Off Topic Forum (Archived)

Found an old book that's kind of like a dictionary of crazy rhymes used by our British Isle brethren (mainly those doing jail time) to befuddle the "screws". Hard to think these rhymes would be used by the general public, but this is the UK we're discussing.

See if you can decipher a few. HINT: One of the words in the list of codes below, rhymes with the actual word.

A few examples, "Joe Hook" = book, "Hampstead Heath" = teeth

Dolly Varden

Gates of Rome

Saucepan lid

Do me good

Pig's ear

Down the drains

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"Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, age don't matter."
Satchel Paige

Do me good

Pig's ear

Down the drains

These are all used here in the US but maybe not the same meaning?

Yes, but we use them as expressions and the Brits rhyme them to an object.

Do me good = wood

Pig’s ear = beer

Down the drains = brains

Kind of nuts if you ask me.

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"Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, age don't matter."
Satchel Paige

"Kind of nuts if you ask me."

.....kinda nuts....Berthas Butts= Pigs rear.......O dear...........

Some misinformation there. Cockney Rhyming Slang is not "prison slang" the warders (screws) would understand every word of it. There is no relation to Wybonics either.

Rhyming slang is believed to have originated in the mid-19th century in the East End of London, with sources suggesting some time in the 1840s. It dates from around 1840 among the predominantly Cockney population of the East End of London who are well-known for having a characteristic accent and speech patterns.

It remains a matter of speculation whether rhyming slang was a linguistic accident, a game, or a cryptolect developed intentionally to confuse non-locals. If deliberate, it may also 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 (see thieves’ cant) to confuse the police.

According to Wikipedia:

However it's not just straight rhythmic replacement. The form that is followed is made clear with the following example. The rhyming phrase "apples and pears" evolved to mean "stairs". Following the pattern of omission, "and pears" is dropped, thus the spoken phrase "I'm going up the apples" means "I'm going up the stairs

Meaning Slang Word Original Phrase (This is a 3 column table which this system doesn't seem to support)

telephone dog dog-and-bone
wife trouble trouble-and-strife
eyes mincers mince pies
wig syrup syrup of figs
feet plates plates of meat

Thus a construction of the following type could conceivably arise: "It nearly knocked me off me plates—he was wearing a syrup! So I ran up the apples, got straight on the dog to me trouble and said I couldn't believe me mincers." I'll leave this here as a translation exercise.

In some examples the meaning is further obscured by adding a second iteration of rhyme and truncation to the original rhymed phrase. For example, the word "Aris" is often used to indicate the buttocks. This is the result of a double rhyme, starting with the original rough synonym "arse", which is rhymed with "bottle and glass", leading to "bottle". "Bottle" was then rhymed with "Aristotle" and truncated to "Aris"


Adam and Eve – believe
Alan Whickers – knickers
apples and pears – stairs
Artful Dodger – lodger
Ascot Races – braces
Aunt Joanna – piano
Baked Bean – Queen
Baker’s Dozen – Cousin
Ball and Chalk – Walk
Barnaby Rudge – Judge
Barnet Fair – hair
Barney Rubble – trouble
Battlecruiser – boozer
bees and honey – money
bird lime – time (in prison)
Boat Race – face
Bob Hope – soap
bottle and glass – arse
Brahms and Liszt – pissed (drunk)
Brass Tacks – facts
Bread and Cheese – sneeze
Bread and Honey – money
Bricks and Mortar – daughter
Bristol City – breasts
Brown Bread – dead
Bubble and Squeak – Greek
Bubble Bath – Laugh
butcher’s hook – a look
Chalfont St. Giles – piles
Chalk Farm – arm
china plate – mate (friend)
Cock and Hen – ten
Cows and Kisses – Missus (wife)
currant bun – sun (also The Sun, a British newspaper)
custard and jelly – telly (television)
Daisy Roots – boots
Darby and Joan – moan
Dicky bird – word
Dicky Dirt – shirt
Dinky Doos – shoes
dog and bone – phone
dog’s meat – feet [from early 20th c.]
Duck and Dive – skive
Duke of Kent – rent
dustbin lid – kid
Elephant’s Trunk – drunk
Fireman’s Hose – nose
Flowery Dell – cell
Frog and Toad – road
Gypsy’s kiss – piss
half-inch – pinch (to steal)
Hampton Wick – prick
Hank Marvin – starving
irish pig – wig
Isle of Wight – tights
jam-jar – car
Jayme Gibbs
Jimmy Riddle – piddle
joanna – piano (pronounced ‘pianna’ in Cockney)
Khyber Pass – arse
Kick and Prance – dance
Lady Godiva – fiver
Laugh n a joke – smoke
Lionel Blairs – flares
Loaf of Bread – head
loop the loop – soup
Mickey Bliss – piss
Mince Pies – eyes
Mork and Mindy – windy’
north and south – mouth
Orchestra stalls – balls
Pat and Mick – sick
Peckham Rye – tie
plates of meat – feet
Pony and Trap – crap
raspberry ripple – nipple
raspberry tart – fart
Roast Pork – fork
Rosy Lee – tea (drink)
Round the Houses – trousers
Rub-a-Dub – pub
Ruby Murray – curry
Sausage Roll – goal
septic tank – Yank
sherbert (short for sherbert dab) – cab (taxi)
Skin and Blister – sister
Sky Rocket – pocket
Sweeney Todd – flying squad
syrup of figs – wig (sic)
tables and chairs – stairs
tea leaf – thief
Todd Sloane – alone
Tom and Dick – sick
tom tit – ****
tomfoolery – jewellery
Tommy Trinder – window
trouble and strife – wife
two and eight – state (of upset)
Vera Lynn – gin
whistle and flute – suit (of clothes)

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Chris Howells

1968 MGB Purchased already dis-assembled but which is largely back together so I'm a lot less ignorant.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-12-14 01:57 PM by melbaver.

Well done Chris your pretty much spot on, I will narrow it down a bit more for you, Cockney rhyming slang started in one particular area of the east end known as Bow and is still known as Bow to this day, To be a true Cockney you have to be born within the sound of Bow Bells and they are located in the church of St Mary Le Bow, My understanding is it evolved by the criminal element to confuse the police , the police back in those days were known as peelers after the police commissioner Sir Robert Peel,

soon be time for me to go up the apple and pears before I finish up brown bread, hope you educated the septic tanks Chris now we can get back to the jam jars,



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-12-17 03:47 AM by bev sleet.

Some here have speculated on the origin of my username "sweep" without divulging too much I can tell you that it was rhyming slang that prompted its creation from my surname. Williams.

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• The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
• To the intelligent person, life appears infinitely mysterious, but the stupid have an answer for everything.
First rule of forum debate:
• My opinion becomes truth if I can find one other person, on the Internet with the same opinion. It is 'chiselled in stone" if I find two!

Hmmmm, Sooty (and sweep) is sleep but can't configure Billy into it.

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Chris Howells

1968 MGB Purchased already dis-assembled but which is largely back together so I'm a lot less ignorant.

Sometimes it's difficult to keep up with the modern evolution of cockney rhyming slang .... for example

Steve McGarret = 50


http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/docs/html_cockney_english.php

Hawaii 50....................not rhyming slang but a form of substitution encryption.

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Chris Howells

1968 MGB Purchased already dis-assembled but which is largely back together so I'm a lot less ignorant.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-12-14 06:39 PM by melbaver.

Some of these remind me of the old fire engine joke.

Because they have eight wheels and four people on them, and four plus eight makes twelve, and there are twelve inches in a foot, and one foot is a ruler, and Queen Elizabeth was a ruler, and Queen Elizabeth was also a ship, and the ship sailed the seas, and there were fish in the seas, and fish have fins, and the Finns fought the Russians, and the Russians are red, and fire trucks are always “Russian" around, so that's why fire trucks are red.

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Friends talking around a fire is the history of mankind.

Sheesh Rod, how long have you remembered that for?

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Chris Howells

1968 MGB Purchased already dis-assembled but which is largely back together so I'm a lot less ignorant.

My memory isn't *that* good. I googled it!

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Friends talking around a fire is the history of mankind.

wow
I hope there is no test.

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Michael J. Caputo
'79, '77, '76, '74.5 (rubber dual SU), and '73 owner. Extensive experience in 12v Audio System design and installation. Vendor of Regalia and Promotional Products since 1993. Supplier of Accessories to MOSS. Forum Member since 2009; with a warped sense of humor since birth. Publisher of the annual MGB & GT Calendar, mailed worldwide.

"Steve McGarret = 50" as in Hawaii Five-O.