[Ads-l] pozzy (jam) in South Africa in 1900?

Stephen Goranson goranson at DUKE.EDU
Mon Oct 3 13:48:38 UTC 2016


A  site, "Great War Forum," gives a scan of a newspaper article "What's Pozzy?"--jam--said to be from 18 August 1900 Worcestershire Chronicle. I can't definitely confirm the date, but the content seems plausible: [Second Boer?] war in South Africa and [Field Marshall Paul ?] Methuen.

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?/


Another site, "British Library, World War One, SlangTerms at the Front," offers:

"The limited diet of the British soldier in the front line included Tickler's Plum and Apple Jam, known as 'pozzy' (possibly from a South African word for 'preserved food'),...."

https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/slang-terms-at-the-front#sthash.4WDu5jVN.dpuf



Stephen Goranson

http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/






from a Sept. 29, 2016 post:

OED's word of the day yesterday had pozzy ("origin unknown") from Jan. 1915.


Here in a google books snippet scan that includes the date Nov. 13, 1914 and p. no. 72, The Oxford Magazine (said to be vol. 33):


... those near him about some jam (' pozzy ') that had been served to them. He fell senseless, but recovered consciousness, smiled, and said, ' [snippet scan starts here] It 's all right, boys ; pass the word along to Mr. S that I shan't want any "pozzy" to-night' That was all. "Mr. S____ , the nearest officer, on getting the message, burst into tears, and all the men were quite downhearted.


https://books.google.com/books?id=0jLmAAAAMAAJ&q=pass+the+pozzy&dq=pass+the+pozzy&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilk4LWwLTPAhWDNSYKHdTrAlEQ6AEIJDAB

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