jollop

[lankeela]

What my mum always called medicine or cough mixture
and Victor Meldrew just said he would have to get some jollop for his stomach but I can't find it in the dictionary.

[fredpuli47]

Mine too ! It's a word which the older generation used for cough medicine that was sticky or treacly in consistency.
The word 'jollop' meaning a cream or unguent comes to us from French 'jalap', which comes from Spanish 'jalapa' which itself is a short form of 'purga de Jalapa' meaning 'purge of Jalapa' and Jalapa is a city in Mexico.

How's that?

[Narolines]

Apparently it's a corruption of "jalap", which refers to a drug made from a kind of convulvulus which originates in or near the town of Jalapa, Mexico - the same place that gives its name to Jalapeno chillies. It was grown as a commercial crop in India, and almost certainly came into English from there via British army slang, where it became used as a general term for any kind of medicine.

[lankeela]

Funny, I kept saying it to myself in that 'It Ain't Alf Hot Mum' accent, as it seemed more likely to be Indian in origin.

[abstibus]

We were always led to believe that it refers to a laxative. I suppose if you took too much of it you wouldn't dare cough.