 UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's letter to EU President Donald Tusk of 19 October 2019 regarding a Brexit extension contained a well-publicised and ridiculed grocer's apostrophe.He wrote ""in this continent [that] our people's (sic) share"" 

The term is believed to have been coined in the middle of the 20th century by a teacher of languages working in Liverpool, at a time when such mistakes were common in the handwritten signs and advertisements of greengrocers (e. g., "Apple's 1/- a pound, Orange's 1/6d a pound").Some have argued that its use in mass communication by employees of well-known companies has led to the less literate assuming it to be standard and adopting the habit themselves.