Rhyming slang

The OED defines rhyming slang as follows: “a variety of (orig. Cockney) slang in which a word is replaced by a phrase which rhymes with it.” The phrase that replaces a word, consists of two, sometimes three, totally different words, the last one of which rhymes (or almost rhymes) with the word so described, thus, Barnet Fair/hair, apples and pears/stairs, and Jack Jones/alone (as an example of an ‘almost’ rhyme). The original secretive nature of rhyming slang (which some etymologists claim was designed to deceive the police) is enhanced by ‘clipping’ i.e. using “Barnet’ and ‘apples’ as synonyms for ‘hair’ and ‘stairs’ respectively. Sometimes, however, the clipping is ‘blended’, as in tit for tat/hat, where ‘titfer’ becomes a synonym for ‘hat’. Because rhyming slang springs from informal and largely unrecorded sources, the exact origin and history is obscure and at best a matter of conjecture. It is generally accepted, however, that rhyming slang is unique to the English language and originated in the East End of London as a Cockney patois in the first two decades of the 19th century. It was certainly used and spoken for many years before examples were first set down in dictionary format by Ducange Anglicus’s The Vulgar Tongue: A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Words and Phrases published in 1857. (Ducange Anglicus was a pseudonym, and to this day no one knows who he was.) This was followed two years later, in 1859, by John Camden Hotten’s Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words. Both authors stated that the slang, cant, and vulgar words contained in their glossaries/dictionaries were specific to London and that rhyming slang in particular reflected the Cockney patois. Note, however, that neither Ducange nor Hotten referred to it as ‘Cockney’ rhyming slang per se. In fact the first citation for ‘rhyming slang’ is from Hotten in 1859. It only came to be known as ‘Cockney’ rhyming slang sometime after 1859. It was not long before the phenomenon of rhyming slang spread to other parts of Britain, and also to other English-speaking territories throughout the British Empire, which in a way defeated the whole purpose if it was indeed originally conceived as a secret language to disguise the true purpose of its speakers. It remains a bit of a mystery why rhyming slang has not caught on in America. Perhaps there are two reasons. Firstly, most of the English immigration took place before the advent of rhyming slang and secondly, America’s multi-national and multi-cultural immigration created enough colourful slang on its own. An excellent paper on the history and origin of rhyming slang is available online at http://tampub.uta.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/90606/gradu00191.pdf;sequence=1