A Fiver Is Five Pounds, and Britain Has a Word for Each Note
A fiver is a five-pound note. British informal English has a full set of nicknames for amounts of money.
A fiver is a five-pound note, or a five-dollar bill in American use. British money slang runs a long way past it: a *tenner* is ten pounds, a *pony* twenty-five, a *ton* a hundred, a *monkey* five hundred and a *grand* a thousand. The animal names are said to come from Indian army slang, after the figures on nineteenth-century rupee notes, though the evidence is thin. The pattern *-er* also gives *tenner* and *twenty*.
- A five-pound note. *Lend me a fiver.*
- Tenner — ten pounds. *A tenner.*
- Pony — twenty-five pounds. *A pony.*
- Monkey — five hundred pounds. *A monkey.*
- Grand — a thousand. *Ten grand.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | fiver | One fiver. |
| Plural | fivers | Two fivers. |
| Related | tenner | A tenner. |
| Related | quid | Five quid. |
| Related | grand | Two grand. |
- It only cost a fiver.Price.
- He owes me a tenner.Ten pounds.
- Quid never takes a plural s.Usage.
British money slang
- Quid — a pound, and never quids
- Fiver, tenner — five and ten pounds
- Pony — twenty-five; monkey — five hundred
- Ton — a hundred, also used for speed and cricket scores
- Grand — a thousand, and also never grands
From *five* plus the *-er* suffix, recorded from the 1840s, on the same pattern as *tenner*.
Is it five quid or five quids?
Five quid. Quid has no plural form in this use, and neither does grand.
Why is five hundred pounds a monkey?
The usual explanation is Indian army slang from figures on rupee notes, though the evidence for it is weak.