19 Facts About Rhyming slang

Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language.

Construction of rhyming slang involves replacing a common word with a phrase of two or more words, the last of which rhymes with the original word; then, in almost all cases, omitting, from the end of the phrase, the secondary rhyming word, making the origin and meaning of the phrase elusive to listeners not in the know.

Ghil'ad Zuckermann, a linguist and revivalist, has proposed a distinction between rhyming slang based on sound only, and phono-semantic rhyming slang, which includes a semantic link between the slang expression and its referent .

An example of phono-semantic rhyming slang is the Cockney "sorrowful tale", in which case the person coining the slang term sees a semantic link, sometimes jocular, between the Cockney expression and its referent.

Rhyming slang is believed to have originated in the mid-19th century in the East End of London, with several sources suggesting some time in the 1840s.

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Rhyming slang is used mainly in London in England but can to some degree be understood across the country.

Outside England, rhyming slang is used in many English-speaking countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, with local variations.

Rhyming slang is continually evolving, and new phrases are introduced all the time; new personalities replace old ones—pop culture introduces new words—as in "I haven't a Scooby" meaning "I haven't a clue".

Rhyming slang is often used as a substitute for words regarded as taboo, often to the extent that the association with the taboo word becomes unknown over time.

Rhyming slang has been widely used in popular culture including film, television, music, literature, sport and degree classification.

Rhyming slang is used and described in a scene of the 1967 film To Sir, with Love starring Sidney Poitier, where the English students tell their foreign teacher that the slang is a drag and something for old people.

Rhyming slang has been used to lend authenticity to an East End setting.

Rhyming slang comes up with a fake story as to the origin of Cockney Rhyming slang and is caught out rather quickly.

Use of rhyming slang was prominent in Mind Your Language, Citizen Smith, Minder, Only Fools and Horses, and EastEnders .

Variations of rhyming slang were used in sitcom Birds of a Feather, by main characters Sharon and Tracey, often to the confusion of character, Dorian Green, who was unfamiliar with the terms.

One early US show to regularly feature rhyming slang was the Saturday morning children's show The Bugaloos, with the character of Harmony often incorporating it in his dialogue.

In modern literature, Cockney rhyming slang is used frequently in the novels and short stories of Kim Newman, for instance in the short story collections "The Man from the Diogenes Club" and "Secret Files of the Diogenes Club", where it is explained at the end of each book.

Cockney rhyming slang is one of the main influences for the dialect spoken in A Clockwork Orange .

The author of the novel, Anthony Burgess, believed the phrase "as queer as a clockwork orange" was Cockney Rhyming slang having heard it in a London pub in 1945, and subsequently named it in the title of his book.