Rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang is a form of English slang which originated in the East End of London. Many of its expressions have passed into common language, and the creation of new ones is no longer restricted to Cockneys.
It developed as a way of obscuring the meaning of sentences to those who did not understand the slang, though it is unclear whether this was a linguistic accident, or whether it was developed intentionally to assist criminals or to maintain a particular community.
Rhyming slang is the use of an expression to replace a normal word. The last part of the expression will rhyme with the word replaced. For instance, "face" becomes "boat race", "feet" becomes "plates of meat", "money", "bread and honey". Many of these expressions have been shortened over the years, often to just the initial word. There is no hard and fast rule for this, and you just have to know whether a particular expression is always shortened, never shortened, or can be used either way.
Some substitutions have become relatively widespread in England, for example to "have a butcher's" means to have a look, from the rhyming slang "butcher's hook". Likewise, "razz" or the Bronx cheer, comes from "raspberry tart", from fart, and "dogs" for "feet", comes from "dog's meat".
This style of rhyming has also spread through many English-speaking countries, where the original phrases are supplemented by rhymes created to fit local needs. Creation of rhyming slang has become a word game for people of many classes and regions. The term Cockney rhyming slang is generally applied to these expansions to indicate the rhyming style, though arguably the term only applies to phrases used in the East End of London.
It is often used in films (Such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), which contains a glossary of Cockney Rhyming Slang on the DVD version to assist the viewer) and on television (e.g. Minder, EastEnders) to lend authenticity to an East End setting.
Other examples of Cockney Rhyming Slang, or phrases inspired by it, are:
- Apples and pears = stairs
- Aris = Aristotle = bottle & glass = arse (a two-stage rhyme!)
- Barnet = Barnet Fair = hair
- Berk or Burk = Berkshire Hunt = cunt
- Boat = boat race = face
- Boracic (freq. contracted to brassic) = boracic lint = skint, i.e. penniless
- Bottle = bottle and glass = arse (i.e. buttocks)
- Bristols = Bristol Cities = titties (i.e. breasts)
- Brown bread = dead
- Butcher's = butcher's hook = look
- Chalk Farms = arms
- China = china plate = mate
- Cobblers = cobblers' awls = balls or 'bollocks' (i.e. testicles)
- Currant bun = sun
- Dicky = dicky dirt = shirt
- Dog = dog and bone = phone
- Emmas = Emma Freud (English author and columnist) = haemorrhoids
- Frog = frog & toad = road
- Gregory = Gregory Peck = neck
- I suppose = nose
- Hampsteads = Hampstead Heath = teeth
- Jack = Jack Jones = alone ("On my Jack" = "On my own")
- Jam jar = car
- Jam tart = heart
- Jimmy = Jimmy Riddle (unknown person, not the character killed during the Waco siege)= piddle or widdle (urinate)
- Jugs = jugs of beer = ears
- Lionels = Lionel Blairs (English variety performer) = flares (as in flared trousers)
- loaf = loaf of bread = head ("use your loaf")
- Minces = mince pies = eyes
- Mutton = Mutt and Jeff = deaf
- Nobbies = Nobby Stiles (English footballer) = piles (haemorrhoids)
- Oily rag = fag = cigarette
- Ones and twos = shoes
- Peckham Rye = tie (i.e. necktie)
- Porky = pork pie = lie, e.g. "He's telling porkies!"
- Plates = plates of meat = feet
- Rabbit = rabbit and pork = talk
- Raspberry = raspberry tart = fart (as in "blowin raspberry"
- Richard = Richard the Third = turd (lump of faeces)
- Richard = Dicky Bird = bird (slang for girl) but also Dicky Bird = word
- Rosie = Rosie Lee = Tea e.g. "Have a cup of Rosie"
- Round the houses = trousers
- Rub-a-dub-dub = pub = public house
- Septic = septic tank = Yank (slang for an American)
- Skin = skin and blister = sister
- Syrup = syrup of figs = wig(s)
- Tea leaf = thief
- The Sweeney = Sweeney Todd = Flying Squad, a special division of the Metropolitan Police
- Titfer = tit for tat = hat
- Taters = Potatoes in the mould = cold
- Trouble = trouble and strife = wife
- Veras = Vera Lynns (famous British wartime singer)= 'skins' or cigarette papers, eg, "got any Veras?"
- Vera = Vera Lynn = gin
- Vera = Vera Lynn = chin
See also; Polari