What is the meaning of GROAT. Phrases containing GROAT
See meanings and uses of GROAT!Slangs & AI meanings
Throat. 'e cleared his groat whilst wiping his mincers with 'is germans
five pound note (£5), UK, notably in Manchester (ack Michael Hicks); also a USA one dollar bill; also used as a slang term for a money note in Australia although Cassells is vague about the value (if you know please contact us). The word flag has been used since the 1500s as a slang expression for various types of money, and more recently for certain notes. Originally (16th-19thC) the slang word flag was used for an English fourpenny groat coin, derived possibly from Middle Low German word 'Vleger' meaning a coin worth 'more than a Bremer groat' (Cassells). Derivation in the USA would likely also have been influenced by the slang expression 'Jewish Flag' or 'Jews Flag' for a $1 bill, from early 20th century, being an envious derogatory reference to perceived and stereotypical Jewish success in business and finance.
an old silver four-penny coin from around 1300 and in use in similar form until c.1662, although Brewer states in his late 1800s revised edition of his 1870 dictionary of slang that 'the modern groat was introduced in 1835, and withdrawn in 1887', which is somewhat confusing. Presumably there were different versions and issues of the groat coin, which seems to have been present in the coinage from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Very occasionally older people, students of English or History, etc., refer to loose change of a small amount of coin money as groats. Sadly the word is almost obsolete now, although the groat coin is kept alive in Maundy Money. The word derives from Middle English and Middle Dutch 'groot' meaning 'great' since this coin was a big one, compared to a penny. The similar German and Austrian coin was the 'Groschen', equivalent to 10 'Pfennigs'. The word can actually be traced back to Roman times, when a 'Denarius Grossus' was a 'thick penny' (equivalent).
much debate about this: According to my information (1894 Brewer, and the modern Cassell's, Oxford, Morton, and various other sources) Joey was originally, from 1835 or 1836 a silver fourpenny piece called a groat (Brewer is firm about this), and this meaning subsequently transferred to the silver threepenny piece (Cassell's, Oxford, and Morton). I'm convinced these were the principal and most common usages of the Joey coin slang. Cassell's says Joey was also used for the brass-nickel threepenny bit, which was introduced in 1937, although as a child in South London the 1960s I cannot remember the threepenny bit ever being called a Joey, and neither can my Mum or Dad, who both say a Joey in London was a silver threepence and nothing else (although they'd be too young to remember groats...). I'm informed however (ack Stuart Taylor, Dec 2006) that Joey was indeed slang for the brass-nickel threepenny bit among children of the Worcester area in the period up to decimalisation in 1971, so as ever, slang is subject to regional variation. I personally feel (and think I recall) there was some transference of the Joey slang to the sixpence (tanner) some time after the silver threepenny coin changed to the brass threepenny bit (which was during the 1930-40s), and this would have been understandable because the silver sixpence was similar to the silver threepence, albeit slightly larger. There is also a view that Joey transferred from the threepenny bit to the sixpence when the latter became a more usual minimum fare in London taxi-cabs. So although the fourpenny groat and the silver threepenny coin arguably lay the major claim to the Joey title, usage also seems to have extended to later coins, notably the silver sixpence (tanner) and the brass-nickel threepenny bit. The Joey slang word seems reasonably certainly to have been named after the politician Joseph Hume (1777-1855), who advocated successfully that the fourpenny groat be reintroduced, which it was in 1835 or 1836, chiefly to foil London cab drivers (horse driven ones in those days) in their practice of pretending not to have change, with the intention of extorting a bigger tip, particularly when given two shillings for a two-mile fare, which at the time cost one shilling and eight-pence. The re-introduction of the groat thus enabled many customers to pay the exact fare, and so the cab drivers used the term Joey as a derisory reference for the fourpenny groats.
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n.
A half groat.
n.
A groat.
n.
Any small sum or coin; a groat; a stiver.
n.
An old English silver coin, equal to four pence.
n.
Coarse meal; ground malt; pl. groats.
n.
A British silver coin, worth four pence; a groat.
n.
Groats; hulled oats.
n. pl.
Groatts.
n.
Grain, esp. oats or wheat, hulled and coarsely ground; in high milling, fragments of cracked wheat smaller than groats.
n.
Any small sum of money.
n.
Groats; coarse flour or meal.
n. pl.
Dried grain, as oats or wheat, hulled and broken or crushed; in high milling, cracked fragments of wheat larger than grits.
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