Well attestedIndirect, via a person or title
three stops short of Dagenham
noun · first attested 1990s
The joke only works if you know the District line: three stops before Dagenham is Barking.
Mad; not entirely sane.
51.5400°N 0.0800°E · Q377720
Record
- Relationship
- Indirect, via a person or title
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1990s
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Barking
- In English
three stops short of Dagenham
Counting west from Dagenham Heathway on the London Underground's District line gives Becontree, Upney, then Barking, which supplies the pun on barking mad. The formula is flexible: Green's Dictionary of Slang records the family from a 1999 Guardian use of two stops on from Barking, and two, three and six stops all circulate. Both stations sit in the same east London borough, Barking and Dagenham.
United Kingdom
All 108 entries 107 more words from United Kingdom
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