Why do cockney’s say "Gov’nuh’ (Governor) as a term of respect? I don’t know of any connection to the word – why not just sir?
WAG: “Governor” used to be what the boss was called at work, in some capacity at some time in the past.
My reasoning is that Cockneys also call people “Chief” and “Boss”.
And what if they’re not talking to a knight?
IMHO, it’s a class thing. “Sir” was reserved for the upper classes, whom cockneys rarely rubbed shoulders with. “Governer” was good enough for deferring to the middle class.
If you’ve ever seen that 70s TV documentary - sorry, drama serial - “The Sweeney” about the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad, you’ll know that a Detective Inspector is always addressed by his men as “Gov” (in the same way as the Detective Sergeant is called “Skip” or “Skipper”).
I think that’s true for sergeants and inspectors generally in English police forces, not just D.I.s and D.S.s, though there may be some regional dialectal differences.
Don’t British prisons and jails (or gaols) have a “governor” instead of a “warden”?
The “governor” is the official in charge of a British prison. The prison staff are under his authority.
In UK prisons, there are usually a goodly number of Governors.
The one in charge of the whole place is the No1 Governor - or governing Governor-, however every department will have a Governor in control, so you could easily see around 20 governors in some prisons.
You should not make the mistake of thinking that the No1 Governor is a particular level of governor either.
There are 5 differant levels with Governor Grade 1 being the highest, down to Governor Grade 5.
The governing Governor is the head of the jail, however that post may well be held by a Governor Grade 2 or Grade 3 in the low security places.
The most senior Governors are to be found in the most sensitive posts where an escape could have serious political consequencies, as well as a security problem.
My understanding of it is that the term ‘Guv’ relates to prison use.
We did this one about two years ago. I offered in that thread