Scousers

[David90]

Does anyone know why people from Liverpool are (sometimes) called scousers ??

[Quizmonster]

'Lobscouse' was a mixture of vegetables and biscuit - with meat if they were lucky! - commonly served to seamen in past times. Presumably, it is the long connection with the sea enjoyed by the great seaport of Liverpool that caused the shortened version of the word to become associated with Liverpudlians in particular. In a similar way, British seamen were nicknamed �limeys'.

[Androcles]

So called, I was told, because you can lob anything in and the Scousers will eat it!

[redman41]

Quizmonster is correct regarding 'Lobscouse' as it was and still is a favourite dish in Liverpool. I believe it originated in Scandinavia. Great stuff on a cold winters day. The Welsh also treat the Dish as their own and I make it myself in the Winter. The word Scousers originates from this very healthy Dish of Meat and Veg

[pbeach]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouse_(food)

[tamborine]

Bookmarked 'cause it's 'tea' up norf ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FGh_9sKHFo

[redman41]

I think Lobscouse is the English Translation of a Scandinavian word which sounds similar. With the influx of many Scandinavian Sailors into Liverpool on the Ships, they must have converted many local Sailors to this appetising Dish. Don't know how many of you have tried it but it's good grub !

[Claud.Butler]

But why aren't Liverpudlians called Lobs?

[swedeheart]

Still a popular dish amongst meat-eaters in Sweden. Over here the spelling is lapskojs, pronounced something like lupscoys. Recipes vary. Wikipedia says the dish is German and the word comes from English via Dutch, and furthermore that...

...the origin of this English word is uncertain but it may be related to "loblolly", a word from an obscure Devonshire dialect where "lob" is probably an onomatopoeic description of bubbling. ("An obscure Devonshire dialect" - what other kind is there, he he he...;)

"My" Wikipedia article - unlike pbeach's - doesn't say anything about 'course' being part of the original word. The word lapskojs is an incredibly strange word in Swedish, it sounds very much like a Viking trying desperately to make some kind of sense of a foreign word. The Swedish Academy dictionary says our word comes from the English lobscouse and that the origin of that word is uncertain. So for once it doesn't seem to be a case of Cherchez the Viking for you guys;)

(...but the very old (older than Old Norse) Swedish word k�sa does come to mind...! Originally probably Low German, but we've used the word forever, originally in the form of kausa or kosa, so perhaps you should seek the Viking after all... but that's just me thinking, nothing I've found any evidence for.)

the dish in Wikipedia (apparently there's a Lapskaus Boulevard in Brooklyn...!)

loblolly

[Quizmonster]

SH, lob's course was not the original form, so Wiki has got that wrong, but the English novelist, Tobias Smollet, did use that exact phrase to name the dish in his Peregrine Princess published in 1751. So, it does have a longish history.

[Haggisdj]

So, Claud.Butler, what would you call an idle scouser then - lol