Word: limey
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...voyages. He guessed right, recommended citrus fruits to supply what science years later called vitamin C. In 1795, Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, ordered lemons or limes included in the daily diet on British ships. Soon British sailors and then the whole British people became known as "limeys." "Limey" bears no etymological relation to "Blimey," or to Limehouse, a London dock district named for an old lime kiln, or oast...
...English squire, half-heartedly tries for and loses the girl. This summation leaves three leftovers: a detective and two maids. The former has, if nothing more, an almost valid English accent; the younger of the latter two proves that it doesn't take an American Army to put a Limey biddy in a family...
More serious are the omissions: much slang (including John Hancock and limey), guides to pronunciation (especially for Englishmen) and often etymologies. The DAE's weakness in unprinted language may be connected with a reluctance to include unprintable language, for the great U.S. contributions to invective and bawdry are gravely slighted. The DAE's scholarly scope is enormous, and Editor Craigie recognizes the role of plain people in making speech. But in many vital respects Henry Louis Mencken, now at work on his fifth edition of The American Language, can still show the way to the professors...
MIDWAY SIGNS LIMEY PROF TO DOPE YANK TALK...
This irreverent headline in Chicago's Britain-baiting Tribune had to be decoded for Sir William Craigie when he reached the Midwest's capital in 1925. The "Limey prof," a shy, spike-bearded little Scotsman, was charmed. That was the kind of talk he had come to the U.S. to codify; No one could question his fitness for the job. One of the world's great linguists, he was co-editor of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, for which monumental task he was knighted...