Nicknames

[Nick]

It's a longshot, but any forum members have any ideas of any forenames that might generate the nickname "Tosh"?

It is definitely a family generated nickname and not based on his surname.

Thinking caps on!

[Terry Denham]

'Tosh' was a common nickname in the East End of London where I grew up.

Unfortunately, I don't know its origins.

[Terry_Reeves]

The Dictionary of Historical Slang gives several meanings of the word. The most likely one though is a contraction of the word "Tosher" which meant somebody who stole copper from the bottom of ships on the Thames.

Terry Reeves

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

The terms Tish & Tosh are derived from a song popular in the inter war years.

[BeppoSapone]

The terms Tish & Tosh are derived from a song popular in the inter war years.

This song led to a craze for people jokingly calling each other "Tish" and "Tosh". This even spread to the public hangman, Albert Pierrepoint.

...."But perhaps the strangest execution was that of a regular from Pierrepoint's pub. The man, a friendly sort given to singing in the pub, would always come in with the greeting, "Hello, Tosh", to which Pierrepoint would reply "Hello Tish".

One night, the man and his female companion left the pub as usual but, next morning, her body was found in a hotel bedroom five miles away, stripped and strangled, with the word, "Whore" written across her forehead.

Three months later, it was Pierrepoint's duty to hang the man at Strangeways. As the clock ticked down to the execution, the condemned man agonised to the warders as to whether his old friend, Albert, would speak to him. When Pierrepoint entered the cell, the man gingerly offered: "Hello, Tosh", to which the hangman replied: "Hello, Tish. How are you?"

"He relaxed at that and breathed in cheerfully," Pierrepoint wrote later. "I gently took his arms and strapped them quickly then said in his ear; `Come on, Tish, old chap'. He went lightly to the scaffold. I would say that he ran. He lifted the noose with the crown of his head and tried to get inside it, he was so anxious to please."

Full article here: http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/entertai...py_hangman.html

[johnreed]

From Cassell's dictionary of Slang:

tosh n pocket

tosh n a hat

tosh n a projecting or unseemly tooth

tosh n nonsense, rubbish

tosh n a form of familiar address to someone whose name is not known.

take your pick

john

[Bob Coulson]

In the N/E of England this name is frequently given to anyone named

Tony, Anthony.

Bob.