Learn English – the meaning of the term “herbert” in British slang

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In the song Get Out of My House by The Business, the chorus is:

Out, out get out of my house, you'd better take your sheepskin too
no son of mine's going round as a hippie
or a scruffy little herbert like you.

What does the term herbert mean?

I found this definition here, but it doesn't make sense to me in the context of the song:

Noun. An dull objectionable person. E.g. "He's a real herbert, he watches the news and weather on TV all day."

Best Answer

I've looked up the entry in several slang dictionaries and there seem to be at least two meanings.

  • When applied to children, that of silly and poorly educated with a whiff of mischievousness.
  • When applied to adults, that of foolish and/or ridiculous.

Below are my sources, cited in extenso.

Oxford Dictionary of Slang (1998)

’erbert n British
A foolish person, a cheeky, unwashed child. For many years, in London working-class slang, Herbert or ’Erbert was used to refer to any otherwise unnamed man or boy. Gradually, probably by being used in phrases such as ‘silly ’erbert’, it came to have the more pejorative sense. There probably never was an eponymous Herbert; it was merely a common working-class name from the Edwardian era.

The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2008)

herbert noun
 1. a mischievous child or youth. Quite often heard as ‘little herbert’ UK, 1999.
 2 a harmless youth; a ridiculous man. An extension of the previous sense UK, 1960.
 3 a man in a specified field of endeavour UK, 1956

John Ayto Oxford Dictionary of Slang (1998)

Herbert (1960) British;
applied to a foolish or ridiculous man ; arbitrary use of the male forename
T. Barling: A dozen baby-brained herberts looking to face me off just to say they squared up to Kosher Kramer before the cobbles came up a bit smartish. (1986)
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