Alternative words for British

Alternative names for the British (people from the United Kingdom) include nicknames and terms, including affectionate ones, neutral ones, and derogatory ones to describe the British people and more specifically English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish people.

Brit

Brit is a commonly used term in the United States and elsewhere, simply as a shortened form of "Briton." It was considered offensive historically,^[1] but has become somewhat more neutral over time.

Britisher

An archaic form of "Briton," similar to "Brit" but is largely outdated.

Brittunculi

In one of the Vindolanda tablets the Latin pejorative of Brittunculi (wretched little Britons) ^[2] is used (presumably by a Roman official) in a commentary of their particular military tactics.

Englez

Englez is of Slavic origin and is sometimes used to refer to British people.^{[citation needed]}

Inselaffen

A pejorative German name for the British is Inselaffen, which means 'island apes' or 'island monkeys'.^[3][4]

Limey

The term is thought to have originated in the 1850s as "lime-juicer",^[5] and was later shortened to "limey".^[6] It was originally used as a derogatory word for sailors in the Royal Navy, because of the Royal Navy's practice since the beginning of the 19th century of adding lemon juice or lime juice to the sailors' daily ration of watered-down rum (known as grog), in order to prevent scurvy.^[7][8]

Eventually the term lost its naval connection and was used about British people in general. In the 1880s, it was used to refer to British immigrants in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Although the term may have been used earlier in the U.S. Navy as a slang word for a British sailor or a British warship, such usage isn't documented until 1918. By 1925, its usage in American English had been extended to mean any Briton, and the expression was so commonly known that it was used in American newspaper headlines.

Pommy or Pom

The term pommy, pom or pommie,^[9] in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa usually denotes a person of British heritage or origin. It was ruled not offensive in 2006 by the Australian Advertising Standards Board and in 2010 by the New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority.^[10] The community group British People Against Racial Discrimination were among those who complained to the Advertising Standards Board about five advertisements poking fun at "Poms", prompting the 2006 decision.^[11]

There are several folk etymologies for "Pom," some of which are false etymologies. For example, there are rumors that the word's etymology is related to prisoners, such as "Prisoner of Millbank," but this claim is suspect.^[12] A more likely theory is that pommy originated as a contraction of "pomegranate".^[13][14] According to this explanation, "pomegranate" is extinct Australian rhyming slang for immigrant. A popular alternative explanation for the theory that pommy is a contraction of "pomegranate", relates to the purported frequency of sunburn among British people in Australia, turning their fair skin the colour of pomegranates.^[15] However, there is no hard evidence for the theory regarding sunburn. Another possible explanation used throughout the Australian military is the acronym P.O.H.M.S. Prisoner Of Her Majesty's Service. Pronounced Poms, and eventually shortened to Pom. An alternative origin of the term is that it derives from the word "pompous".

Redcoat

The term Redcoat is a defunct slang term (along with "lobsterback") for a British soldier. This term applied from the mid-17th century to around 1902 when British Army soldiers wore distinctive Venetian Red coats as part of their formal fighting wear and military dress uniforms. This term, "redcoat", is often used in a modern sense towards the British in a jovial manner.

'Red Coat' is also a term that the British Army infantry battalion, the Green Jackets, would call the rest of the army as a derogatory term. This dates back to the times when the British Army would wear their red tunics, but the Green Jackets Battalion were used as a reconnaissance battalion and therefore would dress in green to be camouflaged. The Green Jackets have now amalgamated to form the 1st Battalion, The Rifles.

Rosbif/Rosbeef

The original explanation of this French term is that rosbif referred to the English style of cooking roast beef,^[16] and especially to the song The Roast Beef of Old England.^[17] Interestingly, it is reputed that Rosbeauf is from the Middle Ages when the King of France sent his Court Chefs to England to learn how to 'roast the beef', as the English were the experts. Hence, 'les rosbif'. In Portugal, the term bife (literally meaning steak, but sounding like beef) is used as a slang term to refer to the English.^[18] There is a feminine form, bifa, mainly used to refer to English female tourists^{[citation needed]}.

Tommy

The name Tommy for any soldier in the British Army is particularly associated with World War I. The French and the British Commonwealth armies used the name "Tommy" for the British. "Tommy" is derived from the name 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 British 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 paybooks issued to all British soldiers of World War I used the name "Tommy Atkins" to illustrate how they should be filled in.

Pākehā

"Pākehā" is a Māori language term for New Zealanders who are "of European descent".^{[citation needed]}

Europe

In Polish a common formal term to describe an Englishman is Anglik, derived from the Polish word for England, Anglia, with the word Brytyjczyk meaning Briton, from the Polish name for Great Britain, Wielka Brytania. Derogatory terms coined in recent years are Angol and Brytol respectively; however, due to negative connotations they are not used in formal writing or by the media.

In the Czech Republic the term Anglán is often used, which has the same roots as the Polish Anglik- the Czechs call England Anglie. This word is neither positive nor negative. However, unlike the formal Angličan, it is not used by the press because of its informality.

Africa

In South Africa the term pom may also be used, while Afrikaans speakers may use the term rooinek (literally "red neck", another reference to sunburning).^[19]

During the Second Boer War, they became known as khakis, in reference to the colour of their uniforms – which, by then, was no longer the red coats so unsuitable to the South African climate.^[20][21]

Another common term used by Afrikaners to describe the British in South Africa is soutie or soutpiel, meaning "salty" or "salty penis" respectively. The meaning behind this is that they have one foot in Britain and one foot in South Africa, leaving their penis to hang in the salty sea water.^[22]

In the East African Bantu languages mlungu has come to mean any white European but more often than not especially the British or English due to their colonial past in the region.

South Asia

In Nepal, the British are often referred to as Kuires/Khaires which means people of white or pale colour. It is also used in general for any Caucasian person with white skin.

In Malaysia, one common Malay equivalent is Mat Salleh. The term may have originated from the general depiction of British colonial sailors who were often drunk (Mad Sailors); due to the inability of locals to pronounce English words correctly, it became mat salleh (Mat and Salleh are both typical Malay names). Another possible origin of the phrase is the Mat Salleh Rebellion, led by North Borneo chief Mat Salleh, against the British North Borneo Company during the late-19th century. Another alternative to mat salleh is orang putih (literally "white people" in Malay) or its shortened rural form, omputih. In ancient Malaccan times, the term orang deringgi was also used.

Angrez, Angrej, Ingraj, Anggrit are versions of French word Anglais meaning Englishman.^{[citation needed]}

Ingraj is used in Maharashtra (Marathi) and West Bengal (Bengali) region of India to refer to British people.^[23]

Among South Asians, Angrez has the same meaning, 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-Saxon origin. So people of South Asian origin living in England do not usually refer to themselves as Angrez or Angrezan. Replacing the z with j and j with z is common practice especially amongst people from India, particularly Indian Punjab; hence it would be "Angrej" (masculine) and "Angrejan" (female). The adjective Gora (Gori for females) is also commonly used amongst South Asians and South Asian British to refer to white Britons, although the term literally translates to "fair-skinned one", and thus could and is applied to individuals of any ethnicity with a fair complexion including south Asians themselves. The adjective has also been used as a noun to describe white people – hence its potential as a racial slur.^{[citation needed]}

Indian Punjabis use the term Englandi for any other citizen of England, including Asian British people, regardless of that person's ancestral ethnicity.^{[citation needed]}

Malayalis of Kerala use the term Sayyip to refer to a male westerner. The feminine equivalent is Madaamma.^{[citation needed]}

In Assam (which became part of British India in 1828), the British are called Boga Bongal (literally meaning White Foreigners or White Intruders). Bongal was a derogatory word for foreigners and invaders in Assam under Ahom rule and it still is used.

In Thai, the word anggrit (อังกฤษ) is used to described both the English in particular, and the British in general. In everyday speech the word farang (ฝรั่ง) is usually used to describe British people as well as other light-skinned Caucasians. Some foreigners regard this word as racist. In journalism, the expression puu dee (ผู้ดี) meaning "nobleman" is sometimes used to denote "English".^{[citation needed]}

"Suddo", "Ingrisikarayo" are Sri Lankan, Sinhalese names for British and other western white skinned people.^{[citation needed]}

East Asia

The following terms are used to mean "Britain" or "British" and come use etymologies mostly unrelated to "Britain":

• Chinese: Yīngguó (Simplified characters: 英国, Traditional characters: 英國)
• Japanese: Eikoku (Kanji: 英国)
• Korean: Yeongguk (Hangul: 영국, Hanja: 英國)
• Vietnamese: Anh Quốc (Chữ nôm: 英国)

These terms are also used to refer to England in unofficial contexts. More formal names also exist, such as the Chinese 聯合王國 Liánhéwángguó and Japanese 連合王国 Rengōōkoku literally meaning "United Kingdom". Separate words exist in all of these languages for each of the constituent parts of the UK, including England, although, as elsewhere, there is little awareness of correct usage. The Chinese Dàbùlièdiān (Hanzi: 大不列颠) is used for historical purposes to mean "Great Britain." The first character means "Great" and the other three have unrelated meanings, having been selected for the sound instead of meaning.

The Chinese Yīngguó and the Japanese Eikoku are written identically as 英国, where the first character 英 means "outstanding," "excellence," or "flower," and the second character 国 means "country," "nation," or "kingdom."

In Japanese, the term Igirisu (Katakana: イギリス) is used interchangeably with Eikoku, but is considered slightly more foreign because it comes from the Portuguese "Inglês."

Lack of British/English Distinction

In many languages, the equivalent terms for 'English' and 'England' are often used interchangeably with 'British' and 'Britain', and this is also relatively common in many non-British varieties of English.

In Turkish 'İngiltere' is used for both Britain and England, despite there being a separate word for Britain, 'Britanya'. Welsh people in particular are very often referred to in French as 'Anglais' rather than 'Gallois', in Russian as 'англичанин' Angličanin, and so on. The same occurs rather less frequently in the case of individuals from Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, even those countries may still sometimes be considered to form part of Angleterre or the equivalent. In French, the word britannique ('British') is restricted to more official contexts and tends to be used for governments rather than for individuals.

In Spain the distinction between the English, Scots, Welsh and their mother countries is, as in Latin America, almost completely non-existent. This is reflected in the media where the British government, the army, etc., are all referred to as Inglés[English].

Alternative names for English

• Sassenach – used to describe the English, by their immediate Gaelic-speaking neighbours: the Scots, and the Irish. The term is derived from the original name of the Anglo-Saxon settlers in what is now Lowland Scotland – i.e. the Saxons.

• The Cornish word for an Englishman is "Sows", and the Cornish word for the English language is "Sowsnek".

• les goddams – During the Hundred Years' War, the French took to calling the English les goddams because of their frequent use of expletives.

• Saeson (often abbreviated to 'Sais') – used by Welsh-speakers to refer to English people (and, less frequently, English-speakers). As with other Celtic tongues, this term is a reference to the Saxons.

Alternative names for Scottish

• Scots
• Jock
• Jimmy
• Sweaty, Cockney rhyming slang, sweaty sock = Jock

Alternative names for Welsh

• Taffy

See also

• Britons (historic)
• British Isles (terminology)
• Blighty
• List of British regional nicknames
• Offensive terms per nationality

References