Ton

British slang for one hundred dates from c.1946 and was first used in the context of money where a ton was one hundred pounds sterling and then applied to a hundred of anything e.g. one hundred runs in cricket. From the early 1950s it was being used in the context of one hundred miles an hour when ‘ton-up’ kids were young motorcyclists who would speed along at 100 mph. From about the same time, a ton was also a score of 100 runs in cricket. Ton, of course, derives from weight measurement where one hundredweight (100 cwt) equals one ton.