Billy-o

As in expressions like “that hurt like billy-o” or “he ran like billy-o”, billy-o has become a colloquial way of expressing a superlative or an extreme. Its origin is from the early 19th century and derives from a steam engine called Puffing Billy built by the British engineer William “Billy” Hedley in 1813 for the Wylam Colliery in Northumberland. His primitive steam engine used to puff and run like billy-o and was a wondrous sight in those far-off days. The expression stuck and soon passed into the language. Puffing Billy was a great influence and inspiration to George Stephenson who went on to build his famous, more advanced steam engine “The Rocket”. Stephenson was born in Wylam and worked at a nearby colliery. Puffing Billy can be seen today where it has been preserved in the Science Museum in London.