A yellowbelly (or yeller belly) is a person from
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...
, England. The origin of this
nickname
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
is disputed, and many explanations have been offered. These include:
*The uniforms of the old
Lincolnshire Regiment
The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most other Army regiments ...
were green with yellow facings. The fastenings of the uniform tunic, which were known as
frogs
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" '' Triadobatrachus'' is ...
, were also yellow.
[John R. Ketteringham]
A Lincolnshire Hotchpotch.
*A species of newt, frog or eel (there is disagreement on this point) found in the Lincolnshire
Fens
A fen is a type of wetland.
Fen, Fenn, Fens, Fenns, may also refer to:
People
* Fen (name), a Chinese given name and surname
* Fen Cresswell (1915–1966), New Zealand cricketer
* Fen McDonald (1891–1915), Australian rules footballer
* Kees ...
had yellow undersides.
[
*Bacon hung up and stored for a long time turned yellow (reasty).][
*The backs of farm workers who stripped to the waist in hot weather turned dark brown but their bellies turned yellow.][
*Opium extracted from poppy heads, and taken to relieve malaria that was prevalent in the fens in earlier centuries, turned the skin a shade of yellow.][
*Sheep grazing in mustard fields were dusted by pollen from the blossom that turned their undersides yellow.][
*Women traders on street markets in past times are reputed to have worn a leather apron with two pockets, one for copper and silver and one for gold. At the end of a good day they would say they had 'a yellow belly' meaning they had taken a large number of gold sovereigns.][
*A folk etymology says that the term originated from Elloe, the name of the rural deanery that serves the fen area of the Lincoln Diocese. This in turn took its name from the Saxon Wapentake which was referred to as þe Elloe Bellie - Elloe meaning out of the morass while bel was the Celtic word for hole or hollow.][
]
See also
*Yellowbelly (Copthorne) A Yellowbelly is a native-born resident of Copthorne, West Sussex, England. The origin of this nickname is uncertain, but a number of explanations have been offered. These include:
* The men of Copthorne used to smelt iron and make charcoal in the ...
References
External links
Lincolnshire people
— BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
page; offers a number of explanations for the name.
— Publisher's page; gives a short description of this book on the Lincolnshire accent, with examples. By Alan Stennett. {{ISBN, 978-1-846740-05-3
— Extracts from the series of books by John R Ketteringham with that name and similar names