Dictionary

sarnie en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈsɑːni/ (UK)

Etymology

From sarn- (“perhaps from a dialectal pronunciation of the first syllable of sandwich”) + -ie. Alternatively, perhaps a misreading or an intentional dissimilation of samie (i.e. sammie), where the 'm' is mistaken for or replaced with 'rn'.

Meanings

1. (UK, informal) A sandwich.
   • Hello my flower, shall I fix up a cheese sarnie for you?
   • In fact no one was playing bingo, 10p or otherwise. Nor had the patrons been enticed by the complimentary shrink-wrapped sarnies and packets of cheese-and-onion on offer in the roped-off ‘Over 18s VIP area’, with its £500-jackpot fruit machines. 2012, Tim Moore, You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Around Unloved Britain, Vintage, →ISBN, page 7:
   • Just like Marple, there's a plaque at the London terminus [Paddington] commemorating a fictional character - a polite, friendly little bear from darkest Peru who has a penchant for marmalade sarnies. 2021 September 22, Stephen Roberts, “The writings on the wall...”, in RAIL, number 940, page 74:
   • With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention While queueing for sarnies at the office canteen. 1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull:
2. (UK) The Sandwich tern.

Forms

Deriveds

tongue sarnie

Synonyms

sarmie (sandwich) · sammie sanger (sandwich) · sambo (sandwich) · butty (sandwich) · sango (sandwich)