Do British people really say Gov'nor?

[Tim Winker]

I've been lurking for a while and I haven't seen this asked before, and I've always wondered.

Do British people really say Gov'nor? Or did they used to and don't any more? If they ever did, where did it come from?

[Crusoe]

Not very often. I've only ever been called guv'nor (in my experienced pronounced guv'nah) by the occasional taxi driver, and then only ones obviously from the East End of London. I'd be surprised if it was common in any other British accent.

[MC Master of Ceremonies]

Guv'nor (i.e. governor) means 'boss' in British slang. For example when people talk about 'The Guv'nor' they mean 'my boss' (you'll find that British football [soccer] players say this all the time when talking about their manager [head coach]).

[Tim Winker]

So where did it originate? I can think of dozens of better words to use for boss than "Governor" - King, Queen, Prince, Mayor, Duke, etc etc. Why governor?

[Princhester]

Why not?

[Tim Winker]

Because it's a mouthful. With the exception of Mayor, all my examples are only one syllable. There must be a reasoln for it, something out of an old book or the like.

[The Great Unwashed]

Simple, it's Cockney Rhyming Slang:

Governor short for Governor Bush rhymes with Mush meaning Ice-Cream,... or somthing.

[everton]

In what way would King, Queen, Prince, Mayor or Duke be a more applicable term for your employer or a person paying you for some service? Governor is just a general term for the person in charge, all the others you've mentioned are titles of office.

Crusoe and MC Master of Ceremonies are correct that it is used, but only in isolated cases. Boss is also used and if the speaker really cares about economy of speech he abbreviates gov'nor to "guv".

[Tim Winker]

I think my confusion comes from assuming governor has always meant a political authority rather than just a simple term meaning "boss" - and I wondered why governor was chosen way back when over King, Queen, Duke, etc.

My bad.

I have my answer anyway, so a Moderator can close this.

Thanks for your help everyone - this has bothered me so much I delurked to post it, so thanks also for bringing me out of my shell!

[punkkid]

Originally posted by The Great Unwashed
Simple, it's Cockney Rhyming Slang:

Governor short for Governor Bush rhymes with Mush meaning Ice-Cream,... or somthing.


lol. I guess only a fellow Brit would get that joke...

[amanset]

Originally posted by punkkid
lol. I guess only a fellow Brit would get that joke...

Well I'm a Brit and it has got me confused.

[garius]

if you want to pronounce it right, its probably much nearer to "guvnah".

And its pretty archaic these days.

The only time you'll really hear it is when football (Thats "soccer" to you barbaric ex-colonials) players are talking about the team manager. Then the term is used quite a lot.

[pjd]

it's usually abbreviated to just "Guv"

you hear it a lot on cop shows, don't know if real life cops
use it a lot though (no reason to suppose they don't)

[Iteki]

Also used to refer to prison governers no?

[Shrinking Violet]

Originally posted by amanset
Well I'm a Brit and it has got me confused.

Yeah, me too.

I think the term guv or guv'nah would only be used towards/in reference to a male, not a female. Or have I led a sheltered life? :)

Julie

[Ximenean]

Footballers tend to say "gaffer", not "guv'nor". Same meaning, not sure about the derivation.

[Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party]

What you've got to remember when asking about UK speech is that accents and dialects vary widely even between towns very close to each other. The word "guvnah" is applicable only to cockneys, although it has been taken up by others as of late.

I've heard taxi drivers say it when I was in London, but it's hardly ever used around here (the north).

[Steve Wright]

My Oxford Etymological Dictionary tells me "gaffer" is probably a contraction of "godfather" ... it rather predates Mario Puzo, though, so it's probably a term that got generically applied to paternalistic authority figures.

[Exapno Mapcase]

From dictionary.com

Chiefly British. An old man or a rustic.
Chiefly British. A boss or foreman.

Doesn't Tolkien use gaffer for grandfather?

[Mr_Friendly]

I say "mate" or "boss" but not "guvnor" tho I think the first two are terms that perhaps Americans wouldnt use?
You dont hear guvnah much tho, and in other news the streets of London are not constantly foggy either!

[samclem]

Historically, the term governor was used both in England and the US to mean a person's father, cited from 1827.

It is also cited from 1844 as a form of address, meaning sir or fellow. I think it died in the US while still in the 19th century. But continued in England.

[The Great Unwashed]

Originally posted by amanset
Well I'm a Brit and it has got me confused.
ice-cream short for ice-cream freezer rhymes with geezer meaning, oh never mind...

Anyway, only last night my Brummie(!) window-cleaner called be gov'nor and charged me a fiver for waving a dirty rag at my windows.

[amanset]

Originally posted by The Great Unwashed
ice-cream short for ice-cream freezer rhymes with geezer meaning, oh never mind...


Ah, I thought there was a definite meaning behind the slang rather than taking the piss out of the concept.

I guess I was having a sense of humour failure at the time, trying to work out how mush was ice cream.

I've been here too long.

[Peter Morris]

Also used by Police Constables to address their Chief Inspector.

[Biggirl]

Originally posted by amanset
Well I'm a Brit and it has got me confused.

I guess you have to be American to get the joke. I saw Ocean's 11.



Now if you are British and haven't seen Ocean's 11 you'll be really confused.

[amanset]

Originally posted by Biggirl
Now if you are British and haven't seen Ocean's 11 you'll be really confused.

I did, but it was some time ago. I gather it was something that the mockney said?

[Biggirl]

Basher Tarr: We're in Barney
Ocean's 10: Blank stares
Basher Tarr: You know. . . Barney
Ocean's 10: More blank stares
Basher Tarr: Barney Rubble. . . trouble!



P.S. Why is Don Cheadle uncredited? He has a relatively big part.

[jjimm]

I'm afraid to say that Don Cheadle's awful Dick Van Dyke accent - and the dreadful lines he was given to perform - were the only things in that film that I disliked. It was as bad as Sean Connery in pretty much anything he's not meant to be Scottish in. If the actor isn't good at accents and you're casting a London part, for goodness' sake get a London actor to do it. Or make the part's nationality fit the actor if you absolutely want him in that role.

As for his non-billing, I guess that's Hollywood for you. There were so many bigger names that he got shunted.

[Wendell Wagner]

He presumably asked to be uncredited. I don't think that there's any circumstances in which an actor can be forced to be uncredited. Usually when an actor is unbilled it's because they're a major actor in a small role and they don't want to fight it out with the other actors about who gets the higher billing.

[ChunkyLover53]

When in London last week our hotel-link driver asked a construction worker if he could take his "hole" - which I found out was his recently vacated parking space. The construction worker told him "There isn't going to be a hole in a second, guv" and we took off looking for another.

[sqweels]

Anyway, only last night my Brummie(!) window-cleaner called be gov'nor and charged me a fiver for waving a dirty rag at my windows.]

A foivah? Foive bleedin' quid? Roit Bahstad, he is! And it's me windows, init? :D