Web www.phrases.org.uk

Yellow-belly

Meaning

A coward.

Origin

The term 'yellow-belly' began life in England in the late 18th century. Grose's A provincial glossary; with a collection of local proverbs etc, 1787, lists it:

"Yellow bellies. This is an appellation given to persons born in the Fens, who, it is jocularly said, have yellow bellies, like their eels."

The name wasn't limited to the Lincolnshire Fens. In the same year, Knight's Quarterly Magazine (London) published an account of life in the the Staffordshire Collieries. It began by describing the region as "a miserable tract of country commencing a few miles beyond Birmingham" and went on to recount a lady's attempts at guessing the nick-name of a local resident - Lie-a-bed, Cock-eye, Pig-tail and finally Yellow-belly.

Another English directory, A General Dictionary of Provincialisms, by William Holloway, 1839, which contains the obliging sub-heading - written with a view to rescue from oblivion the fast fading relics of by-gone days, also lists the term:

"Yellow-belly, A person born in the Fens of Lincolnshire (From the yellow, sickly complexion of persons residing in marshy situations.)"

Holloway clearly lifted the definition from Grose. How much credence we can give to either Grose's or Holloway's explanation of the origin of the term is open to doubt. Neither seems especially convincing. It is just as likely that 'yellow-belly' didn't refer to a person's complexion and had no literal meaning, but was simply a pleasant-sounding nonsense nick-name - somewhat akin to 'lily-livered'.

None of the UK uses of the name are especially derogatory and none suggest cowardice. For that sense we have to travel to the USA.

The screenplay of a B-feature western wasn't complete without a selection from the list of stock cowboy lingo. You were as likely to find a coward that wasn't called a yellow-belly as you were to see the Lone Ranger without his mask.

The first use of the term that I can find from the USA, and one that suggests the derogatory, cowardly meaning, comes from an account of a military skirmish in Texas, reported in The Wisconsin Enquirer, April 1842:

We learn from Capt. Wright, of the N. York, that it is the intention of the Texans to "keep dark" until the Mexicans cross the Colorado, and then give them a San Jacinto fight, with an army from 5000 to 7000 men. God send that they may bayonet every "yellow belly" in the Mexican army.

The US usage initially applied specifically to Mexicans, who were then at war with the USA. Whether the 'yellow' reference was a racist allusion to skin colour, ill-health, or to a likening to snakes, lizards etc. isn't clear. Whatever the origin, the US 'coward' version seems to be independent of the earlier English nick-name.