so 10, 150 or $20. Jack is much used in a wide variety of slang expressions. Originated in the 1800s from the backslang for penny. Half is also used as a logical prefix for many slang words which mean a pound, to form a slang expresion for ten shillings and more recently fifty pence (50p), for example and most popularly, 'half a nicker', 'half a quid', etc. Prior to 1971 bob was one of the most commonly used English slang words. It would seem that the 'biscuit' slang term is still evolving and might mean different things (100 or 1,000) to different people. sprazi/sprazzy = sixpence (6d). net gen = ten shillings (10/-), backslang, see gen net. Here are some of the most common expressions still alive in the UK: General Money Slang - Current Money Money - Bread, dough, spondoolicks, moolah, wedge, lolly One pound - Nicker, quid, squid, smacker Ten pounds - Tenner Five pounds - Fiver, bluey (because they are blue in colour) 25 pounds - Pony 50 pounds - Half a ton, bullseye The pronunciation emphasis tends to be on the long second syllable 'aah' sound. "No more monkeying around! Like the 'pony' meaning 25, it is suggested by some that the association derives from Indian rupee banknotes featuring the animal. Space cadet - flaky, lightheaded, or forgetful person. Dosh appears to have originated in this form in the US in the 19th century, and then re-emerged in more popular use in the UK in the mid-20th century. Which Teeth Are Normally Considered Anodontia. Pete Tong - wrong, messed up - referring to the BBC Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong. The old slang term for a shilling was ' bob ' and for a guinea - ' yellow-boy '. For ex: You mean he paid 300G for a house in the suburbs! From the 1900s in England and so called because the coin was similar in appearance and size to the American dollar coin, and at one time similar in value too. Other variations occur, including the misunderstanding of these to be 'measures', which has become slang for money in its own right. Doddle - something that is easy to accomplish. Their bonding sessions come as a reminder that we cannot live alone. Barmy: crazy, insane; always derogatory. Ned - non-educated delinquent (Scottish backronym). These would be considered vulgar so use with caution: bladdered. bollocksed. Z-Cars - 1960s and 70s TV police drama set in Liverpool. doubloons = money. squid = a pound (1). Stiver was used in English slang from the mid 1700s through to the 1900s, and was derived from the Dutch Stiver coin issued by the East India Company in the Cape (of South Africa), which was the lowest East India Co monetary unit. Brummie - native of Birmingham (colloquial). The original derivation was either from Proto-Germanic 'skell' meaning to sound or ring, or Indo-European 'skell' split or divide. But what about slang words that are used around the world? generalise/generalize = a shilling (1/-), from the mid 1800s, thought to be backslang. (Thanks M Ty-Wharton). US and Canadian slang. Given that backslang is based on phonetic word sound not spelling, the conversion of shilling to generalize is just about understandable, if somewhat tenuous, and in the absence of other explanation is the only known possible derivation of this odd slang. florin/flo = a two shilling or 'two bob' coin (florin is actually not slang - it's from Latin meaning flower, and a 14th century Florentine coin called the Floren). . Pinch Another word for stealing, or purchasing something at a heavily discounted rate. poppy = money. Also expressed in cockney rhying slang as 'macaroni'. Chunder. Cock and hen or cockle is also used for 10, whilst 1 might be referred to as a nicker, a nugget or if youre going retro, an Alan Whicker. a luv yee pet - I love you (talking to your partner not your dog) Cheers pet - thanks. The use of the word 'half' alone to mean 50p seemingly never gaught on, unless anyone can confirm otherwise. In 1835, and withdrawn in 1887 ', we breathe it, we make our from. 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