Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The archaic slang "bender" for a sixpence emerged when the coin had a high silver content and could easily be bent, sometimes deliberately to create a love token. The Royal Mint website claims that the expression "going on a bender" (to indulge in a binge drinking session) derives from this meaning when one could drink all day in taverns for ...
Slang terms for money often derive from the appearance and features of banknotes or coins, their values, historical associations or the units of currency concerned. Within a language community, some of the slang terms vary in social, ethnic, economic, and geographic strata but others have become the dominant way of referring to the currency and are regarded as mainstream, acceptable language ...
The rye and the birds have been seen to represent a tribute sent to Henry VII, and on another level, the term "pocketful of rye" may in fact refer to an older term of measurement. The number 24 has been tied to the Reformation and the printing of the English Bible with 24 letters. From a folklorish tradition, the blackbird taking the maid's ...
6d (six pence) known as a "tanner" or half a shilling. 2/– (two shillings, or one florin, colloquially "two-bob bit" or just "two bob") 2/6 (two shillings and six pence, usually said as "two and six" or "a half-crown"; the value could also be spoken as "half a crown", but the coin was always a half-crown)
Various other terms exist (scally cap, [1] cabbie cap, driver cap, golf cap, [2] longshoreman cap, ivy cap, jeff cap, [3] train engineer cap, sixpence, etc.) Flat caps are usually made of tweed, plain wool, or cotton, while some are made using leather, linen, or corduroy. The inside of the cap is commonly lined for comfort and warmth. [4]
Originally the term "new pence" was used; the word "new" was dropped from the coinage in 1983. The old shilling equated to five (new) pence, and, for example, £2 10s 6d became £2.52 + 1 / 2 . The symbol for the (old) penny, "d", was replaced by "p" (or initially sometimes "np", for new pence). Thus 72 pence can be written as £0.72 or ...
Amounts over a pound are normally spoken thus: "five pounds forty". A value with less than ten pence over the pound is sometimes spoken like this: "one pound and a penny", "three pounds and fourpence". The slang term "bit" has almost disappeared from use completely, although in Scotland a fifty pence is sometimes referred to as a "ten bob bit".
Historically almost every British coin had a widely recognised nickname, such as "tanner" for the sixpence and "bob" for the shilling. [36] Since decimalisation these have mostly fallen out of use except as parts of proverbs. A common [37] slang term for the pound unit is "quid" (singular and plural, except in the common phrase "quids in"). [38]