Rhyming slang

In he pub last night and it was quiz night, but between the questions we chatted away to each other. One of the people in our team is South African, and  it became apparent that she had never heard of rhyming slang and was completely perplexed by it. But how did anyone ever know what anyone was talking about, she asked. The phrase in question was tea-leaf, which we all knew without even a second thought, but how did we all know, it could have been anything she asked.

We began to bombard her with examples, and I began to think how much rhyming slang my dad always used; I don’t know if it was common when he was growing up in Cambridge in the 20’s and 30’s or whether he picked it up during the war, but his feet were always his ‘plates’, plates of meat/feet and the ‘current bun’ was always shining. Some of the words he used I’ve only recently discovered where they came from. Someone’s hair was often their barnett, which came from Barnett Fair/ hair (he also knew a barber called Barnett!) soup was always loop – loop the loop, a lie was a porky – porky pie, and brown bread – dead.

Thee were many others he used and while I was trying to remember them I came across some examples which have passed from rhyming slang to colloquialisms; ‘bottle’ meaning courage came from ‘bottle and glass’. I also found out the derivation of some words which I didn’t know before; moving to the west country, the students I taught sometimes said ‘you’re having a bubble’ and although I understood, I never worked out the reference until I came across the rhyming slang, bubble bath/laugh.

I’ve made a list of some of the expressions my dad commonly used, I’m sure I’ll remember a lot more later!

• daisy roots – boots
• dicky bird – word – “Don’t say a dicky!”
• dicky dirt – shirt
• dinky doos – shoes – “Where are your dinks?”
• dog and bone – phone
• dog’s meat – feet – “My dogs ache”
• loaf of bread – head – “Use your loaf!”
• mince pies – eyes – “Open your mincers!”
• Rosy Lee – tea – “A nice cup of Rosy!
• Ruby Murray – curry – “I fancy a nice hot Ruby!”
• skin and blister – sister – and dad always referred affectionately to his own sister like that
• whistle and flute – suit – dad’s weeding ‘whistle’ lasted him all his life!