# Poll: Is the term "Limey" offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 6, 2004, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291 "2004-09-06T02:04:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291/21 "2004-09-06T17:29:59Z")
There are states in which ethnic identifiers of any kind cannot be used on licence plates. I can’t recall (and a quick Google search isn’t finding) the specific example I’m thinking of, but a couple years ago somebody tried to get something perfectly innocuous on their plate, identifying themselves as Irish or Italian or whatever, and they were knocked back under this law. Just in case, you know. ---
**Author:** ![NoPretentiousCodename](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/82dd89/32.png) [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291/22 "2004-09-06T18:14:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Also, can anyone else think of something using only 7 letters which would indicate that I am British? (BTW, I do have a British flag plate on the front of the car). A BLOKE 2 BRIT 4U UNION JK JOLLY GD IMA CHAP BEHAVE! GOR BLMY ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291/23 "2004-09-06T18:42:48Z")
Cecil on the origin of “Yankee”: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_260.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_260.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291/24 "2004-09-06T19:31:41Z")
> [@yojimbo](#): > > IIRC the admin/mods have said in the past that “septic” is not to be used. > > Can’t see why either term should be offensive by default. It’s all in the way it’s use is intended by the speaker. I’m not particularly offended and I’ve even called myself a seppo a few times since learning the term a month or so ago but it _is_ pretty offensive in nature – we’re being called shit receptacles. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291/25 "2004-09-06T22:07:01Z")
LIMEY is out. A visit to the Michigan Secretary of State web site turns up a page where you can request personalized plates: [http://sosntsl01.sos.state.mi.us/plates/](http://sosntsl01.sos.state.mi.us/plates/) Selecting one of the plate backgrounds that is offered allows one to take steps to order the plate, including an option to check on availability (I chose “Standard” just to access the page): [http://sosntsl01.sos.state.mi.us/plates/papstep2.asp?plateTYPE=STANDARD&plateID=blue](http://sosntsl01.sos.state.mi.us/plates/papstep2.asp?plateTYPE=STANDARD&plateID=blue) LIMEY came up as unavailable, although whether it was already taken or prohibited the response did not say. (I could not see any Yanks taking offense at the word Limey and if your fellow Brits don’t seem to mind, it would seem pretty inoffensive. Too bad it’s out. OTOH, Limey was originally a double insult, although the second aspect was inflicted by the Admiralty: once lemons were shown to ward off scurvy, someone in the Purchasing Office decided that limes would work just as well, and limes were cheaper. Unfortunately, limes carry a small fraction of the Vitamin C needed to ward off scurvy, so for around 50 years, British sailors wandered the oceans carrying a mocking name while still suffering scurvy.) ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291/26 "2004-09-07T11:43:56Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#): > > I suspect **China Guy** may have his causes and effects mixed up - the rhyming slang “septic (tank)” was invented to play off the previously existing slang term “Yank” … Quick search for the origins of septic tanks turns up [this page](http://fapel.org/english/ansepti16.htm), which strongly suggests that generations of Britons have called Americans “Yanks” before the septic tank was even thought of … and most still do; rhyming slang is a contrived thing, very much restricted to a particular London subculture - not much of it has, in fact, permeated into British English at large. All I can go off of is my personal experience. British expats in Tokyo, HK, China and other places I’ve lived/visited use “septic” a lot. As I posted elsewhere, these included Sandhurst Grads, Oxbridgers, as well as some pretty low life types. One hears it a lot, and it’s mixed with smirks smiles and giggles about “oh how fuckin’ clever we are because the septic here doesn’t understand our slang as we pretend to be his best buddy and make him shout a round.” I could care less about the emtymology, I just know I hear this a lot more often than anyone could possibly attribute to a particular London subculture. ---
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291/27 "2004-09-07T12:51:23Z")
Moot point now as the plates gone but I don’t have a problem with being called a limey. I would however suggest getting hold of TALLY HO 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291/28 "2004-09-07T19:46:25Z")
> [@China Guy](#): > > All I can go off of is my personal experience. British expats in Tokyo, HK, China and other places I’ve lived/visited use “septic” a lot. As I posted elsewhere, these included Sandhurst Grads, Oxbridgers, as well as some pretty low life types. One hears it a lot, and it’s mixed with smirks smiles and giggles about “oh how fuckin’ clever we are because the septic here doesn’t understand our slang as we pretend to be his best buddy and make him shout a round.” I could care less about the emtymology, I just know I hear this a lot more often than anyone could possibly attribute to a particular London subculture. Particular London-and-smirking-expat-git subculture, then. Mainstream British, definitely not. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291/29 "2004-09-07T20:12:23Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#): > > As to the OP: eh. I suppose “Limey” sounds a bit nicer than “Brit”, and the etymology can hardly be considered offensive, can it? “Look at that bloke there, he doesn’t have a deficiency disease” … not a killing insult, I would have thought. Whenever I hear that term I think about how the English were pretty clever to find a way to ward off scurvy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-the-term-limey-offensive/263291.md?page=1)