Old Indian rupee banknotes had animals on them and it is said that the 500 rupee note had a monkey on it and the 25 rupee featured a pony and it has been suggested British soldiers returning home coined the phrase 'Monkey' to mean £500 and 'Pony' for £25 and the more recently used 'Bag of Sand' - grand to mean £1000 .
The first things you have to known are that five pounds is a fiver, and ten pounds is a tenner. Then you must learn the main money values: £20 is a score, £25 is a pony, £100 is a ton, £500 is a monkey, and £1000 is a grand. Here is the complete list of cockney money slang.
The British empire's control of India led to a number of phrases making their way across from the Raj to our shores, with a 'monkey' perhaps the most famous. Referring to £500, this term is derived from the Indian 500 Rupee note of that era, which featured a monkey on one side.
bag/bag of sand = grand = one thousand pounds (£1,000), seemingly recent cockney rhyming slang, in use from around the mid-1990s in Greater London; perhaps more widely too.
A lesson in cockney rhyming slang: Daisy Roots vs Roman candles | Jay Blades' East End Through Time
Why is a watch called a kettle?
Kettle and hob = watch
This is a confusing phrase as it doesn't rhyme with its modern-day meaning. The term means watch, which stemmed from a 'fob' watch, which was a pocket watch attached to the body with a small chain. The kettle used to boil on the hob of a stove...
Lolly: This weird name for money was originally short for lollipop. It entered British slang as a term for money in the mid-20th century. But no matter where you're from, most everyone agrees money is sweet. Loot: “Loot” is one of the old words for money we still use today.
in the big 25. (Internet slang) In the year 2025, i.e. the present time; said to draw attention to something that is outdated. Ohio jokes?! In the big 25?!
Kettle and hob refers to a watch. Back in the old days, “fob” was the word for a pocket watch. Hob (which is a stove), rhymes with “fob.” It's common to refer to a watch as simply a kettle. How it's used: “My girlfriend got me a nice kettle for my birthday.”
The original meaning of "score" was the sense of a notch or incision (e.g. *to score a piece of paper*). Shepherds would often count their sheep by making a notch in a piece of wood for every 20 sheep, from which the meanings "a score"="twenty" and "score" = "tally" both arise.
Mountain and moorland, frequently abbreviated M&M, is a classification of nine pony breeds native to the British Isles that originated on the moorlands, heaths, highlands and uplands.
Hank Marvin was a guitarist in popular band during the 1960s. Cockneys took a shine to his name, and now you can announce your levels of hunger by including Hank, Marvin, or Hank Marvin in a sentence.
The cockney dialect is not dead, it's just called Essex now. As English dialects go, cockney is one of the most influential. Long considered the preserve of working-class communities in east London, it has shaped the way people speak across the country, from Reading, Milton Keynes and even Hull all the way to Glasgow.
Q From John Abbeydale: Why does the word carpet mean three in English slang — as in a prison sentence of either three years or three months or, even, a three-pound bet? A To find the origins of this we have to delve into criminals' and prison slang.
The green color reminded a lot of people of vegetables, so by 1911, people were calling their green bills kale, by 1929, lettuce, and by 1942, cabbage.
Touché (pronounced tuːˈʃeɪ "too-shay") is a French word that is used in the English language. Its origins come from the sport of Fencing, where a "touché" means that you've successfully touched your opponent (and scored a point) with your weapon.
/bənz/ Definitions of buns. noun. the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on. synonyms: ass, backside, behind, bottom, bum, butt, buttocks, can, derriere, fanny, fundament, hind end, hindquarters, keister, nates, posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, seat, stern, tail, tail end, tooshie, tush.
To be on one's Jack Jones means to be alone… We can also say 'on me Jack' without the 'Jones' to also mean alone. Did you know this expression comes from Cockney rhyming slang? This type of slang comes from the East End of London but many of its expressions have passed into common language.
Since “television” is often shortened to “telly”, the Cockney rhyming slang for TV is “Custard and Jelly”, so don't be confused if your friend asks to come round to your “cat and mouse” (house) to “watch the itch on your custard”.
