London Slang
In recreating George Harley’s world I have tried to employ the authentic vernacular of 1920/30s London. As the poet Carl Sandburg once said: “Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work”, but essentially it is the language of the dispossessed, the marginal. As quickly as it is assimilated into the mainstream it slips its chains and reinvents itself. It is resilient and untameable—the voice of the city.
Within the books of the PICCADILLY NOIR series the reader will come across characters speaking thieves’ cant, Polari, Yiddish, rhyming slang and street argot. Many of the phrases have their roots in the vulgar and the profane; but mostly it is a language of rough poetry, inventiveness and humour.
As well as researching contemporary fiction of the period, the following dictionaries of slang proved invaluable to my research:
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A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (Francis Grose)
A Dictionary of the Underworld (Eric Partridge)
The Cassell Dictionary of Slang (Jonathan Green)
Abbreviations
Glossary of Slang
Here are some of the definitions of the slang terms used by the characters in the PICCADILLY NOIR series.
anny - gin [rhy.sl anne boleyn = gin]
arris - the behind [rhy.sl aristotle = bottle = bottle and glass = arse]
asterbar - a bastard [semi-backsl.]
bang your kettle - to look at a watch [the early large pocket watches resembled kettles]
barney - a pocket [rhy.sl barney moke = poke]
batt - shoes [Pol.]
bleat - to inform on someone to the Police
blue ruin - gin [‘blue’ as in miserable; i.e. its effects]
boat - the face [rhy.sl boat race = face]
bogey - CID detective [‘Old Bogey’ = the Devil]
bold - daring [Pol.]
bona - good, pleasant; very [Pol. Italian buono, good] bona nochy - goodnight [Pol. Italian buonanotte , goodnight]
bonaroo - wonderful, excellent [Pol. Italian buono, good]
borarco - a drunkard [Pol. Spanish borracho, drunkard]
brama - a pretty woman [British Raj—Brahma is the supreme God of Hindu mythology]
brass - a prostitute [rhy.sl brass nail = tail; tail was a 19C term for a prostitute]
bright'un - a gun [from its shiny surface?]
bunce - money, profit [perhaps from bonus]
burick - a common, or flashily-dressed woman; prostitute [Rom. burk, breast]
butcher's - a look [rhy.sl butcher’s hook = look]
buvare – drink [Pol.]
cabbage - cash [US – green banknotes]
cackle - empty chatter, gossip [the sound made by a hen]
case up - to live with as if married [Italian casa, house]
caught out - pregnant
charpering omi - a policeman [Pol. Italian cecare, to seek; uomo, man]
cheese it! - shut up! stop it! [a corruption of ‘cease it!’]
chicken - a young male homosexual
chife/chiv - a knife, a razor [Rom. chiv, chive, knife]
chiv-man - a criminal apt to use a knife or razor as a weapon [see chife/chiv]
chokey - prison [British Raj—Hindustani chauki, customs house or police station]
chordy gear - stolen goods [Rom. cor, to steal]
cod - vile [Pol.]
corybungus - the behind
crease - to kill [from the body creasing at the waist]
cut up didoes - to play pranks
deadly nevergreen - the gallows
Dilly, the - Piccadilly, London
dilly boy - a teenage male prostitute [Piccadilly was well-known for its prostitution]
dinarly - money [Pol. Italian denaro, money]
dog’s soup - water
dollar - five shillings
dorcas - someone who is caring, generous [The Dorcas Society was a ladies' charitable church association]
eye-water - gin
factory - a police station
finocchio - a male homosexual [Italian finocchio, fennel]
fogus - tobacco [‘Latin’ elaboration of ‘fog’]
gammon - chatter, nonsense, cheating patter [ perhaps from tying up a ham]
garret - the head
gelt - money [Yid. gelt, money]
Corporal Dunlop - a short rubber truncheon
gentle persuader - a gun, a hammer
gillflirt - a vain capricious woman [gill, girl, lass]
ginney - an Italian [derogatory; ? from Italian seaman sailing from the Guinea Coast]
god forbids - children [rhy.sl god forbids = kids]
gold watch - whisky [rhy.sl gold watch = scotch]
goy - a gentile, a non-Jew [Yid. from the Hebrew goy, a nation]
groin/groinage - ring(s), especially set with gems [from tramp slang gravney/grawney, ring]
half-a-bar - ten shillings [bar = £1 sterling; ? from Rom. bauro, heavy, big]
hocus - to incapacitate someone with drugged liquor
homi-poloney - an effeminate male homosexual [Pol. Italian uomo, man; pollo, chicken]
ikey-mo - a Jew [derogatory; from Isaac + Moses]
iron - a male homosexual [rhy.sl iron hoof = poof]
ixnay - nothing, not at all [backsl. nix; from German nichts, nothing]
jane - a prostitute [rhy.sl jane shore = whore; Jane Shore - mistress of Edward IV]
jarry - food [Pol. Italian mangiare, to eat]
joe ronce - a ponce (pimp) [rhy.sl see ponce]
kaffies - trouser [Pol.]
keep nix - to act as a lookout
khazi - a toilet [ ? British Raj—derogatory allusion to the habits of the Khasi people]
kibbitz - to offer unwanted advice in a card game [Yid. from German Kiebitz, lapwing]
kite - the stomach [ ? from British dialect kyte, womb, stomach]
knowledge box - the head
kvetch - to whine, to complain [Yid.]
lakes - mad [rhy.sl lakes of Killarney = barmy]
lamp - a black eye
lavender boy - a male homosexual [ ? from the lavender water that they used]
lilly/lilly law - a policeman/the police [Pol.]
lit up - drunk
lumbered - arrested
madam, a load of old - nonsense, rubbish, flattery [ ? from shopkeepers’ patter: ‘Of course it will, madam’]
mamzer - a bastard—though used as a term of endearment [Yid. mamzer, bastard]
meshugaas - craziness [Yid.]
meshuggener - crazy [Yid.]
milky - cowardly, scared
mooey - the mouth [Rom. mooi, mouth]
mort - a woman, especially a prostitute [ ? from Old Dutch mot, whore]
mott - see mort
mott shop - a brothel
muzzler - a male homosexual [from the muzzle—mouth, hence to fellate]
myrna loy - a saveloy [rhy.sl Myrna Loy = saveloy; Myrna Loy – movie star]
nanti - not, nothing, none [Pol. Italian niente, nothing]
nark - a police informer [Rom. nak, nose]
nebbish - a nobody, a loser [Yid. nebech, an inept pitiable man]
nix - nothing [from German nichts, nothing]
nymph of the pave - a prostitute
off-the-cob - corny, unfashionable [US from corncob—an implication of rustic poverty]
oil of angels - a bribe [an angel was an old English coin]
oily - a cigarette [rhy.sl oily rag = fag]
old slithery, the - sex
on the bash - to work as a prostitute [from bash, bang, bonk etc.]
on the ribs - to be without any visible means of subsistence [so starved the ribs are showing]
on velvet - to be well off, living in clover
oncer - £1 sterling
ones-and-twos - shoes [rhy.sl ones-and-twos = shoes]
pen yen - opium [ ? from the Cantonese nga pun-yin, opium]
people - trustworthy, loyal, safe; able to keep secrets [see staunch]
pester up - to pay, to pay up [Rom. pesser, pay]
pinch - to arrest
plates - feet [rhy.sl plates of meat = feet]
ponce - a pimp, a man ‘living off immoral earnings’ [ ? from French Alphonse, or possibly pont or pontonnière, a prostitute who works from the arches of a bridge]
pooter - a prostitute [ ? from British Raj—Hindustani poot, shilling]
pouch – to carry a weapon
pound-noteish – pompous, affected [seen as characteristics of the rich]
pronterino - quickly
put the buff in downy – to go to bed [buff = skin, downy = feather bed]
put the kibosh on - to spoil, to ruin [ ? Yid. kabas, to suppress]
put the oliver on - to scam [from Oliver Twist— a dishonest twist]
put the squeak in - to inform on
put up the fanny – to tell a false story
queanie - a male homosexual [from Old English cwene, woman]
rod - an overcoat [ ? a connection to 19C rockalow, from the French roquelaure, a type of cloak]
rosie - tea [rhy.sl rosie lee = tea; Gypsy Rose Lee – American stripper
schlemiel - a fool, a clumsy person, a misfit [Yid.]
schlep - to travel an inconvenient distance [Yid. schlep, to drag]
schmendrik - a clueless mama's boy [Yid.]
schmundie - the vagina [Yid.]
schmutter - clothes [Yid. shmatte, rags]
schtuk - trouble, bother [despite its appearance not a Yiddish word; ? stuck adapted to a Yiddish model]
schtum - quiet, silent [Yid. shtum, dumb, voiceless]
screever - a pavement artist who draws in coloured chalk [ Italian scrivere, to write]
screwsman - a skilled house-beaker [screw is criminal slang for a skeleton key]
shant of bivvy - a pot or pint of beer [bivvy from Latin bibere, to drink]
shant of wallop - a pot or pint of beer [‘wallop’ as in its effects]
sharper - to steal, to cheat [as in card sharp]
sharpy - a policeman [Pol. from charpering omi – see above]
sheeny - a Jew [derogatory; from Yid. shayner Yid, a beautiful-faced Jew – i.e. a description of an old-fashioned traditional European Jew]
schlemozzle - disturbance, uproar, noise [Yid.]
shice - nothing, no good [Yid. scheisse, shit]
shicer - a low-life, good-for-nothing [see shice]
skimish - beer/alcohol [from Shelta (travellers' language)]
smother - an overcoat [ it smothers the wearer, bit also ? from Yid. shmatte, rags]
snide - counterfeit [ ? from German schneide, to cut, as in to cut fake coins]
snow - cocaine
soup - thick London smog [its resemblance to pea soup]
spieler - an illegal gambling club [German spielen, to play]
spruce – to tell lies, to cheat, to flatter [i.e. ‘sprucing up’ the facts]
squirter - a gun
staunch - trustworthy, loyal, safe; able to keep secrets [see people]
steamer
stir - prison [Rom. sturiben, prison]
stone-ginger - an absolute certainty [Stone Ginger was a celebrated champion racehorse in New Zealand]
straight-cut - a respectable woman
stripe - to slash with a cut-throat razor
take stoppo - to be obliged to run away [acting on the lookout’s cry of ‘stop!’]
tightener - a substantial meal [its effects on the stomach, especially if it is a rarity]
tomfoolery - jewellery [rhy.sl tomfoolery = jewellery]
top-storey man - a cat-burglar
trade - a prostitute’s clients
treyf - not kosher [Yid.]
troll - of a prostitute, to work the streets looking for punters
tub - an omnibus [from its resemblance to a bath tub]
tut - (pronounced tuut) rubbish, worthless items [probably a corruption of tot, bone as in totter, rag-and-bone man; from German tod, dead]
vada - to look at [Pol. Venetian vardia, a look]
vodeodo - money [a playful rendering of dough]
whistle - a suit [rhy.sl whistle and flute = suit]
wide - sharp-witted, shrewd; also (of clothing) flash, ostentatious [wide awake]
wide-boy – petty criminal, wheeler-dealer, minor villain
wind pudding, to eat - to go without food
work the black - to blackmail
yews - the eyes [Pol. French yeux, eyes]
yiddified - anti-Semitic
yok - a gentile, a non-Jew [backsl. see goy]