Subject: Re: Nicknames |
Hello to all,
My family's home town is Portsmouth in the South of the UK. It is a frankly rather ugly military port with over 800 years of history. (Were I the local tourist board, I would point out the 13th Century Norman castle built within existing Roman walls, the 16th Century fortifications built by Henry VIII, HMS Victory - A 100 gun late 17th Century warship -Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, The house where Charles Dickens was born, and the home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle where he invented the character of Sherlock Holmes). The city is widely known as "Pompey", but the origins are uncertain. It is most probably a Naval nickname that arose from some Portsmouth based Sailors scaling Pompey's Pillar in Alexandria. These men became known as "pompey's boys" and the term came to encompass any sailors based at Portsmouth. Tim Hampshire, UK |