A pint of numbers

Down the pub this evening, one of my colleagues referred to the beer Kronenbourg as 'numbers' - presumably because its full name is 'Kronenbourg 1664'. That's a new one on me.

Photo from Flickr

And Googling 'Kronenbourg' and 'pint of numbers' threw up this nice little anecdote (which I have very gently subbed):

I once worked as a barman and this lad ordered a pint of "numbers" with a male colleague of mine. The barman who was working with me didn't respond to this chap's request. The customer, thinking he had a cool way of ordering his preferred tipple, said: "Haven't you heard of a pint numbers before, pal, what sort of barman are you?" The barman replied: "Yes I have, but we sell 80 Bob as well." Needless to say, the smile was wiped right off his face.

Apparently, 80 Bob a Scottish beer also called 80 Shilling, or sometimes 'Caley 80'. There you go.

Tesco teaches teenagerese

The Daily Mail yesterday carried a story about Tesco issuing "a phrasebook of 'teenagerese' to its growing band of workers over retirement age to help them understand their younger colleagues and customers".

The paper listed some of the words and phrases in the phrasebook (plus definitions), including 'wack', 'buggin' and 'phat'. However two of the words given were 'vexed', and 'rank' (with the meaning of 'disgusting, horrible'). I didn't think either of these were slang - and the OED agrees with me.

But next time you admit to being vexed by a rank smell in Tesco, don't be surprised if you see the supermarket's more mature employees reaching for a phrasebook...

Slang: hench

Recently I've come across the current youth slang word 'hench'. It's an adjective meaning 'well-built' or 'muscular' (used to describe men only!). Sadly I haven't been able to find much about the origins of the word except for a few suggestions on the web that that it derives from "black English". Can anyone help here?

Much more rarely, I've also come across 'hench' used to mean 'mate', but I think this is a more recent development. A colleague suggested that 'hench' may be related to 'henchman', meaning "a faithful follower or political supporter, especially one prepared to engage in dishonest practices" (OED).

I'm not convinced by that argument - although it is interesting that 'henchman' is from Old English 'hengest', or male horse, plus 'man' (obviously), and may originally have meant 'horse attendant'.

If I were to choose someone to look after my horse, I'd probably pick someone who was a) well-built and b) a mate, so maybe there is a connection after all...