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Money, Work & Business
124 entries in this part of the language, each with meanings, pronunciation and worked examples.
- Age paper A birth certificate — the official document that proves a person's age and identity.
- Arcade A downtown vendors' market building or covered lane packed with small stalls selling…
- Banana boat The cargo ship that carried Jamaica's bananas across the sea to markets abroad — the heart…
- Banana trash The dried brown leaves and stalks of the banana plant — not rubbish, but a useful material.
- Banana walk A field or grove of banana plants — in Jamaican usage a 'walk' is a planted grove of a…
- Bandooloo Fraud, hustling, or illegal and dishonest dealings — and, as an adjective, anything…
- Barbecue In rural Jamaica, a large flat platform of concrete or stone built in the open for drying…
- Ben Johnson day The lean day just before payday, when money and food have run low and the cupboard is…
- Bend-down plaza An informal street market where vendors lay their goods out on the ground or on low sheets…
- Big smaddy A 'big somebody' — an important, wealthy, or powerful person;
- Bill In Jamaican money slang, one hundred dollars — 'a bill' is $100, and 'two bill' is $200.
- Blue soap The hard, blue-and-white bar of all-purpose soap found in every Jamaican household — used…
- Box-hand A person's turn and payout in a 'pardner' savings scheme — the whole pot collected when…
- Brawta A little extra given free by a seller after a purchase — the small bonus a higgler or…
- Bread Besides the loaf, 'bread' is common slang for money — the means of living.
- Broke-broke Completely broke;
- Bruk note To break a large banknote into smaller money or change — 'bruk di note fi mi' asks someone…
- Bruk pocket Broke and penniless — completely out of money, with empty pockets.
- Burn coal To make charcoal ('coal') by slow-burning wood under a covering of earth in a smouldering…
- Calabash The hard-shelled gourd of the calabash tree, dried and hollowed to make bowls, cups…
- Cane cutta A cane cutter — the labourer who cuts sugar cane by hand in the fields with a machete…
- Cane piece A field or plot of sugar cane — 'piece' meaning a section of land.
- Carbolic soap A reddish-brown, medicated antiseptic bar soap — the classic 'red soap' of Jamaican…
- Catchment A tank, drum, or built cistern that catches and stores rainwater running off the roof, for…
- Cheddar Slang for money, cash — 'a mek some cheddar' means to earn some money.
- Coal iron The heavy old-time flat iron for pressing clothes — either a solid iron heated on the coals…
- Coal kiln A mound of stacked wood covered with earth and set to smoulder slowly, turning the wood…
- Coal pot A small portable cooking stove or brazier that burns wood charcoal ('coal') — a cast-iron…
- Cocoa walk A grove of cocoa (cacao) trees grown for their pods — a 'walk' being a Jamaican term for a…
- Coconut brush A scrubbing brush made from the dried husk of a coconut, traditionally used to shine and…
- Con To con — to trick, cheat, or swindle someone out of money or advantage by smooth talk.
- Coppers Small coins;
- Corn Besides the food grain, 'corn' is common slang for money — a good 'earning' or payout, as…
- Corn piece A field or plot planted in corn — a 'piece' being a Jamaican word for a plot of cultivated…
- Credit In everyday phone talk, credit is prepaid airtime — the balance you 'top up' to make calls…
- Credit union A member-owned savings-and-loan co-operative — where ordinary people pool their savings and…
- Crocus Coarse burlap / sacking — the rough brown jute cloth used for the 'crocus bag' that holds…
- Crocus bag A large, rough sack of coarse jute or burlap — used to hold and carry produce, coal, grain…
- Cutlass A machete — the long, broad-bladed knife used all over rural Jamaica for cutting cane…
- Day-work Casual paid labour hired by the day — especially farm or yard work like weeding, digging…
- Dead lef An inheritance — the property, money, land, or belongings 'left' behind by someone who has…
- Dear Expensive;
- Donkey-load The load a donkey carries in its side-baskets ('hampers') — and, figuratively, a huge…
- Dressmeka A dressmaker or seamstress — the Patois pronunciation of 'dressmaker'.
- Dunny Money — slang, in the same family as 'bread', 'corn', and 'paper'.
- Eat a food To earn a living or make some money — to get a chance to provide for yourself and get by.
- Enamel cup A metal cup coated in glossy, often speckled enamel — the tough, chip-prone 'enamelware'…
- Fish pot A large basket-like trap — traditionally woven from split bamboo or wire mesh, with a…
- Floss To show off and flaunt wealth, style, or success — parading fresh clothes, jewellery, cars…
- Flour bag The cotton sack that flour (or sugar or rice) came in — and, in hard times, a precious…
- Fowl coop The pen, cage, or fenced run where a household keeps its chickens — where the fowls roost…
- Gas money Money for petrol ('gas') — and especially the little bit you chip in to a driver for a…
- Gate money The entry fee to get into a dance, party, stage show, or event — 'pay di gate'.
- Gill An old small measure and unit of shop trade — used for buying dry goods and provisions in…
- Ginnalship Trickery, con-artistry, and sly manipulation — the craft of the 'ginnal' (con man).
- Gleena A cleaner — a domestic helper or office cleaner;
- Grand One thousand dollars — 'a grand' is $1,000, and 'five grand' is $5,000.
- Grater The kitchen grater — the perforated metal tool used constantly in Jamaican cooking to grate…
- Grinda A hard worker who grinds relentlessly to earn and get ahead — someone always on the hustle…
- Ground A farmer's cultivated plot — the piece of land, often up in the hills or bush away from the…
- Hab nuff 'To have plenty' — 'hab' (have) plus 'nuff' (much/many): to have a lot, to be well supplied…
- Hamper A large basket or pannier for carrying farm produce and goods, especially the pair of woven…
- Head-load A load carried balanced on top of the head — the traditional way market women and country…
- Higglering The trade of the higgler — buying produce or goods and reselling them at market or on the…
- Hire purchase Buying on installments — taking home an item (furniture, appliance, TV) after a down…
- Hush money Hush money — a bribe paid to keep someone quiet, to buy silence over wrongdoing.
- Hustle To work hard and resourcefully to earn a living, by any honest means available — street…
- Hustling Working hard and resourcefully to earn a living, often through several small jobs or side…
- Kitchen bitch A small, homemade kerosene ('oil') lamp — typically a bottle or tin with a wick poked…
- Kitchen garden The small vegetable-and-herb garden kept right by the house — a patch in the backyard…
- Knapsack sprayer A tank of pesticide, herbicide, or fertilizer solution carried on the back and pumped by…
- Kreng-kreng A woven basket or rack hung from the ceiling above the fireplace, used to store and slowly…
- Lotto scam The advance-fee 'lottery' fraud in which scammers phone victims (typically overseas and…
- Lunch money The money a parent gives a child each school day to buy lunch, snacks, or a patty at school.
- Machete A long, broad-bladed knife — the essential all-purpose tool of Jamaican farming and bush…
- Market The open-air market where higglers and farmers sell fresh produce, ground provisions, fish…
- Market day The set day (often Friday or Saturday) when the town or district market comes fully alive —…
- Market money The housekeeping money set aside for buying food and groceries — what a person budgets to…
- Mek a money 'To make some money' — to earn, to turn a hand to work or a hustle that pays.
- Minty The smallest coin, or the tiniest scrap of money — used mostly in the negative to stress…
- Money tight Money is scarce;
- Moneyman A rich, big-spending man — one with plenty of money to flash and to share, courted for what…
- Mule A person who smuggles illegal drugs by carrying them — often on a flight, sometimes…
- Paper Money — from the paper banknotes it comes in.
- Pardna A traditional rotating savings scheme in which a group of people each pay a fixed sum (a…
- Pardner A traditional informal savings club — a rotating credit scheme in which a group each pays a…
- Partner banker The trusted person who organises and runs a pardna savings scheme — collecting each…
- Partner draw The lump sum a member receives when their turn comes around in a pardna savings scheme —…
- Pimento walk A grove of pimento (allspice) trees — a 'walk' being a stand of a single crop.
- Politricksters Corrupt, deceitful politicians — a scornful blend of 'politics' and 'tricksters', accusing…
- Pot spoon The big spoon (or flat wooden 'pot stick') used to stir the pot, turn the food, and dish it…
- Prento An apprentice — a young learner attached to a tradesman (a mechanic, mason, tailor, or the…
- Provision ground The plot of land on which a family grows its 'ground provisions' (yam, dasheen, sweet…
- Pusha A drug pusher or dealer — one who sells drugs on the street.
- Quattie A very small sum of money — historically a small coin worth a penny-halfpenny in the old…
- Rachet A folding pocket knife — the classic 'ratchet knife' (often the German-made Okapi) whose…
- Raise A bit of money earned or scraped together — 'a raise' is a small sum you make from a…
- Ratchet A folding pocket knife with a ratcheting lock — the classic 'German ratchet' knife, carried…
- Rice bag The large woven plastic (or, older, cloth) sack that rice comes in — and, once empty, a…
- Rod A rod or stick — a fishing rod, a stirring stick, or a straight length of wood or metal.
- Samfie A con man and the con itself — a trickster who swindles people through deception, false…
- Scamma A scammer — especially one who works the 'lotto scam', phoning victims (often overseas and…
- Scandal bag The thin black plastic shopping bag that every shop and vendor hands out — an everyday…
- Scratcha Someone scraping and scratching to get by — a person just barely surviving on little…
- Shop The little corner shop — the small neighbourhood store (often a 'Chin shop') that sells the…
- Singer machine A sewing machine — called a 'Singer machine' generically after the Singer brand that…
- Smalls A small amount of money — small change, a little cash, or a modest tip or 'gift' given for…
- Smuggla A smuggler — one who moves goods, and especially contraband, illicitly past customs and…
- Spen To spend — the Patois pronunciation of 'spend', with the final 'd' dropped.
- Spenda A big spender — one who flashes and lavishes money freely, buying rounds, sponsoring the…
- Spent Used up, worn out, or drained — of money, energy, or a thing past its usefulness.
- Standpipe A public communal water tap on a post, set in a yard, lane, or street corner, where…
- Stirring stick A wooden stick or paddle used to stir stiff, thick cooking that a spoon can't handle — the…
- Task-work Piecework — labour paid by the completed job or measured 'task' rather than by the day or…
- Throw partner To take part in a pardna savings scheme by paying in your regular contribution — 'throwing'…
- Trash-house An old-time hut roofed and sometimes walled with dried plant 'trash' — thatch of banana…
- Trus Credit — buying goods now and paying later, on trust.
- Truss To give or take goods on credit.
- Vex money Emergency money kept in reserve so you can leave a situation the moment it turns sour —…
- Wash board The ridged board used for hand-washing clothes — you rub the soaped garment up and down its…
- Wash pan A large metal or enamel basin used for washing — clothes, dishes, or bathing a baby — and…
- Watchie A watchman or security guard — the man who keeps watch over a premises, gate, building…
- Yam hill The mound of loose, heaped-up earth into which a yam head is planted so the tuber can grow…
- Yam-stick A long, straight pole or stake driven into the ground for a yam vine to climb, so the yam…