If you’ve been keeping up with us on our blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, you know a little of what we are about. Through fun-to-use, cutting edge web and mobile technology, Ox&Pen offers our trend-setting and savvy members a service that provides them with exclusive promotions and loyalty incentives from local businesses. With this medium, we help to assist those merchants draw in and retain patrons.
So why the unusual name? What could “Ox&Pen” possibly have to do with shopping, dining, or transactions of any kind?
After the idea initially sparked in his head, Andrew mused about what to name his new company. He stumbled across an arsenal of Cockney rhyming slang, defined by phrases.org.uk as a “type of slang in which words are replaced by words or phrases they rhyme with.” It “has the effect of obscuring the meaning of what is said from outsiders” and originated in London’s East End.
Photo courtesy of fanpop.
For instance, if you’re going to lunch you might be heading to kidney punch. Or if something is easy, you could call it ham and cheesy, bright and breezy or lemon squeezy. Perhaps one the most notable references in recent pop culture is the “ENGLISH English” conversation between Mike Myers’ and Michael Caine’s characters in “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”
After casually browsing the site, Andrew saw a couple definitions, that when put together, meshed well and conveyed the desired message. “Oxford Scholar” is the Cockney phrase for “dollar;” and “Eighteen Pence” is the phrase for “sense.” Taking some creative license, we have Oxford & Pence, now known as Ox&Pen.
