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Origin and history of scouse

scouse(n.)

1840, "sailor's stew made of meat, vegetables, and hardtack," short for lobscouse (1706), a word of uncertain origin (compare loblolly).

Lobscouse. A dish much eaten at sea, composed of salt beef, biscuit and onions, well peppered, and stewed together. [Grose, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 1788]

Transferred sense of "native or inhabitant of Liverpool" (where the stew is a characteristic dish) is recorded by 1945; in reference to the regional dialect by 1957. Related: Scouser (1959) 

also from 1840

Entries linking to scouse

loblolly(n.)

also lob lolly, "thick gruel," especially as a typical rustic dish, also the word for a nautical medicinal remedy, 1590s, probably from lob in some sense (or perhaps it is imitative of bubbling and boiling) + lolly, an obsolete Devonshire dialect word for "broth, soup, food boiled in a pot." Compare lobscouse (1706), another obscure word for a sailor's dish. Meaning "loutish person, bumpkin" is from c. 1600. Loblolly-pine "swamp-pine, an inferior lumber-producing tree growing in the U.S. South" is from 1760.

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    Trends of scouse

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    Old English west (adv.) "in or toward the west, in a westerly direction," from Proto-Germanic *west- (source also of Old Norse vestr, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, Dutch west, Old High German -west, only in compounds, German west), which is of uncertain origin. Perhaps from PIE *wes
    stew
    late 14c., steuen, transitive "to bathe (a person or a body part) in a steam bath" (a sense now obsolete), from Old French estuver "have a hot bath, plunge into a bath; stew" (Modern French étuver), a word of uncertain origin. It is common Romanic (cognates: Spanish estufar, Ital
    lip-service
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    bead
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    dimension
    late 14c., dimensioun, "measurable extent, magnitude measured along a diameter," from Latin dimensionem (nominative dimensio) "a measuring," noun of action from past-participle stem of dimetri "to measure out," from dis- (see dis-) + metiri "to measure," from PIE root *me- (2) "t
    devotion
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    late 14c., "pertaining to the sky or the visible heavens; pertaining to the Christian or pagan heaven," from Old French celestial "celestial, heavenly, sky-blue," from Latin caelestis "heavenly, pertaining to the sky," from caelum "heaven, sky; abode of the gods; climate," which
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