Talk:steel

Plate?

As far as I know it's not possible to plate another metal with steel. I could be wrong however. Redddogg 03:44, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

RFV discussion: February 2015

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification (permalink).

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

---

steel

RFV-sense "(UK, crime, slang, obsolete) Coldbath Fields Prison in London, closed in 1877." The two citations are of dictionaries/wordlists, not actual uses of the term. - -sche (discuss) 03:32, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

I also question if "Cockney rhyming slang" is really the origin of the term; as I understand it, Cockney rhyming slang takes "snout", converts it to "salmon and trout", and then keeps only the first part, "salmon". This looks more like people called Coldbath "Bastille" and then shortened "Bastille" to keep only the last part, which is just shortening, not rhyming slang. - -sche (discuss) 03:36, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

A few citations - all of these have glosses added by editors, but seem to be quoting actual criminals of the era (and support the Bastille hypothesis):

1862, The Criminal, Havelock Ellis, page 162:

I was lugged before the beak, who gave me six doss in the steel. [...] six months in the Bastille (the old House of Corrections), Coldbath Fields.

1866, George Augustus Sala, Edmund Hodgson Yates, Temple Bar, volume 16, page 507:

He said he had been in the “steel” (Coldbath Fields Prison) eight times.

1879, Macmillan's Magazine, volume 40, page 502:

This time I got two moon for assaulting the reelers when canon. For this I went to the Steel (Bastile — Coldbath Fields Prison), having a new suit of clobber on me and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).

Smurrayinchester (talk) 09:58, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

Impressive finds! "Steel" had too many senses, and so searches produced too much chaff, for me to find anything useful. I've added your citations to the page and reformatted the references as, well, references. - -sche (discuss) 22:20, 5 February 2015 (UTC)