noun General Slang

Occabot

/ˈɒkəbɒt/ · noun · slang

Cockney back-slang for 'tobacco' — 'tobacco' reversed for a quiet smoke or a quiet deal.

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Definitions

1

Tobacco. From 'tobacco' reversed and reshaped to 'occabot', a back-slang term for the leaf, whether for a pipe, a roll-up, or stock to be sold or bartered.

“Got any occabot to spare? My pouch is empty and the day's long.”
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2

Used for a smoke or a smoke break, the brief pause traders took between rushes.

“Mind the stall, I'm off round the back for a bit of occabot.”
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3

In coded dealing, 'occabot' could signal untaxed or off-the-books tobacco changing hands quietly between sellers.

“He does a sideline in occabot that never troubles the taxman.”
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Occabot In A Sentence

The whole row smelled of occabot by the dinner hour.
He'd swap a twist of occabot for a pound of feeb any day.
No occabot before the rush — you'll lose the morning crowd.

Origin & Usage

Cockney costermonger back-slang of the 1840s ('tobacco' reversed and adapted), among the everyday goods-terms recorded in the Mayhew (1851) and Hotten (1859) surveys of London street language.

Variants occabodoccabaccy
Tags #cockney#back-slang#british#uk#tobacco

People Also Ask

What does occabot mean?

It means tobacco — 'tobacco' reversed and softened in Cockney back-slang.

Why isn't it a neat reversal?

A strict reversal of 'tobacco' is clumsy to say, so back-slang reshaped it into 'occabot', a sayable form, as it often did with longer words.

Where did occabot come from?

From 1840s London costermonger back-slang, the coded trade language documented by Mayhew and Hotten.

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