Polari (also seen as 'Palare') is
a gay slang language, which has now almost died out. It was more common in the
1960's when gays had more need of a private slang. However, in the last few
years, more and more people have been finding out about it, and several web
sites and magazine articles have been written.
Polari featured heavily in the
"Julian and Sandy" sketches on the BBC radio program "Round the Horne" in the
late 60s, and this is how a lot of people first heard of Polari. A few words
like 'bona' can still be seen in gay publications, used for camp effect. There
are even hairdressers in London and Brighton called "Bona Riah".
Polari
itself was never clearly defined: an ever-changing collection of slang from
various sources including Italian, English (backwards slang, rhyming slang),
circus slang, canal-speak, Yiddish and Gypsy languages. It is impossible to tell
which slang words are real
Polari.
In London, there was a West End
dialect, based on theatre-speak, which was posher than the East End dialect,
based on canal/boat-speak.
Word list
|
Ajax |
nearby (from adjacent?) |
|
Basket |
the bulge of male genitals through clothes |
|
Batts |
shoes |
|
Bijou |
small |
|
Bod |
body |
|
Bold |
daring |
|
Bona |
good |
|
Butch |
masculine; masculine lesbian |
|
Camp |
effeminate (origin: KAMP = Known As Male Prostitute) |
|
Capello |
hat |
|
Carts/Cartso |
penis |
|
Carsey |
toilet, also spelt khazi |
|
Chicken |
young boy |
|
Charper |
search |
|
Charpering Omi |
policeman
|
|
Cod |
naff,
vile |
|
Cottage |
public loo (particularly with reference to cottaging) |
|
Cottaging |
having or looking for sex in a cottage |
|
Crimper |
hairdresser
|
|
Dish |
an attractive male; buttocks |
|
Dizzy |
scatterbrained
|
|
Dolly |
pretty, nice, pleasant |
|
Drag |
clothes, esp. women's clothes |
|
Ecaf |
face (backslang) |
|
Eek |
face (abbreviation of ecaf) |
|
Ends |
hair |
|
Esong |
nose |
|
Fantabulosa |
wonderful
|
|
Feele |
child |
|
Fruit |
queen |
|
Gelt |
money |
|
Glossies |
magazines
|
|
Handbag |
money |
|
Hoofer |
dancer |
|
Jarry |
food, also mangarie |
|
Kaffies |
trousers
|
|
Khazi |
toilet, also spelt carsey |
|
Lallies |
legs |
|
Latty |
room, house or flat |
|
Lills |
hands |
|
Lilly |
police (Lilly Law) |
|
Luppers |
fingers
|
|
Mangarie |
food, also jarry |
|
Measures |
money |
|
Meese |
plain, ugly (from Yiddish) |
|
Meshigener |
nutty, crazy, mental |
|
Metzas |
money |
|
Mince |
walk (affectedly) |
|
Naff |
bad, drab (from Not Available For Fucking) |
|
Nanti |
not, no
|
|
National Handbag |
dole |
|
Nishta |
nothing, no |
|
Oglefakes |
glasses |
|
Ogles |
eyes |