Wide boy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wide boy is a British term for a man who lives by his wits, wheeling and dealing. According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is synonymous with spiv. Newspapers of the late 1940s and 1950s often use both terms in the same article about the same person when dealing with ticket touts, fraudsters and black market traders. It has become more generally used to describe a dishonest trader or a petty criminal who works by guile rather than force.
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[edit] Origin
The word came to public attention in 1937 with the publication of Wide Boys Never Work by Robert Westerby,[1] a novel about gamblers and hustlers. During World War II such individuals became involved in the black market, but the term only began to appear in newspapers from 1947.[2][3]
[edit] Fictional portrayals
Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses, Flash Harry from the St Trinian's books and movies, Private Walker from Dad's Army, Arthur Daley from Minder and Harry Robinson from The Ladykillers are all fictional examples of the wide boy type. The wheeler-dealer cockney second hand car salesman Terry Tibbs, a fictitious comedy character from Channel 4's Fonejacker, is another example. Ultravox has a song "Wide Boys" on their eponymous first LP (1977). The 1980s rock band Foghat had a popular song "Wide Boy" on their 1981 Girls to Chat Boys to Bounce album. Nik Kershaw also released a single called "Wide Boy" in 1984, making Top Ten in the UK. As well, the band Marillion (with Fish) released "Heart of Lothian" on the 1985 album "Misplaced Childhood", in which the lyrics mention "Wide boys, we were wide boys, born with hearts of Lothian, these hearts of Lothian."
