A yellowbelly (or yeller belly) is a person from
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a 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-west, Leicestershire ...
, 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 were green with yellow facings. The fastenings of the uniform tunic, which were known as
frogs, 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 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 รพe Elloe Bellie - Elloe meaning out of the morass while bel was the Celtic word for hole or hollow.][
]
See also
* Yellowbelly (Copthorne)
References
External links
Lincolnshire people
— BBC #REDIRECT 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 ex ...
page; offers a number of explanations for the name.
Nobbut A Yellerbelly
— 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
*
British regional nicknames
History of Lincolnshire