Great Wen

UK 1820s. great (“very big”) + wen (“a cyst on the skin”). Coined by William Cobbett.

the Great Wen

1. (Britain, derogatory, informal, with "the") The city of London.
   • 1830, Cobbett, William, Rural Rides:

     But, what is to be the fate of the great wen of all? The monster, called, by the silly coxcombs of the press, 'the metropolis of the empire?'

   • 1962, Smith, C. T., “The South-East Midlands”, in Mitchell, J. B., editor, Great Britain: Geographical Essays, page 135:

     London is of vital importance to the communications, industry and towns of the south-east Midlands as a whole, though the proximity of 'the Great Wen' may be partly responsible for the fact that no town within it has a population of more than 130,000.

   • 2014 June 2, D.K, “Let the Great Wen get greater still”, in The Economist‎:

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