[78-L] OT. Cockney Rhyming Slang.

[David Lennick]

http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/

Classic and modern.

Acker Bilk = milk !?

dl

Julian Vein wrote:
> Spats wrote:
>> I've never ever heard 'ginger beer' used as rhyming slang for 'queer' 
>> OR engineer.
>> So, it must be someone's personal invention.
>> It's certainly not commonly used in London with that meaning.
>>
>> We used to make up lots as a private language...
>>
>> There are also modern additions to the commonly used vocabulary...
>> For instance...
>>
>> 'Syrup of figs' (shortened to 'syrup') is now commonly used to refer 
>> to a 'wig'.
>>
>> I friend of mine, now sadly deceased, used to invent them all the time...
>>
>> One of his became widely used...
>> Ruby Murray', an Irish 1950s pop-singer....
>>
>> 'Ruby' is now widely used to refer to curry.
>>
>> My favourite was his saying...
>>
>> I've ricked my Gregory?
>>
>> Ricked is a word used to mean putting something out of joint...but Gregory!?
>>
>> It turned to mean NECK! ;-)
>>
>> Earl.
> ================
> "Ruby" has been around awhile. I first heard "Ginger" about 30 years 
> ago, when someone at work addressed a homosexual (I'm not using 
> "gay"--I'm gay, but not homosexual--an example of a word being stolen) 
> as such. He replied: "My name is not Ginger!" He obviously hadn't heard 
> it. His name was Johnson, with the initials "S. H." Because of the way 
> strutted about I thought of him as Snake Hips Johnson! Because of the 
> colour of his skin he was also known as "The African Queen"! We also had 
> an Egyptian homosexual there whom I dubbed "The Egyptian Mummy".
> 
> Hadn't come across "syrup", but there hasn't been much opportunity to 
> use it if I had.
> 
> So as not to be thought one-sided in this, a friend of that persuasion 
> who was out shopping with my partner and daughter jokingly dabbed some 
> perfume on his hand and asked me if I thought "he smelt like a poof". He 
> has also referred to others as "camp as arseholes"! And my remarks about 
> "fairies at the bottom of the garden" don't cause him or his partner 
> offense.
> 
> Did you know that Michael Winner got out of military service by claiming 
> he was homosexual?
> 
>       Julian Vein
> 
> _________________________________