Coarse Cockney Rhyming Slang

West Ed

Description

Cockney is the dialect of East London. It was back in the 14th century that the term 'cockney' was first coined, as an insult by country folk to describe working class Londoners and their speech - cockeneyes meaning rotten egg, or, more literally, the egg of a cock. The dialect developed as the capital grew in Tudor and Georgian times, but it didn't become an identifying feature of London life until Charles Dickens popularised it in the 19th century. By this stage anyone born within the sound of the bells of St Mary Le Bow church, about a mile East of the City of London, was deemed to be a Cockney. And it is for rhyming that Cockney is most famous. The origins of this are unclear, but it was probably done to keep non-Cockneys ignorant of what was being said. The dialect is full of pitfalls for the innocent, but with this easy-to-use dictionary you should be able to slip into Cockney circles smoothly, without anyone ever suspecting that you are some sort of West London Charlie Ronce.

Sujets

• Gran Londres
• Lifestyle
• Greater London
• Dialect
• Grand Londres
• London
• Humour

Informations

• Publié par: Crombie Jardine Publishing Limited
• Date de parution: 09 septembre 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781906051327
• Langue: English

Extrait

INTRODUCTION
 
Cockney is the dialect of East London. It was back in the 14th century that the term ‘cockney’ was first coined, as an insult by country folk to describe working class Londoners and their speech – cockeneyes meaning rotten egg, or, more literally, the egg of a cock. The dialect developed as the capital grew in Tudor and Georgian times, but it didn’t become an identifying feature of London life until Charles Dickens popularised it in the 19th century. By this stage anyone born within the sound of the bells of St Mary Le Bow church, about a mile East of the City of London, was deemed to be a Cockney.

More recently, Cockneys have been portrayed in films such as The Long Good Friday , Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels , and Mary Poppins (with Dick Van Dyke playing the memorable Cockney, Bert). The famous Bow bells were destroyed during the WWII Blitz by the Rainbow Trouts, so technically there are no longer any Cockneys under the age of 60, but the linguistic form lives on. Thanks to the glamorisation of Cockney villains in films and TV, not to mention endless gangster memoirs, the slang has spread throughout the country, even as far away as Glasgow, where they have adapted it to create their own rhyming slang (Jockney).
 
And it is for rhyming that Cockney is most famous. The origins of this are unclear, since the sort of people who first used it weren’t likely to write memoirs, but it was probably done to keep non-Cockneys ignorant of what was being said. Thus, an innocent-sounding word could be used to mean a rude one ( see Berk), a West End gentleman buying fruit at twice the price of local people could be easily confused, and policemen were left wondering when a Cockney barrow boy wanted to sell suspicious jewellery down the rub-a-dub-dub (pub).
 
Since rhyming slang first emerged, Cockneys have been using celebrities’ names in vain, often very inappropriately – which is why both the Godfather of Gangsta Rap, Dr Dre, and Glasgow Rangers’ hard man, Terry Butcher, have come to mean homosexual. So remember, as a rule, the real people used in rhyming slang bear no relation to the condition or the object they are named after.
 
The dialect is full of pitfalls for the innocent, but with this easy-to-use dictionary you should be able to slip into Cockney circles smoothly, without anyone ever suspecting that you are some sort of West London Charlie Ronce.
 
COCKNEY TO ENGLISH
 
Andy McNabs crabs
Mildly funny form of venereal disease, named after the literary hard man author of SAS-based novels.
 
Annabel Giles piles
Anyone who gets remotely famous and rhymes with ‘piles’ is doomed to be honoured in this way, just like Miss Giles, an author and TV presenter.

Arabian Nights shites
In the last 30 years rhyming slang has spread all over the country, which is why strictly northern terms like ‘shite’ now feature. Anyone using the word with a real Cockney would be met with a hail of abuse accompanied by the demand, ‘If you can’t talk proper, shut ya maaf.’
 
aris arse
A tertiary slang is a piece of slang that has been rhymed three times, so arse becomes bottle and glass, which becomes Aristotle or aris, and then April in Paris. Presumably this is to keep non-Cockneys on their feet:
‘Aris? That’s like so last year.’

Armitage Shanks
1. wanks. What teenage boys call a ‘number three’ in a toilet.
2. a reputable firm of Victorian-era British toilet manufacturers.

Arthur (Bliss) piss
As in to urinate.
In honour of the otherwise forgotten early 20th-century composer.
‘You can shag us in a minute, just let me go behind this take-away, I’m desperate for an Arthur.’

Auntie Annie fanny
A rather coy (for modern standards) euphemism for the female genitalia.
 
Aylesbury (duck) fuck
Much used by Jockneys, Scots who’ve watched one too many episodes of EastEnders and Minder and as a result have picked up London phrases.
 
bacon baps flaps
A poetic description of female reproductive organs.

bale of hay gay
A geezer who likes other geezers, an iron hoof.
 
ballroom (blitz) tits
‘Look at the state of Sam’s ballrooms. Let’s hope her old man’s manslaughter appeal doesn’t come through.’

Barclays (Bank) wank
As in masturbate.
After the high-street banking firm. Also Midlands, or HSBC if you want to be totally up-to-date.

Bargain Hunt cunt
Vagina.
Nothing to do with permatanned David ‘the Duke’ Dickinson, or one’s opinion of him.

Barry White shite
Excrement, and not a reflection on the Walrus of Love’s musical offerings.

Basil Brush thrush
After the 1980s glove puppet, who was about as funny as the fungal infection found in one’s genitals after a period of hygienic indiscipline.
 
battle cruiser boozer
‘Excuse me, chum, I’m not from around here and I was wondering if you could direct me to the nearest what you call the battle cruiser, preferably one where the clientele won’t kick my head in.’

beating heart tart
A low-class woman found on the pull at 2am in a Kilburn nightclub, probably with her mum.
 
beggar boy’s arse (=brass, which then turns into brass door=) whore
A prostitute.
Origin unknown, although logic dictates that both are up for sale to any pissed-up sailor.

Ben Cartwright
1. shite. What Northerners do in the khazi.
2. one of the characters from the cowboy TV show Bonanza.

Ben Dover hangover
The feeling of self-disgust felt after a night of heavy drinking, or watching Ben Dover’s dirty videos.

Berlin Walls balls
Cold War-era term for testicles.

Berk (from Berkshire or Berkeley Hunt) cunt
One of several Cockney words that has since spread into the general language, masquerading as an innocently mild insult.
 
Bill Wyman hymen
Gynaecological feature named after the legendary Rolling Stones bassist and pork swordsman.

Billy Bragg shag
Presumably while singing a left-wing folk song about the miners.

Billy Hunt silly cunt
More akin to a twat.
It is not known whether the Drifters singer is aware of the term.
 
bit o’ luck fuck
‘Awright darlin’, fancy a bit ‘o luck?’
‘Sorry love, got a bit of Basil Brush and me Berkshire Hunt is killing me.’

bloody red head
As in oral sex.
Apparently ‘she gives blood’ means something else in East London.

brace and bit shit
‘Awright mate, wonder where I could find somewhere in this shithole northern dump to go for a brace and bit.’
‘There you go, mate,’ (throws 10p in his direction) ‘buy yourself an ‘ouse.’