# The Very Best Of British Slang



## Meanderer (Feb 10, 2015)

http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml


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## hollydolly (Feb 10, 2015)

Yup that pretty much is a complete list altho' there's loads of regional variations but those are the ones that everyone on these islands would recognise regardless of their dialect or language ..


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## Greeneyes (Jan 15, 2016)

Meanderer said:


> http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml



I love British slang a few of them are used in America too.  lol


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## SifuPhil (Jan 15, 2016)

That's a huge list - I don't know why I didn't catch this before. I'll have to study it for a while. 

Thanks, Meanderer!


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## Arachne (Jan 19, 2016)

Great list thank you, do not forget the cockney slang.. lol Me dad's a cockney and I learned a whole new vocabulary whilst growing up lol


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## Meanderer (Jan 19, 2016)

Arachne said:


> Great list thank you, do not forget the cockney slang.. lol Me dad's a cockney and I learned a whole new vocabulary whilst growing up lol



Here's some Coxkney Rhyming slang.


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## hollydolly (Jan 19, 2016)

..London is the home of Cockney Slang...but no-one around here talks like that...the odd word or 2 perhaps, but really it's becoming a very dying dialect, particularly as the population of London is predominately foreigners with their own languages and dialects and slang....rare to hear  real cockney rhyming slang  these days...usually when you do, it;'s a market trader calling out his wares..and more often not actually in the city but outside in the home counties, and it's constantly evolving, words being made p all the time to rhyme with other words until it makes little sense to anyone at all!!

My husband who is from Generations of London stock .. like many of his contemporaries uses the odd few words of cockney rhyming slang in everyday conversation , whereas once upon a time generations ago, their grandparents would have spoken it like a foreign language understood by no-one else in the UK other than Londoners themselves!


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## Bee (Jan 19, 2016)

Cockney rhyming slang is a form of speech originating in the _*East End of London*_. It is an amusing and arguably a widely under-estimated part of the English language.

http://www.cockney.co.uk/cockney-rhyming-slangs.html


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## Warrigal (Jan 19, 2016)

Nothing very surprising in that list for an Aussie although I didn't get past G.
We also get rhyming slang over here.

I taught it to my computing studies classes as an illustration of the difference between human language and computer code. 
Most of the class were either Vietnamese or Lebanese ethnicity and they were fascinated.


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## Pam (Jan 19, 2016)

Bee said:


> Cockney rhyming slang is a form of speech originating in the _*East End of London*_. It is an amusing and arguably a widely under-estimated part of the English language.
> 
> http://www.cockney.co.uk/cockney-rhyming-slangs.html



Very true, Bee, and to be a true Cockney (as my late husband was) you have to be born within the sound of Bow Bells.


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## Bee (Jan 19, 2016)

Pam said:


> Very true, Bee, and to be a true Cockney (as my late husband was) _*you have to be born within the sound of Bow Bells.*_



Exactly Pam.


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## Capt Lightning (Jan 19, 2016)

The expression "Bob's your uncle" possibly  arose after Conservative Prime Minister Robert (Bob) Cecil appointed his nephew, Arthur Balfour as Secretary of State for Ireland.   It was widely regarded as a case of nepotism.

A Bodger  was a person (possibly itinerant) who made components such as legs and spindles for chairs - probably on a pole lathe.
Hence, a bodger was a person who didn't do a complete job.

A nice one used in Scotland and N.Ireland is 'Stoater'.  This means something of quality, often an attractive girl - as in "She's a wee stoater"


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## Meanderer (Jan 20, 2016)

Pam said:


> Very true, Bee, and to be a true Cockney (as my late husband was) you have to be born within the sound of Bow Bells.


Interesting tidbit, Pam, thank you.


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## Capt Lightning (Jan 20, 2016)

As well as Cockney, the British have slang terms for the residents of other areas : 

Brummy - resident of Birmingham
Scouser   - Liverpool
Geordie - Newcastle on Tyne
Mackem - Sunderland
Weegie - Glasgow

Legend has it that during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, a shipwrecked *monkey* was hanged by the people of *Hartlepool*, believing him to be a French spy! To this day, people from *Hartlepool* are affectionately known as '*monkey hangers*'.


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## Pam (Jan 20, 2016)

Thanks, Meanderer!

Capt. - good to see you point out the difference between Mackems and Geordies.


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## hollydolly (Jan 20, 2016)

Meanderer said:


> Interesting tidbit, Pam, thank you.



Actually originally the true cockneys were said to be  only genuine if born within the sound of the bells  the church of St Mary Le-Bow ( which in fact was a about 10 miles square, and covered a lot of districts)... but predominately the Cheapside ( Bow) Area of London a very run down and deprived area where basically they made up their own language  ...however in modern times all that has changed... and is more commonly used to refer to anyone born in the East End of London..or in fact to working class Londoners generally..


Read this link Meanderer...it's much more accurate...


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney


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## Meanderer (Jan 20, 2016)

And then of course, there are "The Bells of saint Mary's"!


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## Pam (Jan 21, 2016)

And then there is/was polari (or palare).
_
Nellyarda, zhoosh the riah, titivate, schlumph your Vera down_,_ and palare that omee for the bevvies because I’ve nanti dinarli. _

 (Translation: Listen, style your hair, make yourself look pretty,  drink up your gin, and talk to that man to get a drink because I’m  skint).

Some gay people – men in particular – did indeed used to speak their  own language. Of sorts. It was less a language and more of a cant  – a coded lexicon used exclusively to avoid detection by unwanted  outsiders. That could’ve been the police, disapproving conservative  society, or simply the group on the table next to you that you were  bitching about.


 So the short answer is – gay people don’t speak their own language  any more. But, in 1960s Britain, gay men in large cities – particularly  London – came close to doing so. It’s now archaic because the oppressive  conditions which brought it about have, encouragingly, evaporated into  equality in Britain.




http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/01/polari/


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## Capt Lightning (Jan 21, 2016)

You just need to listen to the "Julian & Sandy" sketches from "Round the Horne".

SANDY: “Don’t mention Malaga to Julian, he got very badly stung.”
HORNE: “Portuguese man o' war?”
JULIAN: “Well I never saw him in uniform…”


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## Pam (Jan 21, 2016)

Oh yes, Round the Horne! I've listened to a couple on Youtube.


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## clover (Jan 22, 2016)

Difference in our languages have always amused me, but most problems here are caused by the difference in our accents. Another topic perhaps !!!


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