The Oxford "-er", or often "-ers", is a colloquial and sometimes facetious suffix prevalent at Oxford University from about 1875, which is thought to have been borrowed from the slang of Rugby School. The term was defined by the lexicographer Eric Partridge in his Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (several editions 1937–61).
Rugger, footer and soccer
The "-er" gave rise to such words as rugger and the now archaic footer for Rugby football, while soccer was used for association football. Togger was widely used for the Torpids Eights races held in early Spring, and for the crews that rowed in them. In The Oxford Magazine of 27 February 1906, the Trinity College correspondent reported that "Our First Togger bumped Pembroke on Thursday, New College II on Saturday, Brasenose on Monday, Exeter on Tuesday. The Second Togger bumped Wadham on Thursday, Keble II on Friday, and St. Catherine's on Monday. We wish them continued success."[The Oxford Magazine 27 February 1906, 248.
The term "soccer", derived from a transformation/emendation of the "assoc" in association football, was popularised by a prominent English footballer, Charles Wreford-Brown (1866–1951). Ekblom mentions that while he was up at Oxford, Charles Wreford-Brown was asked at breakfast if he was playing rugger "No" he replied "I'm playing soccer" (Granville, 1969, p. 29). But Ekblom opines that, like the William Webb Ellis rugby story, it is most likely apocryphal. The first recorded use of "soccer" was in 189519th Cent. Nov. 862. "When the boat~race, sports, and 'soccer' are in most men's minds." OED (soccer) (or even earlier in 1892). Two years earlier The Western Gazette reported that "W. Neilson was elected captain of 'rugger' and T. N. Perkins of 'socker1893 Westm. Gaz. 17 Oct. 5/3. OED (rugby). and Henry Watson Fowler recommended socker in preference to "soccer" to emphasise its correct pronunciation (i.e. hard "cc/ck").A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 1926. See also Susie Dent on Countdown, Channel 4 TV, 30 June 2009. In this context, he suggested that "baccy", because of the "cc" in "tobacco", was "more acceptable than soccer" (there being no "cc" in "Association"). "Socker" was the form that appeared in the first edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1911).The Times, 18 August 2011
The sports writer E. W. Swanton, who joined the London Evening Standard in 1927, recalled that "Rugby football ... in those days, I think, was never called anything but rugger unless it were just football".E. W. Swanton (1972) Sort of a Cricket Person Around the same time the Conservative Minister Leo Amery noted that, for his thirteen-year-old son Jack, "footer in the rain [was] a very real grievance" at Harrow School.See David Faber (2005) Speaking for England
In literature
P. G. Wodehouse makes several references to footer in his early school stories, The Gold Bat (A & C Black, 1904),Wodehouse, P. G. The Gold Bat. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 17 August 2023. The White Feather (A & C Black, 1907)Wodehouse, P. G. The White Feather. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 17 August 2023. and Mike (A & C Black, 1909),Wodehouse, P. G. Mike. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 17 August 2023. all of which had first been serialised in The Captain before appearing in book form.
In Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1945), Oxford undergraduate Anthony Blanche claims that "I was lunching with my p-p-preposterous tutor. He thought it very odd my leaving when I did. I told him I had to change for f-f-footer."
In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), Wodehouse has Bertie Wooster being asked whether he was fond of rugger, to which he replied "I don't think I know him".
As late as 1972 the retired headmaster of a Hertfordshire grammar school recalled "the footer" (by which he meant rugby) having had a poor season in 1953–54.Jenkins, Ernest H. Elizabethan Headmaster 1930–1961.
What is and is not
Typically such words are formed by abbreviating or altering the original word and adding "-er". Words to which "-er" is simply suffixed to provide a word with a different, though related, meaning – such as "Peeler" (early Metropolitan policeman, after Sir Robert Peel) and "exhibitioner" (an undergraduate holding a type of scholarship called an exhibition) – are not examples. Nor are slang nouns like "bounder" or "scorcher", formed by adding "-er" to a verb. "Topper" (for "top hat") may appear to be an example, but as a word meaning excellent person or thing, existed from the early 18th century. Both "top hat" and "topper" as synonymous terms date from Regency times (c.1810–20) and Partridge (op. cit.) seems to suggest that the former, itself originally slang, may have been derived from the latter.Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, op. cit.
Words like "rotter" (a disagreeable person, after "rotten") are somewhere in between. Fiver and tenner (for five and ten pound note respectively) probably do fit the "-er" mould, as, more obviously, does oncer (one pound note), though this was always less prevalent than the higher denominations and is virtually obsolete following the introduction of the pound coin in 1983.
During the First World War the Belgian town of Ypres was known to British soldiers as "Wipers"As in the Wipers Times: see The Wipers Times: A facsimile reprint of the trench magazines: The Wipers Times-The New Church Times-The Kemmel Times-The Somme Times-The B.E.F. Times, (Herbert Jenkins, 1918) (and this is still often used by the town's inhabitants if speaking English). This had some hallmarks of an "-er" coinage and the form would have been familiar to many young officers, but "Wipers" was essentially an attempt to anglicize a name () that some soldiers found difficult to pronounce. In the BBC TV series Blackadder Goes Forth (Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, 1988), a comedy series set in the trenches during the First World War, Captain Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) and Lieutenant George (Hugh Laurie) occasionally addressed Private Baldrick (Tony Robinson) as Balders.
A common extension of the "-er" (though here the schwa sound is usually spelled "-a" rather than "-er") is found in names containing a pronounced "r", e.g., "Darren", "Barry", etc. where in addition to the "-er", the "r"-sound is replaced by a "zz" so one gets "Dazza" from "Darren", "Bazza" from "Barry".
Test Match Special The "-er" form was famously used on BBC radio's Test Match Special by Brian Johnston (1912–94). Johnston was ex-Eton and New College, Oxford, and widely known as Johnners. He bestowed nicknames on his fellow commentators on Test cricket: Blowers for Henry Blofeld (who was known in Australia as "Blofly"), Aggers (Jonathan Agnew), Bearders (scorer Bill Frindall, known also as "the Bearded Wonder") and McGillers (Alan McGilvray of the ABC).Johnston, Brian (1992). Someone Who Was. The habit extended to cricketers such as Phil Tufnell (Tuffers), but the "-ie" suffix is more common for commentating ex-players of this century, such as Michael Vaughan ("Vaughnie") or Shane Warne ("Warnie").
The former Hampshire County Cricket Club captain Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie, whose most usual nickname was McCrackers,Wisden 2007. was sometimes addressed as Ingers when he made occasional appearances on TMS, and former Middlesex bowler and journalist Mike Selvey was referred to as Selvers.Test Match Special, 2 January 2007. The programme's producer, Peter Baxter, cited Backers as his own nickname and Jenkers as that of commentator and cricketing journalist, Christopher Martin-JenkinsBaxter, Peter (ed 1981) Test Match Special. (though the latter was better known by his initials, "CMJ").
Following his death in 1994, the satirical magazine Private Eye published a cartoon of Johnston arriving at the gates of heaven with the greeting "Morning, Godders". An earlier Eye cartoon by McLachlan, reproduced in the 2007 edition of Wisden, included in its long caption a reference to former England bowler Fred Trueman as Fredders (in fact, his common nickname, bestowed by Johnston, was "Sir Frederick"), while yummers (i.e. "yummy") was applied to "another lovely cake sent in by one of our listeners". Blowers (Henry Blofeld) has continued the tradition, referring on one occasion to a particular stroke as inexplickers (inexplicable).John, Andrew and Stephen Blake (2004). Cricket—it's a funny old game.
Other personal forms
Other "-er"s as personal names include: Athers: Lancashire and England cricket captain Michael Atherton (b. 1968), who subsequently became a commentator on both radio and TV ("all cricket-lovers have crackpot theories, even Athers"); Beckers: former England football captain David Beckham (b. 1975) became known almost universally as "Becks" (and with his wife Victoria, formerly of the Spice Girls, as "Posh and Becks"), but there are some instances of his being referred to as "Beckers"For example, Scottish Sunday Herald, 21 September 2003; Beemer: Rich Beem, professional golfer, television commentator and analyst. Betjers: as an undergraduate, the poet John Betjeman (1906–1984) was generally known as "Betjy" or "Betj", but Philip Larkin, among others, later adopted the "-er" form; Blashers: the magazine Country Life referred to the explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell (b. 1936) as "Blashers" (as in "Hats off to Blashers", reporting his having assisted in the design of a hat for explorersCountry Life, 29 June 2006); Brackers: Football commentator Peter Brackley was known as "Brackers". Tim Wonnacott also used this form with reference to Bargain Hunt expert James Braxton (owner of Edgar Horns Auctioneers, Eastbourne) during the 2008 series of the programme. Britters: American singer Britney Spears (b. 1981) was often described in the British press as "Britters".Sky Showbiz, 3 February 2006 Her boyfriend when she first rose to fame, the singer Justin Timberlake (b. 1981), was Timbers. Bozzer (or "Bozza"): British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (b. 1964) Camers or Cammers: applied occasionally to British Prime Minister David Cameron (b. 1966), notably by bloggers or spoof writers and especially with reference to his educational background (Eton and Oxford);See, for example, New Statesman, 26 March 2007 Cheggers: broadcaster Keith Chegwin (1957-2017); Chunners: Street Fighter video game character Chun-Li; Cleggers: Nick Clegg (b. 1967), British Deputy Prime Minister 2010-2015: shortly after the formation of a coalition government, a cartoon by Peter Brookes of The Times, had Prime Minister David Cameron saying, "Polish these [boots], Cleggers, old son...";The Times, 13 May 2010 Crabbers: former Sunderland AFC local radio commentator Simon Crabtree; Gazza: former footballer and manager Paul Gascoigne b. 1967 Griggers: recounting how she met John Betjeman, Alice Jennings, a programme engineer at the BBC during the Second World War referred to producer Geoffrey Grigson (1905–85) as follows: "John said, 'Who's that girl?' And Griggers from a great height said, 'That's your PE;Quoted in A. N. Wilson (2006) Betjeman Hatters was used by Private Eye with reference to Roy, Lord Hattersley (1932–2026), former Deputy Leader of the British Labour Party;Private Eye, 3 January 2006 Jezza: former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and TV personality Jeremy Clarkson From the 1960s and subsequently, Elanwy Jones of Collett Dickenson Pearce was known to her circle as Lanners; Macca : musician Paul McCartney Mozzer (or "Mozza"): musician Morrissey Notters: during the Falklands War of 1982 Conservative MP and diarist Alan Clark referred to British Defence Secretary John Nott (1932-2024) as "poor old Notters";Quoted in Andy McSmith (2010) No Such Thing as Society Pragger Wagger: various holders of the title of Prince of Wales, probably originally referring to Edward VII when heir apparent;