Dictionary

Great Wen en · PROPN

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (UK, derogatory, informal) Derogatory name for London: the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom.
   • 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. 1962, C. T. Smith, “The South-East Midlands”, in J. B. Mitchell, editor, Great Britain: Geographical Essays, page 135:
   • 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?' 1830, William Cobbett, Rural Rides:

Forms

wikipedia: William Cobbett