Cockney rhyming slang
Rhyming slang developed as a way of obscuring the meaning of sentences to those who did not understand the slang, though it remains a matter of speculation whether this was a linguistic accident, or whether it was developed intentionally to assist criminals or to maintain a particular community.
Rhyming slang works by replacing the word to be obscured with the first word of a phrase that rhymes with that word. For instance, "face" would be replaced by "boat", because face rhymes with "boat race". Similarly "feet" becomes "plates" ("plates of meat"), and "money" is "bread" (a very common usage, from "bread and honey"). Sometimes the full phrase is used, for example "Currant Bun" to mean "The Sun" (often referring to the British Tabloid Newspaper of that name). 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 Britain, for example to "have a butcher's" means to have a look, from the rhyming slang "butcher's hook", and these are often now used without awareness of the original rhyming slang (so for example "berk" and "cobblers" — see list below — are both less taboo than their etymology would suggest). However, most actual and purported substitutions are still not in common usage.
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. The theme tune to The Italian Job, composed by Quincy Jones, contains many Cockney rhyming slang expressions. The lyrics by Don Black amused and fascinated the composer. Also, The Audiobullys or The Streets use the slang in almost all of their songs. The box office success Ocean's Eleven (2001) contains an incorrect example of Cockney rhyming slang, when the character Basher Tarr uses the slang "Barney" to mean "trouble," derived from "Barney Rubble." In fact (as most Londoners will tell you) "Barney" does not mean trouble but means an argument or a fight. Some argue that it is derived from "Barn Owl" which (in a Cockney accent) nearly rhymes with row (argument).
However, the book Understanding British English, by Margaret E. Moore, Citadel Press, 1995, does not list "Barney" in its Rhyming Slang section. Furthermore, an old book called Slang and Its Analogues, by J.S. Farmer and W.E. Henley, originally printed in 1890 and reprinted by Arno Press in 1970, states that "Barney" (which can mean anything from a "lark" to a "row") is of unknown origin, and was used in print as early as 1865.
Some rhyming slang is rooted in the era of its origin and may be destined to be lost. In the 1980s, for example, "Kerry Packered" meant "knackered"; the current (2004) term "Britneys" to mean beers, via the music artist "Britney Spears", may not outlast Britney's own career.
In United States some common slang seems to have had its origin in Cockney rhyming slang: "raspberry," shortened from "raspberry tart" means fart; "dukes" means fists; "duke it out" means settle an argument via fisticuffs; "bread" means money; "creamed" means beaten.
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Examples
Examples of Cockney rhyming slang, or phrases inspired by it, are:A
- Adam and Eve = believe = as in "would you Adam and Eve it?"
- Almonds = Almond Rocks = socks
- Apples = Apples and pears = stairs
- April = April in Paris = Aris = Aristotle = Bottle = Bottle & Glass = Arse
- Aris = Aristotle = Bottle = Bottle & Glass = Arse
- Artful Dodger = lodger
- Ascot Races = braces (called suspenders in the U.S)
- Aunt Joanna = piano (or just Joanna)
B
- Baked Bean = queen
- Ball of Chalk = walk
- Band of Hope = soap
- Barclays = Barclays Bank = wank (i.e. masturbate)
- Barnaby Rudge = judge
- Barnet = Barnet Fair = hair
- Beezun = Bees and honey = money
- Berk or Burk = Berkshire Hunt = cunt (used as a surprisingly mild insult = a fool or jerk, never as an anatomical reference)
- Billy = Billy Bunter = punter (i.e. customer or mark)
- Billy Hunt = cunt
- Billy Lid = kid
- Biscuit Drum or Crumb = Bum (Rear end, Buttocks)
- Bluebottle = Bottle and stopper = Copper = Policeman.
- Boat = Boat Race = face
- Bob Hope = soap
- Boracic (freq. contracted to brassic) = boracic lint = skint (i.e. penniless)
- Brahms = Brahms and Liszt (classical composers) = pissed (i.e. drunk)
- Brass Tacks = facts ("facks")
- Bread = Bread and Honey = money
- Bricks and Mortar = daughter
- Bristol (or Bristols) = Bristol City (UK football club) = titty (i.e. breast)
- Britney Spears = beers
- Brown bread = dead
- Bubble = Bubble and squeak = Greek
- Butcher's = butcher's hook = look
C
- Cain and Abel = table
- Chalfonts = Chalfont St Giles = piles (i.e. haemorrhoids)
- Cheese 'n' kisses = missus = wife [dubious, see Trouble below]
- China = china plate = mate
- Cobblers = cobblers' awls = balls or 'bollocks' (i.e. testicles, but usually meant in the sense of 'rubbish' as in "You're talking a load of cobblers")
- Cock and Hen = ten
- Creamed = cream crackered = knackered (i.e. exhausted or beaten)
- Currant bun = sun or The Sun newspaper
D-E
- Daisies = Daisy Roots = boots
- Dame Judy = Judy Dench = stench
- Dead 'orse = sauce, as in a dog's eye and dead 'orse = a meat pie and sauce
- Derby Kell = Derby Kelly = belly (see Music Hall song Boiled beef and Carrots)
- Desmond = Desmond Tutu = 2.2 (lower second class degree)
- Dicky = dicky dirt = shirt
- Dicky or Dickie = Dickie Bird = word = as in "not a dickie", or even "not a dickie bird"
- Dog = dog and bone = phone
- Dog's eye = pie, as in a dog's eye and dead 'orse = a meat pie and sauce
- Donald Ducked = fucked (as in broken, not working)
- Doris Day = Gay (Ironic that Rock Hudson was more Doris than Doris Day was!)
- Duck and Dive = skive
- Ducks and Geese = police ("pleece")
- Duke of Kent = rent, also bent
- Dukes = Duke[s] of York = fork, i.e. hand, now chiefly when balled into a fist
- Dustbin Lid = kid
- East and west = breast(s)
- Eighty-sixed = nixed (as in kicked- or thrown-out) [American rhymins slang from the 1930s]
- Elephants = Elephant's Trunk = Drunk
F-G
- Farmers = Farmer Giles = piles (slang for haemorrhoids)
- Fatboy Slim = gym
- Fireman's Hose = nose
- Flowery Dell = (prison) cell
- Fourby = Four by Two (A common size of timber) = Jew
- Fox = fox and weasel = diesel
- Frog = frog & toad = road
- Gareth = Gareth Hunt (English actor) = cunt
- Gary Glitter = shitter (anus)
- Gay 'n' hearty = party
- George Raft = draught
- Germans = German bands = hands
- Ginger = ginger beer = queer
- Gregory = Gregory Peck = neck, or cheque
- Grim 'n' gory = story
- Gypsy's = Gypsy's kiss = piss
H-J
- Half-inch = pinch (i.e. steal)
- Half ounce of baccy (i.e. tobacco) = paki (Pakistani)
- Hampsteads = Hampstead Heath = teeth
- Hampton = Hampton Wick = prick (i.e. penis)
- Hank = Hank Marvin (singer with Hank Marvin and the Drifters) = starvin'
- Honky tonk = plonk (cheap wine)
- Iron = Iron hoof = poof
- Jack = Jack Jones = alone ("On my Jack" = "On my own")
- Jack and Jill = restaurant bill or contraceptive pill, depending on context
- Jack Horner = corner
- Jam jar = car
- Jam tart = heart
- Jay Kay = Takeaway
- J. Arthur = J. Arthur Rank (1930s UK flour magnate and film producer) = wank (i.e. masturbate)
- Jimmy = Jimmy Riddle (unknown person, not the character killed during the Waco siege)= piddle or widdle (urinate)
- Jekyll and Hyde = Snide
- Joe Blakes = the shakes = experienced after a heavy night drinking
- Joe Blake = a snake
- Jugs = jugs of beer = ears
K-N
- Khyber = Khyber Pass = arse
- Kick and Prance = dance
- Lady Godiva = fiver (i.e. five-pound note)
- Leo = Leo Sayer = all dayer ("I'm on a Leo" - drinking all day at the pub)
- Lionels = Lionel Blairs (English variety performer) = flares (as in flared trousers)
- Listerine = [from "Anti-septic" derived from "septic tank" = "yank"] disliking Americans [Listerine is clever slang but isn't really rhyming slang]
- Loaf = loaf of bread = head ("use your loaf")
- Loop the loop = soup ("nice cup of loop the loop").
- Merchant banker = wanker
- Mickey Bliss = piss (as in "take the Mickey" = "take the piss" = satirise)
- Mickey Mouse(r) = Scouse(r) = person from Liverpool
- Minces = mince pies = eyes
- Mutton = Mutt and Jeff = deaf = named after Mutt and Jeff, two early 20th century comic strip characters
- Nails 'n' screws = news
- Nat King Cole = Dole (usually Old King Cole)
- Nelson = Nelson Mandela = Stella (Stella Artois), a Belgian brand of lager
- Nobbies = Nobby Stiles (English footballer) = piles (haemorrhoids)
- North and South = mouth
O-P
- Oily = Oily rag = fag (i.e. cigarette)
- Old Jack Lang = slang
- Old King Cole = dole
- Ones and twos = shoes (doubtful, see Rhythms)
- Optic = optic nerve = perv = to look, usually with a sexual nuance, or a pervert
- Orchestras = orchestra stalls = balls (Orchestra stalls = part of a concert or other hall. Example = "A kick in the orchestras.") [Coincidentally, "orchi-" is also the Greek root meaning "testicle."]
- Oxford = Oxford scholar = dollar (Five shillings in pre-decimal currency)
- Peckham Rye = tie (i.e. necktie)
- Pen and Ink = stink
- Pete Tong = Wrong (Also used in the name of a movie "It's all gone Pete Tong")
- Pigs ears = beers (Ale)
- Plaster = Plaster of Paris = Aris = Aristotle = bottle = bottle and glass = arse (a three-stage rhyme) ]
- Plates = plates of meat = feet
- Porky = pork pie = lie, e.g. "He's telling porkies!"
- Pony = pony and trap = crap (note: Cockneys also use "pony" to mean £25 - hopefully the meaning is clear from the context)
- Pride and joy = boy
R
- Rabbit = rabbit and pork = talk, as in "She can rabbit on."
- Raspberry = raspberry tart = fart (as in "blowing raspberry/ies" = making rasping noises with your mouth)
- Richard = Richard the Third = turd (lump of faeces)
- Rock 'n' roll = Dole
- Rosie = Rosie Lee = tea e.g. "Have a cup of Rosie"
- Round the houses = trousers
- Rubbity = Rub-a-dub-dub (or just Rub-a-dub)= pub = public house
- Ruby = Ruby Murray (popular singer in the 1950s born in Belfast) = curry
S
- Salmon and Trout = snout
- Saucepans = Saucepan lids = kids
- Scarper = not rhyming slang, derived from the Italian word 'scappare' meaning 'escape'. Commonly and incorrectly ascribed to rhyming slang for Scapa Flow
- Scooby Doo = clue, as in "Sorry mate, haven't got a Scooby Doo".
- Septic (often "Seppo") = septic tank = Yank (slang for an American)
- Sexton Blake = fake
- Sherbet = Sherbet Dab (child's sweet with Licorice & Sherbet) = (taxi) cab
- Sigourney = Sigourney Weaver = beaver (vagina)
- Skin = skin and blister = sister
- Sky = sky rocket = pocket
- Stoke-on-Trent = bent (gay)
- sweaty = sweaty sock = jock = Scottish person
- Syrup / sirrup = syrup of figs = wig(s)
T-V
- Taters = Potatoes in the mould = cold (eg "Its bleedin' taters!")
- Tea leaf = thief
- The Sweeney = Sweeney Todd = Flying Squad, a special division of the Metropolitan Police; used as the title of TV series The Sweeney
- Thrup'ny Bits = Tits (Breasts) threepenny bit (an obsolete pre-decimal coin worth three pennies)
- Titfer = tit for tat = hat
- Thomas the Tank = wank.
- Tod = Tod Sloane = own (as in "on your tod", meaning "alone")
- Tom Dick or Tom and Dick = sick
- Tom = Tomfoolery = jewellery
- Treacle = treacle tart = heart or sweetheart
- Trouble = trouble and strife = wife
- Two-an =Two-and-eight = state (as in "He was in a right two-and-eight.")
- Vera = Vera Lynn (famous British wartime singer)= gin, heroin
W-Z
- Wally = Wally Grout = shout (buy a round of drinks), as in "It's your Wally." Also stout or snout depending on context [could be Australian, Wally Grout being an Australian Cricketer.]
- Whistle = whistle and flute = suit = as in "a nice whistle"
- Winona Ryder = Cider
See also
External link
