Glossary of British terms - The Rough Guide to London - page 465

Glossary of British terms

Bill Restaurant check Lift Elevator

Biscuit Cookie or cracker Lorry Truck

Bonnet Car hood Motorway Highway

Boot Car trunk NHS National Health Service

British Rail State railways Off-licence Liquor store

(1945-97) Pants Underwear

Caravan Trailer Petrol Gasoline

Car park Parking lot Pudding Dessert

Cheap Inexpensive Queue Line

Chemist Pharmacist Quid Pound (money)

Chips French fries Return ticket Round-trip ticket

Coach Bus Roundabout Rotary interchange

Single ticket One-way ticket

Crisps Potato chips

Dodgy Suspect or unreliable Stalls Orchestra seats

Stone Fourteen pounds (weight)

Dustbin Trash can

First floor Second floor Subway Pedestrian passageway

Sweets Candy

Fiver Five-pound note

Flat Apartment Tap Faucet

Tenner Ten-pound note

Fortnight Two weeks

Ground floor First floor Tights Pantyhose

To r y Conservative (politics)

High Street Main Street

Hire Rent Trainers Sneakers

Trousers Pants

Jam Jelly

Jelly Jell-O Tube/Underground Subway (train)

Whig Liberal (politics)

Jumper Sweater

Leaflet Pamphlet

COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG
The term Cockney originally meant cock's egg or misshapen egg such as a young hen
might lay, in other words, a lily-livered townie as opposed to a strong countryman. From
the seventeenth century, it was used as a pejorative term for any Londoner, but was later
appropriated by Londoners to describe themselves (and their accent). Traditionally, to be
a true Cockney, you had to be born within earshot of the Bow Bells (see p.164), an area
estimated to be roughly a five-mile radius around the City. However, with increased tra c
noise, and no maternity ward in the near vicinity, this traditional definition is of little use
nowadays.
As for Cockney rhyming slang , it's basically a coded language, where a word is replaced by
two or more words, the last one of which rhymes with the original. For example, instead of the
word “stairs” you have “apples and pears”; a piano (pronounced “pianner”) is a “Joanna”; and pinch
becomes “half-inch”. The general theory is that it evolved in the criminal underworld of the East
End as a secret means of communication, and many folk nowadays think of Cockney rhyming
slang as a bit of a joke. In actual fact, it's alive and well, you just need to know a few basic rules.
For a start, Londoners often don't use the part of the phrase which rhymes with the original at
all. In other words, rather than say “butcher's hook” (for “look”), they say “Have a butcher's at that”;
instead of “loaf of bread” (for “head”), you hear “Use your loaf!”, and when it's cold, it's “'tat'ers” not
“potatoes in the mould”. Rhyming slang is constantly evolving, too, with public figures providing
rich pickings: Brad Pitt (shit), Posh & Becks (specs) and Gordon Brown (clown). For the latest
rhyming slang, and all the old favourites, visit W cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk.