tosheroonとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 19th-century British slang, developed from or alongside tusheroon, of uncertain derivation from British slang caroon (“crown, a 5-shilling silver coin”), from Sabir and (originally) Italian corona (“crown”). The term was either derived from or influenced by madza caroon, the British slang for the Sabir and Italian mezzo corona (“half-crown”), possibly under influence from tosh (“copper items; valuables”) above or from the half-crown's value of two shillings & sixpence.

名詞

tosheroon (複数形 tosheroons)

1. (Britain, archaic slang) A half-crown coin; its value
   • 1933, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 29, in Down and Out in Paris and London‎^[1], London: Victor Gollancz, OCLC 6082214, pages 214–215:

     “’Ere y'are, the best rig-out you ever ’ad. A tosheroon [half a crown]^[sic] for the coat, two ’ogs for the trousers, one and a tanner for the boots, and a ’og for the cap and scarf. That's seven bob.”

   • 1961, Eric Partridge, The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang:

     tush or tosh. Money: Cockney: late C.19–20. Ex: tusheroon... But H. errs, I believe: he should mean half-a-crown, for tusheroon and its C.20 variant tossaroon (2s. 6d.) are manifest corruptions of Lingua Franca MADZA CAROON.