sow's baby
A delightfully obscure piece of old British slang for a sixpence — the small silver coin worth six old pennies that circulated until decimalisation in 1971.
Definitions
A delightfully obscure piece of old British slang for a sixpence — the small silver coin worth six old pennies that circulated until decimalisation in 1971. The origin of the phrase is debated, but it fits into a long tradition of British rhyming and whimsical slang for coins. A sow's baby might have been humorous shorthand born from the pig's associations with small, round, pink things — though the exact logic of Victorian and Georgian slang rarely needs to be airtight to stick.
The street sweeper tipped his cap and held out his hand, hoping for at least a sow's baby for his trouble.
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(UK, obsolete, slang) A sixpence coin.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
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.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
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- simon65%
(slang, British, dated) Sixpence coin.
- sovvy65%
British slang for a sovereign — the gold coin worth one pound sterling that was a standard unit of currency through the 19th and early 20th centuries. Sovereigns became iconic symbols of wealth, and getting or spending a sovvy had weight. The coin is still minted today as a collectible and store of value, so 'sovvy' occasionally resurfaces in antiques, numismatics, or nostalgic conversation, though it's far less common than it once was on the streets.
- half a grunter65%
Obsolete British slang for a sixpence — one of those wonderfully strange old money terms where the coin's value gets coded in animal metaphors. A 'grunter' referred to a shilling (a pig makes a grunting sound, a pig = a shilling), so half a grunter naturally became a sixpence. Old British slang for money had a whole zoo's worth of animal references.
- sov62%
(British, slang) Pound sterling.