Limey

For other uses, see Limey (disambiguation).

British sailor circa 1790

"Limey" (from lime / lemon) is a predominantly American slang nickname for a British person. The word has been around since the mid 19th century. The word was a pejorative and remains so, although the word is not as commonly used.

History

The term is thought to have originated in the 1850s as lime-juicer, later shortened to "limey", and was originally used as a derogatory word for sailors in the British Royal Navy. Since the early 19th century, it had been the practice of the Royal Navy to add lemon juice to the sailors' daily ration of grog (watered-down rum). The vitamin C (specifically L-ascorbic acid) in citrus fruits prevented scurvy (see James Lind) and helped to make those sailors some of the healthiest of the time. At that time, "lemon" and "lime" were used interchangeably to refer to citrus fruits. Initially, lemon juice (from lemons imported from Europe) was used as the additive to grog on the Royal Navy ships, but that was later switched to limes, which were grown in British colonies, since it was not realized that limes contain only a quarter of the vitamin C that lemons have, and that the way the juice was stored and processed destroyed much of that and left the lime juice unable to prevent scurvy.

In time, the term lost its naval connotation and was used to refer to British people in general and, in the 1880s, British immigrants in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Although the term may have been used earlier in the US Navy as slang for a British sailor or a British warship, such a usage was not documented until 1918. By 1925, the usage of limey in American English had been extended to mean any British person, and the term was so commonly known that it was featured in American newspaper headlines.

See also

• Alternative names for the British
• Tommy Atkins