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TheOxford "-er", or often "-ers", is a colloquial and sometimes facetioussuffix prevalent atOxford University from about 1875, which is thought to have been borrowed from the slang ofRugby School. The term was defined by the lexicographerEric Partridge in hisDictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (several editions 1937–61).
The "-er" gave rise to such words asrugger and the now archaicfooter forRugby football, whilesoccer was used forassociation football.Togger was widely used for theTorpids Eights races held in early Spring, and for the crews that rowed in them. InThe Oxford Magazine of 27 February 1906, the Trinity College correspondent reported that "Our First Togger bumped Pembroke on Thursday, New College II on Saturday, Brasenose on Monday, Exeter on Tuesday. The Second Togger bumped Wadham on Thursday, Keble II on Friday, and St. Catherine's on Monday. We wish them continued success."[1]
The term "soccer", derived from a transformation/emendation of the "assoc" inassociation football, was popularised by a prominent English footballer,Charles Wreford-Brown (1866–1951).[2] The first recorded use of "soccer" was in 1895[3] (or even earlier in 1892[4]). Two years earlierThe Western Gazette reported that "W. Neilson was elected captain of 'rugger' and T. N. Perkins of 'socker'"[5] andHenry Watson Fowler recommendedsocker in preference to "soccer" to emphasise its correct pronunciation (i.e. hard "cc/ck").[6] In this context, he suggested that "baccy", because of the "cc" in "tobacco", was "more acceptable than soccer" (there being no "cc" in "Association"). "Socker" was the form that appeared in the first edition of theConcise Oxford Dictionary (1911).[7]
The sports writerE. W. Swanton, who joined the LondonEvening Standard in 1927, recalled that "Rugby football ... in those days, I think, was never called anything but rugger unless it were just football".[8] Around the same time theConservative MinisterLeo Amery noted that, for his thirteen-year-old sonJack, "footer in the rain [was] a very real grievance" atHarrow School.[9]
P. G. Wodehouse makes several references tofooter in his earlyschool stories,The Gold Bat (A & C Black, 1904),[10]The White Feather (A & C Black, 1907)[11] andMike (A & C Black, 1909),[12] all of which had first been serialised inThe Captain before appearing in book form.
InEvelyn Waugh'sBrideshead Revisited (1945), Oxford undergraduate Anthony Blanche claims that "I was lunching with my p-p-preposterous tutor. He thought it very odd my leaving when I did. I told him I had to change for f-f-footer."
InStiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), Wodehouse hasBertie Wooster being asked whether he was fond of rugger, to which he replied "I don't think I know him".
As late as 1972 the retired headmaster of a Hertfordshire grammar school recalled "the footer" (by which he meant rugby) having had a poor season in 1953–54.[13]
Typically such words are formed by abbreviating or altering the original word and adding "-er". Words to which "-er" is simply suffixed to provide a word with adifferent, though related, meaning – such as "Peeler" (early Metropolitan policeman, afterSir Robert Peel) and "exhibitioner" (an undergraduate holding a type of scholarship called an exhibition) – are not examples. Nor are slang nouns like "bounder" or "scorcher", formed by adding "-er" to a verb. "Topper" (for "top hat") may appear to be an example, but as a word meaning excellent person or thing, existed from the early 18th century. Both "top hat" and "topper" as synonymous terms date fromRegency times (c.1810–20) and Partridge (op. cit.) seems to suggest that the former, itself originally slang, may have been derived from the latter.[14]
Words like "rotter" (a disagreeable person, after "rotten") are somewhere in between.Fiver andtenner (for five and ten pound note respectively) probably do fit the "-er" mould, as, more obviously, doesoncer (one pound note), though this was always less prevalent than the higher denominations and is virtually obsolete following the introduction of the pound coin in 1983.
During theFirst World War the Belgian town ofYpres was known to British soldiers as "Wipers"[15] (and this is still often used by the town's inhabitants if speaking English). This had some hallmarks of an "-er" coinage and the form would have been familiar to many young officers, but "Wipers" was essentially an attempt to anglicize a name (/ipʁ/) that some soldiers found difficult to pronounce. In the BBC TV seriesBlackadder Goes Forth (Richard Curtis andBen Elton, 1988), a comedy series set in thetrenches during the First World War, Captain EdmundBlackadder (Rowan Atkinson) andLieutenant George (Hugh Laurie) occasionally addressed PrivateBaldrick (Tony Robinson) asBalders.
A common extension of the "-er" (though here theschwa sound is usually spelled "-a" rather than "-er") is found in names containing a pronounced "r", e.g., "Darren", "Barry", etc. where in addition to the "-er", the "r"-sound is replaced by a "zz" so one gets "Dazza" from "Darren", "Bazza" from "Barry".
The "-er" form was famously used on BBC radio'sTest Match Special byBrian Johnston (1912–94). Johnston was ex-Eton andNew College, Oxford, and widely known asJohnners. He bestowed nicknames on his fellow commentators onTest cricket:Blowers forHenry Blofeld (who was known in Australia as "Blofly"),Aggers (Jonathan Agnew),Bearders (scorerBill Frindall, known also as "the Bearded Wonder") andMcGillers (Alan McGilvray of theABC).[16] The habit extended to cricketers such asPhil Tufnell (Tuffers), but the "-ie" suffix is more common for commentating ex-players of this century, such asMichael Vaughan ("Vaughnie") orShane Warne ("Warnie").
The formerHampshire County Cricket Club captainColin Ingleby-Mackenzie, whose most usual nickname wasMcCrackers,[17] was sometimes addressed asIngers when he made occasional appearances onTMS, and formerMiddlesex bowler and journalistMike Selvey was referred to asSelvers.[18] The programme's producer, Peter Baxter, citedBackers as his own nickname andJenkers as that of commentator and cricketing journalist,Christopher Martin-Jenkins[19] (though the latter was better known by his initials, "CMJ").
Following his death in 1994, the satirical magazinePrivate Eye published a cartoon of Johnston arriving at the gates of heaven with the greeting "Morning,Godders". An earlierEye cartoon by McLachlan, reproduced in the 2007 edition ofWisden, included in its long caption a reference to former England bowlerFred Trueman asFredders (in fact, his common nickname, bestowed by Johnston, was "Sir Frederick"), whileyummers (i.e. "yummy") was applied to "another lovely cake sent in by one of our listeners". Blowers (Henry Blofeld) has continued the tradition, referring on one occasion to a particular stroke asinexplickers (inexplicable).[20]
Other "-er"s as personal names include:
"-er" forms of Oxford locations[41] include:
Brekker, breakker orbrekkers (for breakfast) is a coinage from the 1880s still in occasional use. In 1996,Jessica Mitford (1917–1996) in one of her final letters to her sister,Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, referred to "proper boiled eggs for breakker".[46]Shampers (champagne) occurs frequently, often speltchampers: "They like champers up north".[47]
At Cambridge University, cleaning staff who change bed linen and towels in college rooms are referred to as"bedders".
Simon Raven (1927–2001), describing an episode on military service in the late 1940s, referred several times to a particular brigadier as "the Brigger".[48]
Terms fromHarrow School includebluer (blue blazer) andyarder (school yard).
The wordbanter is another example of the Oxford "-er". The original word "bant" refers to a ritual whereby those passing from the main quadrangle ofUniversity College, Oxford to its secondary Radcliffe "quad" between the hours of 7 and 10 PM were made to rapidly consume an alcoholic beverage as they passed the entrance to a shared student room.[citation needed]
A flat-sidedconker (fruit of ahorse-chestnut) is known as acheeser, an "-er" contraction of "cheese-cutter".[49] The names applied to conkers that have triumphed in conker fights are arguably "-er" forms ("one-er", "twelver",etc), though "conker" itself is derived from a dialect word for the shell of a snail.
There are few "-ers" in the books ofP. G. Wodehouse, though, with reference to a boundary in cricket scoring four runs, his poem, "The Cricketer in Winter" contained the line, "And giving batsmen needlessfourers" (which he rhymed with "more errs").[50] The "-er" was evident also in the school cricketing stories ofE. F. Benson: "Owlers (this, of course, was Mr Howliss)" (David Blaize, 1916). In the twoChimneys novels ofAgatha Christie, a pompousCabinet Minister was nicknamedCodders because of his bulging eyes (presumably an allusion to thecod fish).[51]
Evelyn Waugh referred to his booksRemote People (1931) andBlack Mischief (1932) asRemoters andBlackers and toMadresfield Court, the country seat of theEarls Beauchamp, asMadders.[52]
Evidence ofbadders for the racquet sport ofbadminton[53] is largely anecdotal, as it is in respect of thehorse trials held since 1949 in the grounds ofBadminton House, Gloucestershire.
The same is true ofSkeggers (theLincolnshire seaside resort ofSkegness, famously described in a railway poster of 1908 as "so bracing") andHonkers, for the former British colony ofHong Kong, though this form (probably late 20th century) has appeared on a number of websites and in print[54] and Wodehouse's first employer,The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC, founded 1865), is sometimes referred to in theCity of London asHonkers and Shankers.
The stadium atTwickenham in South West London, used for major Rugby Union fixtures, including the annual Oxfordv.Cambridge 'Varsity match, is often abbreviated toTwickers and journalist Frank Keating has referred to the annuallawn tennis championships atWimbledon asWimbers.[55]
TheGloucestershire town ofCheltenham is sometimes reduced toChelters, particularly by visitors to theCheltenham Gold Cup horse races.
Chatsworth, seat of theDukes of Devonshire, has been referred to asChatters inPrivate Eye.[56]
WhenRoald Dahl was atRepton School (1929–34) the captain of a sport would awardcolours by saying "graggers [i.e. congratulations[57]] on your teamer" to the selected boy.[58]
Test Match Special aside, by the mid-20th century the "-er" was being replaced by snappier nicknames. Thus, in the stories ofAnthony Buckeridge (1912–2004), set in a preparatory school of the 1950s, Jennings was "Jen", and not "Jenners". Even so, in theHarry Potter books ofJ. K. Rowling (b. 1965), Dudley Dursley was addressed asDudders.
The adjectivebutters, meaning ugly (an abbreviation of "everything but 'er face"), is a 21st-century example of the "-er" as "street" slang,[59] as in "She's well butters, innit".[60] This is similar in concept to the well-establishedstarkers (stark naked). The origin ofbonkers (initially meaning light-headed and, latterly, crazy) is uncertain, but seems to date from theSecond World War[61] and is most likely an "-er" coinage derived from "bonk" (in the sense of a blow to the head).[62] Similarly,crackers is probably derived from "cracked" and ultimately from "crazy"; Partridge cited "get the crackers" as a late 19th-century slang for "to go mad".[63]
The late 20th century form, probably Australian in origin, that gave rise to such nicknames as "Bazza" (Barry Humphries's characterBarry McKenzie), "Gazza" (Paul Gascoigne), "Hezza" (Michael Heseltine), "Prezza" (John Prescott), "Bozza" (Boris Johnson), "Jezza" (Jeremy Clarkson), "Wozza" (Antony Worrall Thompson), "Wazza" (Wayne Rooney), and "Mozza" (Morrissey) has some similarities to the Oxford "-er". "Macca" for SirPaul McCartney and others is another variant, McCartney's former wifeHeather Mills having been referred to in the press as "Lady Macca" (or sometimes "Mucca"). InPrivate Eye's occasional spoof romance,Duchess of Love,Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall addressed her husband, Prince Charles, as "Chazza", while he referred to her asCammers.[64]