Maybe so, I said "as I understand it ..." and that's what I've been told. I can't see the French adopting that nickname, as their language doesn't really lend itself to suffixing "y" or "ey", or "ie" to word (like Smithy, Jonesy, Sickie, etc.) to make a nickname. Besides, they already call us "les Rosbif" (The roast beefs). Again, that sounds wholesome and doesn't bother me - better than being called a Frog :-)

>I thought that limes were substituted for lemons by ship owners because limes were cheaper... I also thought the French started using 'Limey' for British sailors - boy was I ever wrong!
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>>>I'd have thought that the word "lemon" originates from a place where they would grow, originally, and that wasn't England.
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>>>Lemons come from Southern Europe (Greece probably). What your area has is "limeys". {gd&r}
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>>Ah, well, quite topically, as I understand it, the Americans started calling British sailors "limeys" because of their habit of eating "limes" to stave off scurvy, and lemons, in those days, were called "limes".
>>To me it doesn't sound like a disparaging or insulting soubriquet, suggesting, as it does, healthy body and eating, unlike some of the American words for other foreigners.
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>>Yah Boo Sucks!