Rhyming slang is supposed to have originated in the east end of London. It consists of rhyming a word with a well-known phrase or the name of a famous person or something.
This often gets shortened so the slang word bears little relationship to the original.
It's used in the UK by people who want to colour their language up in a "street-wise" way or be generally tiresome.
Mostly it's self-concious and affected speech, but some words do become common currency and their rhyming origins are forgotten. Examples I can think of are "porkies" (pork pies = lies) and another one that I can't remember.
They seem to survive better when they provide useful euphemisms such as "half inch" = pinch or "tea leaf" = thief.
If you are in the medical profession and you're thinking of practising in the east end then you may find the following guide useful.
Medical Rhyming Slang
Her Majesty the Queen = spleen
Night at the Roxy = Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy
Cheshire cheese = water on the knees
Maiden aunt = Heart transplant
Cock a doodle doo = bird flu
and so on.
Happy New Year.
Or should I say Nappy Blue Ear. No, maybe not.
Postscript.
Since I wrote the above piece I've been deluged by requests from people working in particle physics in the east end of London asking if I can provide a guide for them. So here goes -
Vital spark = quark
Big hairy spider = large Hadron collider
Tweedledee and Tweedledum = Space/time continuum*
Useless article = Higgs Boson particle
Put yer coat on = photon
Mad Hatter = dark matter
I hope this list is of some use.
*This rhyming slang was very difficult to discover and was only found by firing Cockneys at each other at velocities approaching the speed of light.
1 comment:
this is even more wedding (wedding ring = interesting) than the previous Mickey (Mickey Most = post)
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