Friday Five: Rhyming Slang

While I was back in England, I went to the Museum of London, which is an excellent museum, about which I will blog at a later date. While there I learned the reason that my mum refers to headgear as a titfer. I just assumed it was because she's a mum and they say odd things at times - best to ignore it.

However, I found out that it is rhyming slang for hat as in 'tit for tat'. I was quite excited by this and told some other people, who didn't share the (admittedly not large) thrill of linguistic discovery; several of them claiming that they had never heard anyone actually use the expression 'titfer' before. What do their mums talk about, I wonder?

Anyway, here are some everyday rhyming slang expressions that really have passed into common parlance (as far as I'm concerned!).

5 Rhyming Slang Expressions:

1. Butcher's (hook - look; as in, 'Go on then, give us a butchers')
2. Alans (Whickers - nickers; as in, 'Alright, alright, keep your alans on!')
3. Ruby (Murray - curry; as in, 'Let's go for five pints and a ruby')
4. Rosy (Lee - tea, as in 'Put the kettle on; let's have a cup of rosy'). Sometimes, although not as often round my way, referred to as a gypsy (both from Gypsy Rose Lee, an American burlesque entertainer, otherwise known as stripper).
5. Tod (Sloan - own, as in, 'Did you come with someone or are you on your tod?')