East London is a fascinating place that captures the imagination with its unique customs, music, and beliefs. People from this part of the city are called Cockneys. East London history says, that to use this moniker, one must be born within earshot of St. Mary-le-Bow Church in Cheapside, outside London’s City District. Over the decades, Cockneys developed a colorful linguistic code that incorporates rhyme, word association, and allusion — this is known as Cockney rhyming slang, and it takes some deciphering.
1. Adam and Eve: Believe
“Would you Adam-and-Eve it?” is a well-known phrase in most of England, though often used as a statement of mockery for Cockney traditions. However, many Cockneys still use this phrase, though to hear it, one will need to visit deepest Essex, where most of the older Cockneys now live. It’s rare when humans go out of their way to add more syllables to their rhetoric, which is admirable. “I don’t Adam-and-Eve it, mate.”
2. Apples and Pears: Stairs
Cockneys used to be renowned for their fruit and vegetable displays, so gradation plays a part in the phrase “steps and stairs,” but “apples and pears” is the rhyming word for stairs of any kind. An example sentence: “Alright, mate, these apples and pears are playing havoc with my knees.”
3. Bottle and Stopper: Copper
Copper is the Southern English word for a policeman — the shortened ‘cop’ is more familiar in American parlance. In old terms, to bottle means to enclose, while stopper refers to one who might prevent an event from happening. In East London, local beat police officers were known as “bluebottles” for their blue uniforms.
4. Coals and Coke: Broke
Cockneys were highly inventive linguists in some ways — the connection between coals, coke, and poverty uses imagery and clever wordplay. Coke is a gray, porous version of coal used to fuel Britain during the Cockney’s heyday. Both are broken down before being used, which makes the connection to being financially broke.
5. Crowded Space: Suitcase
In Victorian and Georgian times, suitcases were often stolen on a busy train platform during the holiday rush to Brighton or another beach holiday location. The connection to a crowded space paints a picture of a container packed with objects or a busy train station concourse. This expression fits its topic perfectly — pun intended.
6. Cut and Carried: Married
While simple nouns make up much of the Cockney repertoire, adjectives and verbs also make many appearances. To be cut and carried means to be married, though the rhyme has a word association. When married, a woman was cut off from her parents, carried — or provided for — by her husband.
7. Duck and Dive: Hide
There are many East London tropes involving cheeky Cockneys falling foul of the law, so hearing people talk about ducking and diving was usually related to crime. There is another connection: when a duck dives, it hides under the water’s surface.
8. Dustbin Lids: Kids
It is hard to know precisely where these phrases started, but you can imagine some East London moms standing in front of their houses, complaining about their kids’ mess. One might even see a connection to noise — the sound of a dustbin (trashcan) lid slamming down is comparable to screaming children.
9. Early Hours: Flowers
The East Londoners loved flowers, and Spitalfields Market used to be famous for its “flower girls,” who were immortalized as Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion and its more famous 1956 musical adaptation, My Fair Lady. Early hours reference the early mornings East London florists must endure for their morning flower deliveries.
10. Fisherman’s Water: Daughter
Of course, fishermen and old fables are mutually exclusive, and while there is no ocean in East London, there is the world-famous Billingsgate Fish Market. However, the water connection makes sense: some anglers and fishermen may consider themselves fathers of the sea.
11. Give and Take: Cake
The next phrase has a certain logic at play. The notion dictates that one cannot eat a cake without first being given one. Moreover, the added connotation of cake being like money implies something given or taken — in most cases, the latter. “Can I have a slice of that lovely-looking give and take, please?”
12. Hank Marvin: Starving
Sometimes, allusion creeps into the lexicon of Cockney expressions, and former Stranglers’ frontman Hank Marvin is honored here. When someone says, “I’m Hank Marvin, mate,” they are hungry. Whether there is a deeper connection to Hank Marvin being a healthy eater is unknown.
13. Lion’s Lair: Chair
In the past, one might have been wary of waking their father, who was sleeping in his armchair after a Sunday roast. The idea of a chair representing where you find a sleeping lion may have been invented by children — or just a playful dad. “Is anyone sitting in this lion’s lair?”
14. Pork Pies: Lies
A common expression used not only in London but in England in general, “telling porkies” is an affectionate way to accuse one of lying. The connection to Britain’s authentic meat product isn’t obvious, though associations with the word “pig” may denote someone of a low nature, who may embellish their stories with mistruths.
15. Ruby Murray: Curry
While dating many of these expressions is tricky, British modern history gives us a clue. Going for a “Ruby” is still often used throughout Southern England, referring to eating an Indian meal or ordering takeout. Ruby Murray was a famous Irish singer with many hit singles through the ’50s and ’60s, and while she has no connection to Indian food, her name rhymes perfectly. Furthermore, Many Indian immigrants arrived in Britain during the same post-war period.
16. Tom Cruise: Bruise
As the modern age evolved, modern movie stars and singers entered the East London vernacular (let’s not get into what Brad Pitt means, though). Tom Cruise is still one of the world’s household acting names, so he fits perfectly as a rhyming namesake for injuring oneself. Those searching for excessive hidden meaning might even say there is a connection to Cruise’s penchant for performing his own movie stunts.
17. Lady Godiva: Fiver
There are many folk heroes throughout British history, and Lady Godiva was a fabled character who rode naked on horseback through the streets of Coventry, protesting her husband’s oppressive taxation. A “fiver” is an informal way of saying five pounds, so the connection to money is apt. Incidentally, another expression was born in this legend: a man named Thomas, who watched Lady Godiva’s display, became known as “Peeping Tom.”
18. Oxo: The London Underground
Some Cockney expressions have a lot of layers to unwrap, but few expressions have the same deep meaning as Oxo, a brand of freeze-dried gravy granules that comes as a cube. The next layer refers to another nickname for the London Underground: the “tube,” which rhymes with “cube.” Catching the Oxo means commuting on the London Underground rail system.
19. The Third Man: Time
The next deep-thinking phrase involves a famous 1949 movie, The Third Man. The movie’s protagonist, Harry Lime, was played by Orson Welles. Therefore, if a Cockney asks you what the Third Man is, they refer to Harry Lime — or time. The word association isn’t as strong, although one might consider the third man similar to the third hand of a clock.
20. Listerine: Anti-American
This last Cockney expression emerged sometime after the Iraq War of 2003, when some anti-American sentiment crept into British public conversation. The term “septic tank” was already established as a pejorative for referring to a “Yank.” However, with Listerine being an antiseptic mouthwash, it soon became the norm to state someone’s stance on U.S. foreign policy: “No, mate, I’m not Listerine! There are lots of good people in America.”
Source: Reddit
Ben Rice
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