Gourt Home::Gourt :: Alternative words for British
- This article is about terms applied to people. For a discussion of the overlapping terms for states/countries/nations in the British Isles see British Isles (terminology).
There are many alternative ways to describe the people of the United Kingdom (UK), though the official designated nationality is British. The standard noun is Briton (see also demonym), but in colloquial usage this is often abbreviated informally to Brit. In practice, Britons are often referred to, according to their constituent nation, as English, Scottish, Welsh, or Northern Irish. Historically "British" implied a connection with the British Isles rather than with the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. Some other terms are humorous or derogatory slang, and used mainly by people from other countries, although they can be used in a self-deprecating way by British people themselves. Other terms are serious or tongue-in-cheek attempts to coin words as alternatives to the potentially ambiguous standard terms. British (English, Scottish and Welsh combined) people may consider some if not all irreverent terms to be offensive, or in some cases even racist.
Slang
Limey
Limey is an old American and Canadian slang nickname for the British, originally referring to British sailors. The term is believed to derive from lime-juicer, referring to the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy practice of supplying lime juice to British sailors to prevent scurvy in the 19th century. The term is thought to have originated in the Caribbean in the 1880s. A false etymology is that it is a derivative of "Gor-blimey" ("god blind me!").
The term Limey evolved into a verb "to lime" which means to hang out. The British sailors "Limeys" would hang out in the urban areas when off-duty and patronize the local prostitutes. This has been immortalized in the old calypso "Jean and Dinah" by the Mighty Sparrow in 1956.
Pommy
The term Pommy for a British person is commonly used in Australian English and New Zealand English, and is often shortened to Pom. The origin of this term is not confirmed and there are several persistent false etymologies. One theory is that, as the majority of early immigrants to Australia were British, it is rhyming slang for "immigrant" from a contraction of the word "pomegranate", or possibly more directly related to the appearance of the fruit, as it bears a more than passing resemblance to the typical pale complexioned Briton's skin after his or her first few days living under the hot Australian sun.
Another theory is that POM is a shortened acronym of Prisoner of His/Her Majesty (POHM). As many of Australian's first settlers were convicts, sentenced to transportation, this theory holds that upon arrival in the country they would be given a uniform with POHM emblazoned on the back, and that convicts with an extended stay on Australian soil would no longer have to wear the shirt and would often refer to newer entrants into the country as "Pohmmys". Other suggestions hold that POM is a different acronym, such as "Prisoner of Mother England" or "Port of Melbourne". These etymologies are believed to be false, as the term "pommy" was coined long before acronyms were used in common parlance. Moreover, there is no record of prisoners in Australia ever wearing such uniforms.
Another etymology suggests it is short for "pompous" , a quality often attributed by Australians to the British.
The use of the word 'Pom' is contentious. Some British people living in Australasia find the term offensive and demeaning, others find it harmless and amusing. Attitudes to the use of the word have varied over the years, from the 1960s when slogans such as 'bash a pom a day' were heard on New Zealand radio, to today, when the word has become so entrenched that few Australians and New Zealanders see any reason to avoid using the word, some even justifying the use of the word as being 'endearing'.
Rosbif/Rosbeef
In French the term rosbif refers to the idea that the British staple meat is (or was) roast beef *.
Rooinek
In South Africa the term 'Pom' may also be used, while Afrikaans speakers use the term rooinek (literally 'red neck', on account of the sunburnt skin).
Britisher, Angrez
In India, the term 'Britisher' may still be encountered, but is largely obsolete elsewhere. The word Angrez is of Arabic- or Persian-origin and is also sometimes used to refer to British people. It derives from the French Anglais.
John Bull
John Bull was originally a character created by John Arbuthnot in 1712 to satirise the Whig war party. Later in the 18th century, British satirical artists James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson and George Cruikshank contrasted the stout and healthy British cartoon character with scrawny French revolutionary sans-culottes Jacobins. In the 19th century the U.S. cartoonist Thomas Nast also drew the character. The character has tended to be more popular in, and to be more associated with, England than Scotland and Wales. In light of this, creator Arbuthnot provided John Bull with a sister, Peg, to represent the Scots.
Tommy
The name Tommy for a soldier in the British Army is particularly associated with World War I. German soldiers would call out to Tommy across no-man's land if they wished to speak to a British soldier. The French, and Commonwealth forces also used the name. Tommy is derived from Tommy Atkins which had been used as a generic name for a soldier for many years (and had been used as an example name on army registration forms). The precise origin is the subject of some debate, but it is known to have been used as early as 1743. Rudyard Kipling published the poem Tommy (part of the Barrack Room Ballads) in 1892 and in 1893 the music hall song Private Tommy Atkins was published with words by Henry Hamilton and music by S. Potter. In 1898 William McGonagall wrote Lines In Praise of Tommy Atkins. The rock-opera Tommy by The Who references the word in the title; the main character's father was a British airman who went missing in action during WWII.
Brit
The term Brit seems to have become popular in more recent times, even within the UK, and the form "Briton" is rare in colloquial usage. The term is not usually intended or perceived to be offensive.
Redcoat
The term Redcoat is a defunct slang term for a British soldier. This term was especially used from the mid-17th century to around 1898 when the British Army wore distinctive scarlet red-coloured coats in their typical military dress.
Proposed alternatives
The use of alternative terms has been practised and advocated by some people to distinguish UK nationals from people living specifically in Great Britain or the British Isles. In practice, this is not usually necessary since British without any modifier (like British cooking) is generally understood to refer to the UK. However, other uses, as in British English, can be taken as referring to the British Isles in their entirety. Some people in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would consider this use unacceptable.
Other languages
In many languages, the equivalent terms for 'English' and 'England' are often used interchangeably with 'British' and 'Britain' (this is, after all, relatively common even in American English). Welsh people in particular are very often referred to in French as 'anglais', or in Russian as 'англичанин' (angličanin), and so on. The same occurs rather less frequently in the case of individuals from Scotland and Northern Ireland, although their countries may still be considered to form part of angleterre or the equivalent. In some languages, as in French, forms like britannique ('British') are restricted to more official contexts, and tend to be used for governments rather than for individuals.
In Spain, equivalents of British and English tended previously to be interchangeable. However, growing nationalist and Celtic cultural movements in Spain have led many to acknowledge Scotland and Wales to be different nations, a view that reflects complex Spanish territorial stresses. The distinction is less commonly upheld in Latin America, however. Ireland has always been considered as a different entity, even when it was part of the United Kingdom; this may be due to historical ties between these two Catholic regions.
Sometimes the concepts of "British" and "English" are reversed, even among some English speakers, who think that the use of the terms "English" and "England" are to be avoided, when it is, in fact, their misuse that causes offence. There have been cases (such as in the Finnish press ) where the writer has divided "England" into "Britain" and "Scotland", for example as in: "Of the English, the Brits are often more stuck-up than the Scots."; however, this is quite a rare phenomenon.
Many world languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean use terms for Britain which are clearly based on "England/English".
See also
External links
"Alternative words for British"