The British empire's control of India led to a number of phrases making their way across from the Raj to our shores, with a 'monkey' perhaps the most famous. Referring to £500, this term is derived from the Indian 500 Rupee note of that era, which featured a monkey on one side.
Where do the terms 'monkey' and 'pony' come from? Whilst this is not cemented in fact, the widely held belief is that the terms came from soldiers returning to Britain from India. Old Indian rupee banknotes had animals on them and it is said that the 500 rupee note had a monkey on it and the 25 rupee featured a pony.
London slang for £500
Though familiar to many Londoners, the term “monkey” is actually Indian slang for a 500 rupee note, which used to have a monkey on it. When the British Empire occupied India in the 19th century, some Indian slang words made it over to the UK, with “monkey” being one of them.
3 years hard labour was known as drag. The cockney rhyming slang for drag was carpet bag. The number 3 and 3/1 later became known as carpet.
lolly = money. More popular in the 1960s than today. Precise origin unknown. Possibly rhyming slang linking lollipop to copper.
This story is ripe with Graham's cockneyisms, from the tetchy imperative “pack it in,” to greeting James Blake with a cheery “oi oi!” and then calling him “cockle.” That last one has a complicated etymology, born partly out of cockney rhyming slang where “cockerel and hen” means ten, so a cockle is a ten-pound note, or ...
Derived from the fact Americans on welfare used to receive cheese as part of their benefits. EXPLANATION: This well-known American phrase was born at the end of the Second World War. Welfare packages included a hearty lump of cheese - so to receive your cheese meant to receive your benefits.
Where bread was the traditional everyday necessity of life in the 19th Century, to earn one's living was to earn one's bread, therefore bread became synonymous with money. When people had little else, they always had bread.
The ton is derived from the tun, the term applied to a cask of the largest capacity. This could contain a volume between 175 and 213 imperial gallons (210 and 256 US gal; 800 and 970 L), which could weigh around 2,000 pounds (910 kg) and occupy some 60 cubic feet (1.7 m3) of space.
grand. The word grand is used in US and UK slang to mean a thousand dollars or a thousand pounds. There are several theories where this term came from, including the possibility that it refers to $1,000 being a grand (“large”) sum of money.
Cockney Money Slang
The first things you gotta learn are that five pounds is a fiver, and ten pounds is a tenner. Then you gotta know the key money values: £20 is a Score, £25 is a Pony, £100 is a Ton, £500 is a Monkey, and £1000 is a Grand. Here's our list of terms from the dictionary that are money-related.
"On the floor" (poor)
"C-note" is a slang term for a $100 banknote in U.S. currency. The "C" in C-note refers to the Roman numeral for 100, which was printed on $100 bills, and it can also refer to a century. The term came to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s, and it was popularized in a number of gangster films.
100,000 US dollars is called a "brick" or a "honey bun".
The original meaning of "score" was the sense of a notch or incision (e.g. *to score a piece of paper*). Shepherds would often count their sheep by making a notch in a piece of wood for every 20 sheep, from which the meanings "a score"="twenty" and "score" = "tally" both arise.
Scratch
This word has been used to mean money since the beginning of the 20th century, but we don't seem to know why. Some believe it's a reference to the phrase “starting from scratch” to imply that everything starts with money.
In the early twentieth century, the word gravy came to mean “easy money.” This sometimes meant easy profits resulting from just plain old good luck, but it also could refer to easy, but ill-gotten gains, especially through conning your way into it.
Meaning of white money in English
Money offered by foreign sponsors for setting up business was often referred to as 'white money' (dkar ngul). Accordingly, it was only the white money that had any value or use.
Bacon: The term “bacon” usually refers to smoked and cured pig and has since evolved to also refer to money. It's typically used in the phrase “bring home the bacon,” but just like the delicious meat, you can use it however you please.
The term "cap" refers to a lie or falsehood, while "no cap" means "no lie" or "for real." The origins of the term are uncertain, but it is believed to have originated in hip-hop culture and then spread to other aspects of African American culture before being adopted by mainstream culture.
A monetary term that stands for dollars; amount of bones equals the amount of dollars, e.g., 5 bones equals 5 dollars; may also appear as "bone" for a single dollar; similar to scratch, paper, and dough.
Bruv is short for brother, as in “fellow; buddy.” It's a familiar term typically used between male friends, close relations, or even actual brothers. Bruvver is one regional (especially Cockney) pronunciation of brother in the UK, and bruv is a shortening of that.
Kettle and hob = watch
The term means watch, which stemmed from a 'fob' watch which was a pocket watch attached to the body with a small chain. The kettle used to boil on the hob of a stove… hence the rhyme.
"Do me a favour" (rhyming with "lemon flavour") in Cockney rhyming slang.