Like Billy-O

‘Like billy-o’ is a common phrase. ‘It rained like billy-o; I was soaked through.’ ‘We worked like billy-o to get the job finished.’ ‘When she went shopping she spent money like billy-o.’

It means ‘very intensely, vigorously or enthusiastically.’

Stephen mentioned the phrase at church yesterday morning, saying the phrase came from an Essex preacher called Billio.

I googled it. Apparently, Joseph Billio was a puritan preacher in Maldon, Essex around 1696. The people of Maldon have put up a plaque claiming that his enthusiastic ‘hellfire and damnation’ preaching started the phrase ‘like billio’.

Some say that it comes from the early days of steam railway.  One of the first was running at Gateshead in May 1805. The oldest surviving steam railway locomotive in the world is ‘Puffing Billy’, built in 1813/14 near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Hence ‘puffing like billy-o’…

A third theory comes from the use of ‘billy-o’ in 19^th century America… alongside phrases like ‘billy-be-damned’. This was about a billy-goat – referring to the Devil. Satan was pictured as a horned monster in goat’s form. ‘Like billy-o’ is a curse, referring to, but avoiding using, the devil’s name.

Like a TV game show, we choose the origins of ‘like billy-o’. Is it from an enthusiastic preacher, a man-made invention or the devil in disguise?

This is the choice we make daily… as we give and receive advice, as we’re faced with decisions, as we seek wisdom for our nearest and dearest… How do we discern whether it’s a divine inspiration, a human construction or an evil deviation?

Today’s the 60^th anniversary of the famous Martin Luther King ‘I have a dream’ speech. He certainly preached like billy-o; was that God’s wisdom, a man’s ideas, or a divisive evil?

My faith points me to Jesus, who himself preached and taught… with God’s wisdom and divine inspiration… like billy-o. He said that the starting point must be to love God and love our neighbour like billy-o!