'Ave a butcher's at this

Cockney Rhyming Slang.

As a person interested in lexicography I am going to continue with my word based theme that I started with in Acronyms in Language. I will in due coarse get to my history of sayings blog, but this topic has become relevant because in my research in to the history of sayings blog cockney rhyming slang has appeared several times.

The origins of this form of dialect are difficult to pinpoint but is widely believed to have come into common usage in the 1840’s in the East-End of London by the costermongers of the time. A costermonger is a fruit and veg stallholder in market places or barrow boys in the East end of London.

It remains a matter of speculation as to whether rhyming slang was a linguistic accident, a game, or a code developed intentionally to confuse non-locals. If deliberate, it may have been used to maintain a sense of community. It is possible that it was used in the marketplace to allow vendors to talk amongst themselves in order to facilitate collusion, without customers knowing what they were saying. Another suggestion is that it may have been used by criminals to confuse the police.

I think the most plausible origin of this form of communication actually has its roots in the penal community, so the inmates could talk to each other without their guards knowing what they were saying. Then it spilled over into the British Army, when the inmates were released this was the only place they could find work. It was in the army that rhyming slang became more universal. With the conscripted men release from service it would have spread to different parts of the country.

When it is spoken the rhyming part of the phrase is often dropped so to the casual listener it will not make any sense. For instance I once heard someone say “I’ve got a stinking hangover I had too many pig’s in the battle last night.” I heard this about ten years ago and didn’t know what it meant at the time but with my research for this blog I managed to translate what this person had said. Pig’s is short for PIG’S EAR or BEER, BATTLE is short for BATTLE CRUISER or BOOZER i.e. pub. To put this into “normal” spoken language it would be “I’ve got a stinking hangover I had too many beers in the pub last night”. This doesn’t sound or read quite as good as the cockney version.

But it isn’t only used on the shores of Great Britain, there is also Australian rhyming slang, it is from this the term pommy comes from. This is their term of endearment for the English. The Americans also have their version of it as well. The phrase “let’s bring it down to the brass tacks”. Brass tacks are facts.

Listed below are a few of my favourites.

Barnet Fair Hair
Bees and honey Money
Berkshire Hunt cunt

Billy lids Kids
Boat race Face
Boracic (usually pronounced "brassic") lint Skint
Bowler hat Chat
Brass cart Tart (prostitute)
Bristol City or, pluralised, Bristol’s Titty (breasts)
Cream crackered Knackered
Dog and bone Telephone
Frog and toad Road
Pig's ear Beer
Pony and trap Crap (both to defecate and of poor quality)
Skin and blister Sister
Water bottle Throttle