The History of England

from Celts through 20th century

Do you know it?

Category: Short stories

A cop: the same as a policeman and also a badge made of copper.

A hooligan: This word first appeared in 1898 in the London police reports. There was a certain Mr. Hooley, who had a gang. They did many bad things. Thus, the word hooligan is short for Hooley’s gang.

A pound is also called a “quid” in the UK, which is a slang. It comes from quid pro quo, a Latin phrase meaning an equivalent amount for something.

Lbs: short for pounds, when pounds are used as a unit of weight. The form lb is actually the abbreviation of the Latin word libra, which means a pound and is short for libra pondo or pound weight. The second word of this phrase, pondo, by the way, is the origin of the English pound. The symbol £ is the Latin letter for libra.

A mackintosh: This rubber raincoat is named after its Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh, though the letter k is added.

Cockney is the dialect used by a certain section of the London poorly educated or illiterate population. They drop some sounds and say „urt instead of hurt, bein‟ instead of being; them friends is their friends; you, they was instead of you, they were; ain’t instead of am not, is not, are not, have not (e.g. I ain’t hungry means I am not hungry); he/she don’t for he/she doesn’t, etc.

A sandwich is named after John Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich, an English diplomat in 1792, who was fond of playing cards so much that he didn‟t stop even for eating. To keep his fingers clean, he put meat, egg, cheese or tomato between two slices of buttered bread.

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