Introduction

The English language contains a rich array of slang words and phrases. This can be particularly seen when examining the day to day language of the average Londoner. A great many London slang terms derive from the Cockney tradition and fall into the bracket of 'Rhyming Slang'. Other terms have been introduced by the influx of other cultures into the capital. The resulting mishmash has created what academics sometimes call 'Estuary English' (after the area of the Thames Estuary), although this term is used more to describe the accent used in the area.

On these pages I hope to gather many of these terms, together with a brief explanation of them. Most of the list was initially compiled from my own and friends knowledge and I have used other written sources to add to these. As time has gone on many of the entries have come from visitors to the site.

I realise that some words and phrases are perhaps a bit too 'non pc' for general consumption and have omitted these. Even so, many of the following will offend some people and I would like to state that their inclusion is to provide a realistic representation of the language, not to be sensational or abusive. It is the nature of slang that it is either used to replace taboo phrases or to playfully enhance them, this is unavoidable when compiling a list of this sort.

I have not included an exhaustive list of 'Rhyming Slang' terms but have focused on the specific phrases that are still widely used all around the capital. I have also collected a number of newer phrases that are labelled 'Modern Rhyming Slang' which I have come across over the last few years. It remains to be seen if these terms will be accepted as bona fide 'Rhyming Slang' in the future, but I feel their inclusion at least provides an up to date picture. There are a number of pages on the 'net' that focus on 'Rhyming Slang' in more detail, but these largly focus on the historic terms that are only used by a very small group of people which I feel gives a rather cliched view of Londoners. I have included links to some of these on the links page.

In reality there are very few people who use Rhyming Slang in it's traditional form. My intention is that the site will be used to record the terms that are used by a wide variety of people and I feel that I should stress that a lot of the terms are used in a tongue-in-cheek way. We do not all walk around saying "Cor blimey mate, love a duck I fell down the apples and pears" !

I intend to constantly update these pages with new slang terms that I come across. If you know of any slang that you feel falls into the category of 'London Slang' (or 'Estuary English') then please fill in the survey form on these pages (by choosing the 'Suggest Slang' button from the menu).

News

Slow updates as usual. The 'Snatch' film section will be finished soon.

Please be patient if you have questions. I get a lot of email and most of them require some research - time is precious !

Cheers

(March 18th 2002)

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