Does anyone know why (in Scotland at least) a water c*ck (or its cover) in the street is known as a "toby"?
Do different regions have different names for it (besides stopcock)?
Just curious.
Tim
- posted
7 years ago
OT: Whither "toby"?
Loading thread data ...
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
At a guess from toby jug...
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
formatting link
gives derivation as "Shelta word 'tobar' meaning road" (whatever Shelta is).
I've never heard it called anything other than stopcock - and that's in both Yorkshire and Buckinghamshire/Berkshire - the two areas of the country where I've lived.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
formatting link
Cheers
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
3 minutes Internet research reveals that it is in common and official use in Scotland (and perhaps NZ) but reveals no convincing etymology. A possiblility is an old Irish word for road.
Cross-posted to ukra as we have a significant and knowledgeable Scottish contingent.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
Never heard it called that in the NE of Scotland.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
I know it as a "toby" and I'm in Edinburgh. I'm guessing that it's because it's the same shape as a toby-jug hat as is suggested.
Brian
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
Indeed, we users of uk.r.a are all linguistic pundits - so I have to ask whether the OP really means "whither"? I would have thought that "wherefore" would be more appropriate.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
"Whence". From where.
Another Dave
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
LOL "knowledgeable". You crack me up you do, Rog.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
It's stopcock in the superior Lancashire.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
It's 'toby' in Sutherland.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
It's from jockish rhyming slang: Tobermory = Tory = an Englishman who likes to play hide the sausage, c*ck.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
Yes, "whence" also fits.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
In message , NY writes
I'm from upstate Northumberland, and it's always been a stopcock to me.
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
What is it in the inferior Lancashire?
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
You mean the black part?
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
En el artículo , Another Dave escribió:
"Wherefore" means "why", so it works in this context too: "why is it called a toby?"
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
it's in the road ...or pavement
- Vote on answer
- posted
7 years ago
Shelta /???lt?/[3] is a language spoken by Irish Travel lers, particularly in Ireland and the United Kingdom. In the earliest but undocumented period linguists surmise that the Trave ller community was Irish-speaking until a period of widespread bilingualism in Irish and Hiberno-English (or Scots in Scotland) set in, leading to cre olisation (possibly with a trilingual stage) [wikipedia:Shelta]
And Irish were involved in road construction.
Owain