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Toff
In British English slang, a toff is a stereotype for someone with an aristocratic background or belonging to the landed gentry, particularly someone who exudes an air of superiority. For instance, the Toff, a character from the series of adventure novels by John Creasey, is an upper class crime sleuth who uses a common caricature of a toff – a line drawing with a top hat, monocle, bow-tie and cigarette with a holder – as his calling card. The word "toff" is thought to come from the word "tuft", which was a gold tassel worn by titled undergraduates at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge. The Old English word "toforan" has a meaning of "superiority". Ian Kelly's book, ''Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Dandy'', page 159, says it derives from the brown liquid that dripped from an upper class gentleman's nose after taking snuff (as in the adjective "toffee-nosed"). Hoorah Henry has a similar meaning. See also * Nobby * Plebs In ancient Rome, the plebe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toffee
Toffee is an English confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of . While being prepared, toffee is sometimes mixed with nuts or raisins. Variants and applications A popular variant in the United States is ''English toffee'', which is a very buttery toffee often made with almonds. It is available in both chewy and hard versions. Heath bars are a brand of confection made with an English toffee core. Although named ''English toffee,'' it bears little resemblance to the wide range of confectionery known as toffee currently available in the United Kingdom. However, one can still find this product in the UK under the name "butter crunch". Etymology The origins of the word are unknown. Food writer Harold McGee claims it to be "from the Creole for a mixture of sugar and molasses", but which creole language is not specified. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culture Of England
The culture of England is diverse. Owing to England's influential position within the United Kingdom it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate English culture from the culture of the United Kingdom as a whole. However, tracing its origins back to the early Anglo-Saxon era, England cultivated an increasingly distinct cultural heritage. This cultural development persisted throughout the subsequent Anglo-Norman era, and the reign of the Plantagenet dynasty. Humour, tradition, and good manners are characteristics commonly associated with being English.; England has made significant contributions in the world of literature, cinema, music, art and philosophy. The secretary of state for culture, media and sport is the government minister responsible for the cultural life of England. Many scientific and technological advancements originated in England, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The country has played an important role in engineering, democracy, shipbuildin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Toff
In the series of adventure novels by John Creasey, the Toff is the nickname of the Honourable Richard Rollison, an upper-class crime sleuth. Creasey published almost 60 Toff adventures, beginning with ''Introducing the Toff'' in 1938 and continuing through ''The Toff and the Crooked Copper'', published in 1977, four years after the author's death. Rollison is in many ways similar to Simon Templar, although Creasey's other character The Baron (TV series), The Baron bears an even closer resemblance. Unlike Templar and The Baron, Rollison has no earlier life of crime, although he frequently breaks or bends the law in pursuing his investigations. Rollison's calling card includes a caricature of a toff—a line drawing with a top hat, monocle, bow-tie and cigarette holder, cigarette with a holder. His flat includes a trophy wall, on which is a memento of every case Rollison helped to solve. In these stories Rollison is moderately well-known, as his exploits are frequently report ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoorah Henry
In British English slang, Hooray Henry or Hoorah Henry is a pejorative term, comparable to "toff", for an upper-middle class or upper class man who exudes loud-mouthed arrogance and an air of superiority, often flaunting his public school upbringing. It is cited as the male equivalent of a "Sloane Ranger", although the female equivalent of a Hooray Henry is sometimes referred to as a Hooray Henrietta. Coined as "Hoorah Henry" in 1936 by Eric Partridge, it became common in the United Kingdom by the 1950s when it was originally used to refer to the boisterous upper class fans of jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton who would shout "Hoorah!" between pieces he performed at the 100 Club in London. More recently, the term has become commonly used in British tabloid newspapers to express contempt towards the lifestyles of the upper class and their privileged upbringings in expensive public schools such as Eton College, and esteemed universities such as Oxford and Cambridge (commonly called ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toffs And Toughs
''Toffs and Toughs'' is a 1937 photograph of five English boys: two dressed in the Harrow School uniform including waistcoat, top hat, boutonnière, and cane; and three nearby wearing the plain clothes of pre-war working class youths. The picture was taken by Jimmy Sime on 9 July 1937 outside the Grace Gates at Lord's Cricket Ground during the Eton v Harrow cricket match. It has been reproduced frequently as an illustration of the British class system, although the name "Toffs and Toughs" may be no older than 2004. The day of the picture The Harrovians were Peter Wagner and Thomas Norwood Armitage "Tim" Dyson, who had arranged to be at Grace Gates at 2 pm, where Wagner's father would pick them up and drive them to Russ Hill, the Wagners’ country home in Surrey, for the weekend. The other three boys were George Salmon, Jack Catlin, and George Young, 13-year-old pupils at the local Church of England school. They had visited the dentist that morning and decided to skip school ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nobby
Nobby is the diminutive form of the name Norbert. It is also a nickname most commonly used in English for those with the surname Clark or Clarke. Origins as a nickname A number of possible explanations exist for the use of Nobby as a nickname for people with the surname Clark. These include: * Clerks in the City of London used to wear Nobby hats, a type of bowler hat. Alternative spellings include "Knobby" and "Clarke". * 16th century monks wrote letters for the illiterate. These monks were referred to as "Clerks". The outcome of so much writing causes calluses on the fingers "nobs" and therefore "Nobby Clerks" was born. * In England the term "nob" is used to refer to a member of the aristocracy and by extension a posh person. Clerks were also required to maintain a high standard of dress, and were paid a clothing allowance. The result was that they always appeared smart. A clerk would deal with the common people but would be better educated, better paid and in a position of re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British English
British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to the collective dialects of English throughout the United Kingdom taken as a single umbrella variety, for instance additionally incorporating Scottish English, Welsh English, and Northern Irish English. Tom McArthur (linguist), Tom McArthur in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford Guide to World English acknowledges that British English shares "all the ambiguities and tensions [with] the word 'British' and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity". Variations exist in formal (both written and spoken) English in the United Kingdom. For example, the adjective ''wee'' is almost exclusively used in parts of Scotland, north-east England, Northern Ireland, Ireland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snuff (tobacco)
Snuff is a type of smokeless tobacco product made from finely ground or pulverized tobacco leaves. The Old Snuff House of Fribourg & Treyer at the Sign of the Rasp & Crown, No.34 James's Haymarket, London, S.W., 1720, 1920. Author: George Evens and Fribourg & Treyer. Publisher: Nabu Press, London, England. Reproduced 5 August 2010, It is snorted or "sniffed" (alternatively sometimes written as "snuffed") into the nasal cavity, delivering nicotine and a flavored scent to the user (especially if flavoring has been blended with the tobacco). Traditionally, it is sniffed or inhaled lightly after a pinch of snuff is either placed onto the back surface of the hand, held pinched between thumb and index finger, or held by a specially made "snuffing" device. Snuff originated in the Americas and was commonly used in Europe by the 17th century. Traditional snuff production consists of a lengthy, multi-step process, in tobacco snuff mills. The selected tobacco leaves are first subject ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slang Terms For Men
A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of particular in-groups in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. The word itself came about in the 18th century and has been defined in multiple ways since its conception, with no single technical usage in linguistics. Etymology of the word ''slang'' In its earliest attested use (1756), the word ''slang'' referred to the vocabulary of "low" or "disreputable" people. By the early nineteenth century, it was no longer exclusively associated with disreputable people, but continued to be applied to usages below the level of standard educated speech. In Scots dialect it meant "talk, chat, gossip", as used by Aberdeen poet William Scott in 1832: "The slang gaed on aboot their war'ly care." In northern English dialect it meant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plebs
In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the group and the term are unclear, but may be related to the Greek, ''plēthos'', meaning masses. In Latin, the word is a singular collective noun, and its genitive is . Plebeians were not a monolithic social class. In ancient Rome In the annalistic tradition of Livy and Dionysius, the distinction between patricians and plebeians was as old as Rome itself, instituted by Romulus' appointment of the first hundred senators, whose descendants became the patriciate. Modern hypotheses date the distinction "anywhere from the regal period to the late fifth century" BC. The 19th-century historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr believed plebeians were possibly foreigners immigrating from other parts of Italy. This hypothesis, that plebeians were raci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586. It is the second-oldest university press after Cambridge University Press, which was founded in 1534. It is a department of the University of Oxford. It is governed by a group of 15 academics, the Delegates of the Press, appointed by the Vice Chancellor, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, Oxford, Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho, Oxford, Jericho. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, world's third-oldest university in continuous operation. The university's founding followed the arrival of scholars who left the University of Oxford for Cambridge after a dispute with local townspeople. The two ancient university, ancient English universities, although sometimes described as rivals, share many common features and are often jointly referred to as Oxbridge. In 1231, 22 years after its founding, the university was recognised with a royal charter, granted by Henry III of England, King Henry III. The University of Cambridge includes colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 semi-autonomous constituent colleges and List of institutions of the University of Cambridge#Schools, Faculties, and Departments, over 150 academic departm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
