recorded in 1859 and after that was used to refer to a distinctive accent, a few colourful turns of phrase and a feisty, jaunty sense of humour. The habit of using rhymes to create slang probably developed in the 19th century, too, but like other quirks of speech which don’t get written down until years later, its origins are quite obscure. Historians assume that street traders, hucksters and hustlers invented the rhymes as a secret language to hide their activities from outsiders and the authorities, but this, too is unproven. If stallholders call their customers (from Bunter’ or refer to the till as the Hill’ or ‘Billies’ ‘Billy –‘punter’) ‘Benny Bill’ they are using harmless nicknames not sinister code-words. What is ‘Buffalo sure is that by the 1950s many working-class Londoners, fond of a bit of wordplay, were trading these phrases among themselves, often leaving off the rhyming part so that the mickey’ is trimmed from the original ‘taking ‘Mickey Bliss’, porkies’ is cut down from pies’, and race’ for ‘telling ‘porky ‘boat ‘face’ becomes simply, boat, shame about the fried eggs’. ‘nice By the non-Cockneys were getting in on the game of Chitty Bang ‘Chitty Bang’ or Meringue’: musicians picked up the lingo from their roadies and ‘Lemon electricians, advertising executives and journalists from messengers and drivers, Mockneys everywhere from TV shows like the Sweeney and Minder. From the 1980s students, too, took up the cause, updating the cultural references with terms like Senna’ for a Bragg’, a (and sometimes ‘Ayrton ‘tenner’, ‘Melvin ‘fag’ another rhyme beginning with sh-‘) or Jalfrezi for In college ‘Chicken ‘crazy’. circles the old bath’ or bath) for a laugh’ was replaced ‘Turkish ‘bubble ‘(having)
recorded in 1859 and after that was used to refer to a distinctive accent, a few colourful turns of phrase and a feisty, jaunty sense of humour. The habit of using rhymes to create slang probably developed in the 19th century, too, but like other quirks of speech which don’t get written down until years later, its origins are quite obscure. Historians assume that street traders, hucksters and hustlers invented the rhymes as a secret language to hide their activities from outsiders and the authorities, but this, too is unproven. If stallholders call their customers ‘Billies’ (from ‘Billy Bunter’ –‘punter’) or refer to the till as the ‘Benny Hill’ or ‘Buffalo Bill’ they are using harmless nicknames not sinister code-words. What is sure is that by the 1950s many working-class Londoners, fond of a bit of wordplay, were trading these phrases among themselves, often leaving off the rhyming part so that ‘taking the mickey’ is trimmed from the original ‘Mickey Bliss’, ‘telling porkies’ is cut down from ‘porky pies’, and ‘boat race’ for ‘face’ becomes simply, ‘nice boat, shame about the fried eggs’. By the non-Cockneys were getting in on the game of ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ or ‘Lemon Meringue’: musicians picked up the lingo from their roadies and electricians, advertising executives and journalists from messengers and drivers, Mockneys everywhere from TV shows like the Sweeney and Minder. From the 1980s students, too, took up the cause, updating the cultural references with terms like ‘Ayrton Senna’ for a ‘tenner’, ‘Melvin Bragg’, a ‘fag’ (and sometimes another rhyme beginning with sh-‘) or ‘Chicken Jalfrezi for ‘crazy’. In college circles the old ‘Turkish bath’ or ‘bubble bath) for ‘(having) a laugh’ was replaced
RHYMING-SLANG.docx