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Polari
Polari (from Italian parlare 'to talk') is a form of slang or cant historically used primarily in the United Kingdom among the gay subculture, as well as some actors, circus and fairground performers, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals, and prostitutes.
There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced to at least the 19th century and possibly as early as the 16th century. Polari has a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppeteers, who traditionally used it to converse.
Alternative spellings include Parlare, Parlary, Palare, Palarie and Palari.
Polari is a mixture of Romance (Italian or Mediterranean Lingua Franca), Romani, rhyming slang, sailors' slang and thieves' cant, which later expanded to contain words from Yiddish and 1960s drug subculture slang. It was constantly evolving, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words, including: bona (good), ajax (nearby), eek (face), cod (bad, in the sense of tacky or vile), naff (bad, in the sense of drab or dull, though borrowed into mainstream British English with a meaning more like that of cod), lattie (room, house, flat), nanti (not, no), omi (man), palone (woman), riah (hair), zhoosh or tjuz (smarten up, stylise), TBH ('to be had', sexually accessible), trade (sex) and vada (see).
There were once two distinct forms of Polari in London: an East End version which stressed Cockney rhyming slang and a West End version which stressed theatrical and classical influences. There was some interchange between the two.
In the LGBTQ community, Polari also involves inverting gendered personal pronouns and names, typically switching them from male forms to female forms. For example, he may become she (known as she-ing), and the name Paul may become Pauline.
From the 19th century on, Polari was used in London fish markets, theatres, fairgrounds, and circuses, hence the many borrowings from Romani. As many homosexual men worked in theatrical entertainment, it was also used among the gay subculture to disguise homosexuals from hostile outsiders and undercover policemen. It was also used extensively in the British Merchant Navy, where many gay men worked as waiters, stewards, and entertainers.
According to Oxford English Dictionary associate editor Peter Gilliver little written evidence of Polari exists before the 1890s. The dictionary's entry for rozzer (policeman) includes a quote from P. H. Emerson's 1893 book Signor Lippo – Burnt Cork Artiste: "If the rozzers was to see him in bona clobber they'd take him for a gun." ("If the police were to see him finely dressed, they would know that he is a thief.")
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Polari
Polari (from Italian parlare 'to talk') is a form of slang or cant historically used primarily in the United Kingdom among the gay subculture, as well as some actors, circus and fairground performers, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals, and prostitutes.
There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced to at least the 19th century and possibly as early as the 16th century. Polari has a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppeteers, who traditionally used it to converse.
Alternative spellings include Parlare, Parlary, Palare, Palarie and Palari.
Polari is a mixture of Romance (Italian or Mediterranean Lingua Franca), Romani, rhyming slang, sailors' slang and thieves' cant, which later expanded to contain words from Yiddish and 1960s drug subculture slang. It was constantly evolving, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words, including: bona (good), ajax (nearby), eek (face), cod (bad, in the sense of tacky or vile), naff (bad, in the sense of drab or dull, though borrowed into mainstream British English with a meaning more like that of cod), lattie (room, house, flat), nanti (not, no), omi (man), palone (woman), riah (hair), zhoosh or tjuz (smarten up, stylise), TBH ('to be had', sexually accessible), trade (sex) and vada (see).
There were once two distinct forms of Polari in London: an East End version which stressed Cockney rhyming slang and a West End version which stressed theatrical and classical influences. There was some interchange between the two.
In the LGBTQ community, Polari also involves inverting gendered personal pronouns and names, typically switching them from male forms to female forms. For example, he may become she (known as she-ing), and the name Paul may become Pauline.
From the 19th century on, Polari was used in London fish markets, theatres, fairgrounds, and circuses, hence the many borrowings from Romani. As many homosexual men worked in theatrical entertainment, it was also used among the gay subculture to disguise homosexuals from hostile outsiders and undercover policemen. It was also used extensively in the British Merchant Navy, where many gay men worked as waiters, stewards, and entertainers.
According to Oxford English Dictionary associate editor Peter Gilliver little written evidence of Polari exists before the 1890s. The dictionary's entry for rozzer (policeman) includes a quote from P. H. Emerson's 1893 book Signor Lippo – Burnt Cork Artiste: "If the rozzers was to see him in bona clobber they'd take him for a gun." ("If the police were to see him finely dressed, they would know that he is a thief.")