woolly back
See also: woollyback and woolyback
English
Alternative forms
- wooley back (Geordie)
- woollyback
- woolyback
Etymology
The Liverpool Echo suggests two possible origins for the term, both dating back to the early 1900s:
- It may be a term for scab workers brought into the city from surrounding towns to manually load and unload ships in the Liverpool docks; unloading ships, the dockers would carry the woollen bales on their backs, leaving wool on their clothes.[1]
- It may be a term for men who delivered coal into Liverpool from mines surrounding the city, who wore sheep fleece to protect their backs.[1]
Another suggestion is that it could have originated in the Middle Ages from non-resident Welsh and English people trying to avoid the entry fee at the Chester city walls on market day by sneaking in the livestock entrance with a sheep on their back.
Noun
woolly back (plural woolly backs)
- (Liverpudlian slang, now historical) A non-Liverpudlian person who travels to Liverpool, especially to work at the docks.
- (Liverpudlian slang, derogatory) A person from the area surrounding Liverpool such as Prescot, Runcorn, Skelmersdale, St. Helens, Southport, Wigan, Widnes, and the Wirral.
- (Britain, slang) Any unsophisticated person from the countryside.
- (US, slang) Any Welsh person.
Synonyms
- wooly
Coordinate terms
- Liverpudlian
- Scouse
- Scouser
Translations
slang: unsophisticated person from the countryside
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See also
- scouse
- taffy
References
- Liverpool Echo
Further reading
- Fred Fazakerley, Scouse English (2001), pages 24 and 29
- Eric Partridge, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: J-Z (2006), page 2121