Cockney punter

[blueeye]

Can anyone help me with the highlighted expression?

Our teachers at LT&C had their A levels and the odd teaching certificate.
It is astonishing how a black crepe robe worn over a coat or a
blouse gives a Cockney punter or a Covent Garden flower girl the gravitas
of an Oxford don. Accent be damned in Africa, as long as it’s foreign​

and you have the right skin color.


Thank you very much

 

[emsr2d2]

Can anyone help me with the highlighted expression?

Our teachers at LT&C had their A levels and the odd teaching certificate.
It is astonishing how a black crepe robe worn over a coat or a
blouse gives a Cockney punter or a Covent Garden flower girl the gravitas
of an Oxford don. Accent be damned in Africa, as long as it’s foreign​

and you have the right skin color.


Thank you very much

A Cockney is someone from East London (specifically someone who was born within earshot of the Bow Bells) - though completely unfairly, it is usually considered that Cockneys are lower class and less well-educated than some other Londoners.

A "punter" is a slang word for a customer (more rudely, specifically, sometimes a man who visits prostitutes).

The article suggests that putting on the black robe of a university graduate means that you can no longer tell what class or educational level someone is.

 

[Tdol]

The use of the word punter is a little strange to me- it does mean customer, but I think that something like stallholder/market trader, etc, might fit better as these would be more likely to be heard, like the flower girl, as they tried to sell things, rather than the customer.

 

[bhaisahab]

The use of the word punter is a little strange to me- it does mean customer, but I think that something like stallholder/market trader, etc, might fit better as these would be more likely to be heard, like the flower girl, as they tried to sell things, rather than the customer.

I agree, I wonder where this text comes from. Perhaps the OP will enlighten us. Maybe the author meant cockney "coster" which is short for "costermonger" the old term for an east-end market trader or "barrow-boy".

 

[emsr2d2]

The use of the word punter is a little strange to me- it does mean customer, but I think that something like stallholder/market trader, etc, might fit better as these would be more likely to be heard, like the flower girl, as they tried to sell things, rather than the customer.

I agree with you. Customer seems like a strange word (slang or otherwise) to use here. I checked every slang dictionary etc I could find, but could find no suggestion that punter is ever used to mean "seller". Various other meanings aside customer, but none that fit.

 

[blueeye]

I agree, I wonder where this text comes from. Perhaps the OP will enlighten us. Maybe the author meant cockney "coster" which is short for "costermonger" the old term for an east-end market trader or "barrow-boy".

It's from Abraham Verghese's novel "Cutting for Stone".

 

[bhaisahab]

It's from Abraham Verghese's novel "Cutting for Stone".

Ok, I see, so he's not British and may not know the exact terms very well.