Ask a Scouser where someone is from and you will get a postcode, a parish, or a verdict. Wool. Woolyback. Not from here, la.
The word has been doing the rounds for decades. Some say it started with dockers and mill towns. Some say it is just a handy label for anyone who sounds a bit too pleased with themselves on the train in. Either way, it stuck — and it is not always as nasty as it sounds.
Used right, it is banter. Used wrong, it is a warning. Used on your mate from St Helens, it is a love letter with a sting in it.
That is the Gazette take: words travel, cities keep them, and Liverpool never lets a good nickname go to waste. If you are from here, you already knew. If you are not — well. You know what we are going to call you.