Herbert, Sydney, Milton, Seymour. You know, all the time I was growing up I thought those were the most ordinary Jewish first names, until someone pointed out that they were British last names. I guess to my great-grandparents those names must have sounded so modern, so sophisticated, so - non-Eastern European. And now they're just Uncle Miltie, Uncle Sy, Uncle Herb. Do other people have Uncle Donne and Uncle Wordsworth?

It was the Ulster Annual Jamboree. For weeks past, hundreds of spotty-faced herberts, with yodelling voices and chin fuzz, had tied three million knots, started ten thousand twig fires, and completed six hundred leaf fires; perfect training for round about 3000BC but bloody useless in the twentieth century.

[…] everything was busy now with the usual mix of herberts, and because this was Brunel University there was a lot of students, the sort who wouldn't normally go see a punk band […]

Because of my appearance, I was accosted by a couple of spotty herberts on the way […]

I was a proto-hippy in '66 - '67 and by about August '67 the bandwagon jumpers, the media and all manner of assorted herberts had turned up to spoil everything.

Into this haunted house stumble a couple of modern-day herberts, Alison and Mike (Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe). They have inherited Button Hall after the last of the Button family died. When they arrive to take stock of the place, the unseen ghosts mill around the couple in the great hall - and some don't like what they see. "She's exposing her knees! And she's got a tattoo! exclaims the buttoned-up Edwardian Lady Button.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:herbert.

"He knew what he wanted to say / but he didn't know how to word it / The dirty little herbert was seeking an escape"

She got home two hours late and her dad (now my father-in-law) thought I was some dirty herbert corrupting his daughter, but we were in love.

"Fuck me if I'm chasing this filthy Herbert," Titch said, flicking his badge.

Herbert

Meaning

Noun

Name

Related