- “The team was full of yellow-bellies because as soon as they started losing they gave up like cowards.”
Yellow-Belly
other word formation type Noun
Yellow-Belly is a noun and a conversion. The first use of yellow bellied in the US comes from the 1800 hundreds Texas, that was about to engage in a war with Mexico and the yellow-bellied phrase was used as a derogatory term. In closing, yellow bellied coward is redundant as the phrase yellow bellied already implies cowardly. As in yellow-bellied snakes that always slithered away from confrontation.
Etymology : Conversion of cowardly yellow-bellied snakes.
Source : (David Bailiff, November 16, 2016)
Last modified: 1 December 2016