Common British Slang You Didn’t Realize You Knew

“Bottoms Up!”

Back when Britain ruled an empire, persuading enough young men to join the navy was no easy task. Life at sea was not attractive for a simple seaman, and there were no union representatives or lawyers on board to say, “Please stop flogging that man.” So the Navy sent so-called press gangs around to dockside pubs and bought drinks (served in pewter pots) for the unwary. The trick was that at the bottom of the pot was a coin, and on finishing the drink you automatically “took the King’s shilling,” thus you agreed to join up. As people became aware of this trap, pubs began to sell alcohol in glass bottom pots to make the coin visible. If you lifted the tankard, you could see the coin on the bottom. Hence the expression bottoms up, which continues to be used as a happy exhortation to drink. We bet you didn’t know that these other words and phrases originated in the military.

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