British slang, now obsolete, for a penny -- specifically one of the old pre-decimal pennies.
British slang, now obsolete, for a penny -- specifically one of the old pre-decimal pennies. The word was used in street slang and thieves' cant, particularly associated with market traders and itinerant sellers in Victorian London. It survives in historical accounts of urban low life and old glossaries of English cant vocabulary. Fell out of use as the pre-decimal currency disappeared.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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He wouldn't give a saltee for the whole lot, called it garbage and walked on.
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(UK, obsolete, slang) A penny.
"saltee" means: A penny.. This is informal slang, common in casual speech, texting and social media, but not appropriate for school work, applications or professional settings. There is no real cause for concern in itself; it is everyday peer vocabulary. If your child uses it, a light comment about audience and register is usually enough — no need to escalate. Context, more than the word, tells you whether to follow up.
"saltee" means: A penny.. Register: informal slang, fine in casual conversation, texting and social media but not in academic essays, business writing or formal speech. Note the regional or dialect label (UK) — usage may sound odd outside that variety. A common non-native mistake is to use the word in the wrong register, or to assume one fixed meaning when it is actually polysemous; always check the surrounding register and the audience before producing it yourself. In formal writing, prefer a neutral synonym or a short descriptive phrase, and use this word only when you have heard or read it being used naturally in a comparable context.
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