noun General Slang

Flatch

/flætʃ/ · noun · slang

Cockney back-slang for 'half' — half a coin, half a measure, half the price.

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Definitions

1

Half, especially half a coin such as a halfpenny ('flatch yennep'). From 'half' reshaped under back-slang into 'flatch', used constantly in market pricing and change.

“A flatch yennep each, you can't say fairer than that.”
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2

Half of anything shared or split between traders — a partnership, takings or a deal.

“We worked the pitch together, so it's flatch and flatch on the yenom.”
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3

Half a quantity or half a measure of goods.

“Just a flatch pound of feeb, it's only the two of us.”
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Flatch In A Sentence

He knocked a flatch off the price to clear the last basket.
Flatch a dunop for that? Done, wrap it up.
Split the day flatch and flatch, no arguments, that was the rule.

Origin & Usage

Cockney costermonger back-slang of the 1840s, the reshaped form of 'half' used in coded pricing alongside yennep and dunop, recorded in the Mayhew (1851) and Hotten (1859) accounts of London street trade.

Variants flatchkennurdflatcher
Tags #cockney#back-slang#british#uk#money

People Also Ask

What does flatch mean?

It means half — a back-slang reshaping of 'half', often used for a halfpenny ('flatch yennep').

Why doesn't flatch look like 'half' reversed?

Back-slang frequently bends and reshapes a word for pronunciation rather than reversing it letter-perfectly, and 'half' became 'flatch'.

Where did flatch come from?

From 1840s Cockney costermonger back-slang, documented by Mayhew and Hotten in the mid-19th century.

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