Trouble & Strife

So what do you know about London Cockneys - apart from what you’ve seen on BBC1’s  Eastenders?   Not a lot?

Well, for the absolutely, totally, abysmally uninitiated, a Cockney is a person from the East End of London  -  traditionally someone born ‘within the sound of Bow Bells’  (Bow Bells being the bells of  the church of St Mary le Bow in London’s Cheapside.)   So there are lots of people who might call themselves Eastenders but not so many who could genuinely claim to be Cockneys.  (‘Quelle domage’, as absolutely nobody would say, down at the Dog & Duck!)

One of the main things that Cockneys are noted for (jellied eels and Pearly Kings apart!) is their particular brand of rhyming slang.   Originally designed as a kind of private language to exclude the uninitiated, rhyming slang at its very simplest level can be pretty obvious in meaning – once you have grasped the basic idea.  But its supporters often go to extreme lengths to make it totally baffling to strangers.

For example,‘porkies’ is short for ‘pork pies’ which rhymes with ‘lies’ so a porky is a lie.   Not so difficult.    Similarly, a ‘butcher’s’ is short for a ‘butcher’s hook’ which rhymes with ‘look’ so a butcher’s is a look.   Less salubriously a ‘tom’ is a lady of the night, ‘tom’ being short for ‘tom cat’, with the rhyme here being best left to your imagination.

On the other hand if you are down at the pub, knocking out a few tunes on the piano, and someone describes you as ‘a bit Brahms’ you may feel that this is a tribute to your musical skills.  It isn’t.   Brahms is short for ‘Brahms and Listz’ which sort of rhymes with pissed! 

So, what does all this have to do with WebWatch2000?   Well, you probably won’t find much of the above in the Oxford English Dictionary – which  you can find online in our reference category.  But in the same category, amongst a very useful range of other reference works, you will find a Dictionary of Cockney Rhyming Slang.   (To check it out, visit our reference category at http://www.webwatch2000.com/portal/reference/)

And, in case you haven’t worked it out yet, ‘trouble and strife’ means ‘wife’ (but we can’t think why!)

Now that that’s all clear, watch out for next week’s gripping instalment, entitled  ‘Useful Phrases in Medieval Croatian’!  (Don’t hold your breath!)