Glossary of names for the British

This article is about terms applied to people some of which are controversial. 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 British people themselves can use them in a self-deprecating way. 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. Though there is often a misunderstanding on the British behalf when called Pommy by an Australian; as 'Pommy' is widely known as 'Prisoners of Her Majesty's Service', it lacks sense for the reason that Australians were actually British convicts.

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 derogatory in the sense that the British would be allegedly more preoccupied with the savings of limes over lemons which were traditionally used to prevent scurvy. The term is thought to have originated in the Caribbean in the 1880s. A false etymology is that it is a derivative of "Corr-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 patronise 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 by Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English and Afrikaans speakers, and is often shortened to Pom. The origin of this term is not confirmed and there are several persistent false etymologies, most being acronyms.

The Oxford English Dictionary has recently come out strongly in support of the word being a contraction, listing "pom" and "pommy" under its entry for "pomegranate". A supporting quotation from the Bulletin (Sydney) 14 November 1912: "The other day a Pummy Grant (assisted immigrant) was handed a bridle and told to catch a horse."

A commonly-heard alternative theory is that POM is a shortened acronym of Prisoner of His/Her Majesty (POHM) or Prisoner of Mother England (POME). As many of Australia'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 "Port of Melbourne". These etymologies are considered by some researchers 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 theory is that it is rhyming slang for tommy.

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". In December 2006 the Advertising Standards Board of Australia unanimously ruled that the word "Pom" was a part of the Australian vernacular and was largely used in "playful or affectionate" terms. As a consequence, the board ruled that the word did not constitute a racial slur and could be freely used in advertising. The Board was responding to a complaint filed by a community group called British People Against Racial Discrimination.

Rosbif/Rosbeef

In French the term rosbif refers to the idea that the British staple meat is roast beef, and that it is the only dish British cooks can prepare. During the Hundred Years War the French took to calling the English les goddams because of their frequent use of expletives.

In Portugal, the term bife (literally meaning steak, but sounding like beef) is used as a slang term to refer to British individuals. There is a feminine form, bifa, mainly used to refer to British female tourists.

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, Angrej, Firang

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. The word Firang is used in the same sense as Angrez. Firang is derived from the word 'Frank' and arose during the Crusades, when all invading Christians of the Latin Church came to be seen as Franks. Firang is more likely to have come from firangi meaning foreigner.It tends to refer to Europeans and European diaporas. It could also stem from the colour of the skin, ie Fika Rang, light colour, for lighter complexioned westerners as opposed to lighter complexioned natives of India. Such combinations of words occur frequently in Hindi and are called "sandhis". The word Ferengi is used in Star Trek to describe a race of alien rapacious traders. It could in this context be considered a somewhat obscure racial slur. Amongst South Asians in South Asia Angrez often has the more general meaning of "white foreigner", although its more specific meaning is Englishman, with Angrezan for an English woman. This is mostly seen as an ethnic, rather than a territorial, term and applied specifically for people of Anglo-Saxons origin. So people of South Asian origin living in England would rarely refer to themselves as Angrez/Angrezan. Instead, particularly amongst Punjabis, the term Englandi is used for themselves or any other citizen of England regardless of that person's ancestral ethnicity. Replacing the z with j is common practice especially amongst people from the Punjab region, hence it would be Angrej (masculine) and Angrejan (female). Urdu speakers retain the z always.

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 used the word as general-purpose name, and would call out 'Tommy!' across no-man's land if they wished to speak to a British soldier (the British using 'Fritz!' for the opposite action). 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

Use of the term Brit seems to have become widespread in more recent times, but is rarely heard in the U.K. itself. The correct form is actually Briton, yet is rare in colloquial usage. Although the noun 'Brit' is not always intended to be offensive, many Britons do not like it - in much the same way that Pakistanis strongly dislike having their collective noun shortened to 'Paki'. The term 'Brit' was commonly used by nationalist Irish in Northern Ireland, during which time it acquired highly pejorative connotations.

Redcoat

The term Redcoat is a defunct slang term for a British soldier. This term applied from the mid-17th century to around 1902 when the British Army wore distinctive scarlet red-coloured coats in their typical military dress. The term was first recorded in the 1880s in the writings of Rudyard Kipling, although it is often erroneously assumed to have been used earlier.

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.

Other languages

In many languages, the equivalent terms for 'English' and 'England' are often used interchangeably with 'British' and 'Britain' (this is also relatively common in many non-British varieties of English). For example in Turkish 'İngiltere' is wrongly used for both Britain and England ('Britanya' is Britain in Turkish). Welsh people in particular are very often referred to in French as 'anglais', in Russian as 'англичанин' (angličanin), and so on. The same occurs rather less frequently in the case of individuals from Scotland and Northern Ireland (perhaps because Wales, although retaining its own language and culture, was formally annexed by England at a much earlier date than Scotland or Ireland, which remained separate entities until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, respectively), 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 "English" into "British" and "Scots";however, this is quite a rare phenomenon.

In India, especially in British India, the British were referred to as firangis/pirangis (aliens) or goras (white persons).

Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese use terms for Britain/British which are clearly based on "England/English".

Although the Chinese Yīngguó (Hanzi:英国), Japanese Eikoku (Kanji:英国), Korean Yeongguk (Hangul: 영국), and Vietnamese Anh Quốc are all derived from "Eng-" in England, they have both the meaning of "England/English" and "Britain/British" (including both Great Britain and UK). There are also more formal specific names for the UK, such as the Chinese Liánhéwángguó literally meaning "United Kingdom". Chinese also have words for "Scotland" (sūgèlán), Wales (weiersi) and Northern Ireland (beiai) but generally most Chinese people are not aware how these names are used in the UK.

The written form of Yīngguó in Chinese is made up of two characters; 英国. The first 英 (ying) is used only for its sound, its meaning is disregarded, the second is 国 (guo) which means country/state/kingdom. The Japanese word '英国' Eikoku was from Chinese. In Japanese, pronunciation of the character '英' is "ei" (Kana:えい） and pronunciation of the Character '国' is "koku" (Kana:こく）. Both are Onyomi (Kanji:音読み) readings of the Chinese characters "英国". Nowadays the Japanese usually use the word Igirisu (イギリス)　and seldom use the word Eikoku (英国).

The transliterations: Chinese Yīnggèlán (英格兰), Japanese Igirisu (Kana : イギリス) (via Portuguese), Korean Yeonggilli (Hangul: 영길리) (less used in Korea today) are also all derived from "England", but all also mean both "Britain/British" and "England/English". (see also イギリス【英吉利】, えいこく【英国】). Additionally, Vietnamese đảo Anh (島英; literally, "English island") means the island of Great Britain.

Many people in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and also in England may find this ignorance of the country offensive, in various degrees. Americans who use the term English instead of British, or vice versa are often regarded as unknowledgeable.

See also

• British Isles (terminology)
• Offensive terms per nationality

External links

• Websters Sassenach search