How much cockney rhyming slang do you understand? Is it still used daily in the south east?

Posted by Exotic-Cod4067@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 64 comments

I was listening to some Kink's tunes and Ray Davies often uses some cockney slang in his lyrics and I also was watching some Danny Dyer geezer stuff on youtube and it inspired me to ask this question. I feel most people across England are familiar with at least some Cockney slang, things like dog and bone, china plate, butchers hook, apples and pears etc. however I rarely ever hear it used as a younger person and it sounds somewhat archaic to my ears.

I ended up looking up a cockney rhyming slang dictionary without realising how extensive rhyming slang is, there are so many phrases and terms that if someone dropped them into a conversation I would be left feeling very confused.

I reckon that very few people from south east speak like Danny Dyer, Tom Skinner or stereotypical "Geezers" in daily life (to my ears people like Tom Skinner sound like pantomime characters or the hitcher from mighty boosh and its very forced) however I do wonder if people from the south east have a much better understanding of cockney slang and also use it alot more than maybe I suspect.

How relevant is it still?

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Embarrassed_Park2212@reddit

'Get outta my pub' oh that's not it.

Monkey Pony Apples and pears Mange tout Rodney Ruby Murray

I could probably think of a few more but my brain isn't functioning properly atm.

Cats_oftheTundra@reddit

West Sussex, yeah very common. I don't use it a lot but it does pop up all over the place.

MagicBez@reddit

My grandparents used it constantly, my mum a little bit and I have a few left that I still use.

Examples:

Raspberry for fart (specifically blowing a raspberry)
Grass for someone informing/telling on people
Berk for C*nt (censored because the sub gave me a little pop up warning when I typed it!)
Butchers for look

And very rarely nowadays but Arris (for arse), Loaf (for head) and Barnet (for hair)

thesockpuppetaccount@reddit

Arris is a great one because it’s so far removed from its rhyme.

arris short for Aristotle rhymes with bottle from bottle and glass, glass rhymes with arse

Also where losing one’s bottle cones from

TankFoster@reddit

glass rhymes with arse

Only if you pronounce "glass" with an R.

PureRecognition7941@reddit

like they do in London? where cockney rhyming slang is from?

PomegranateV2@reddit

> Also where losing one’s bottle cones from

Nope.

There’s loads of sources on Google with the same logic

Do you have the actual answer as to where the expression comes from?

It comes from London.

Obviously, we’re talking about the etymology of the phrase not its geographical origin

ratscabs@reddit

What’s that got to do with ‘losing one’s bottle’?

Lose one’s arse as in what yourself I believe

CongealedBeanKingdom@reddit

I guess it does if you're a Londoner. 'Glawwss/awwwss'

W35TH4M@reddit

Wonder where Cockney rhyming slang is from, maybe there’s a connection

Hythy@reddit

Wait you can't say cunt on a UK sub? The U.K. Subs would be outraged!

TheAncientGeek@reddit

Berk is from Berkshire Hunt. Barnett is from Barnett Faur.

*Berkeley Hunt

Commercial_Reward_78@reddit

I live in Barnet… and most of mine’s fallen out. That’s a bit pony.

Jinther@reddit

One of the most common ones, still in use (and to the point that most people are not aware that it's even rhyming slang) is donkeys, as in 'I've not seen him for donkeys'

Donkeys ears = years.

Aye that was in both my grandparents and parents lexicons and I probably use it sometimes but rarely enough that it didn't make my list!

Snoo-84389@reddit

As someone from a north London family that list lines up well with my memories 👌

Its_all_sabai@reddit

Only just realised how many of these I use!

Ok_Attitude_8573@reddit

Some words have become so prevalent that they have entered the language and aware in general use: eg

Barnet, rabbit, take the Mickey, scraper*, berk, raspberry,

Some are very widely used and widely understood, eg : telling porkies, Hank Marvin, go for a ruby, Barnet,

But on the whole, while I think it is slowly going out of use, I would say it's completely brown bread.

Possibly not rhyming slang.

thejazzassassin@reddit

I just had a lovely J Arthur.

You could’ve also had a Sherman, a Barclays or a Jodrell.

Love Jodrell!

A more modern one is “having a Tommy.” Thomas the TANK engine. But that’s a bit contrived.

SnoopyLupus@reddit

I use it all the fucking time. I don’t think of it as Cockney rhyming slang. It’s just slang that I use.

ArcTan_Pete@reddit

Not all rhyming slang is cockney rhyming slang

not all cockney slang is rhyming.

I was brought up in East London so I can understand a lot of it..... some of it is just recently made up stuff

I rarely use it unironically.

Razhbad@reddit

I'm from the South East and its not really in daily use, however, there is an awareness of some of the words. Usually the ones that are more humorous like "James Blunt".

Not sure if its from London or not, but I've always and still do refer to the Police as "The old bill".

LitmusPitmus@reddit

Still regularly used just don't think many people clock it's rhyming slang. For all the hate MLE gets, a lot of rhyming slang has continued on

It's used in newspaper headlines around the world.

https://punchng.com/the-brass-tacks-of-the-brazil-trip/#google_vignette

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-supergrass-gave-up-secrets-of-sydney-s-underworld-now-he-wants-more-than-1m-from-the-crime-commission-20250710-p5me28.html

zonaa20991@reddit

The basics, no problem. Some of the more obscure stuff I’ve picked up through my uncle, who grew up in East Ham. I use little bits, Barnet, Raspberry, Boat, Porkies, etc. but they’re ones which have moved from being Cockney rhyming slag to just slang.

For reference I’m 22 and from Plymouth

terryjuicelawson@reddit

Some terms are so common I imagine many don't realise its origins. Blowing a raspberry, telling porkies, use your loaf. Who even knows what Barnet fair is?

MartianDuk@reddit

There’s a few that are quite universally known & will still get used by a wide variety of people like telling porkies, taking the mick, brown bread. People probably don’t realise sometimes that it’s cockney rhyming slang.

My family is not cockney in any sense but there’s one or two phrases like barnet or syrup that we use

FinalEdit@reddit

Well if you've ever heard someone say "take a butcher's at this" then yeah....I hear that kinda stuff still.

I still tell the wife im off "for a tom" stuff like that.

Ive never managed to drop saying something is "pony" when it sucks haha

Its always the shortened version, never really say stuff like "im cream crackered", or "pony and trap" etc

spanakopita555@reddit

There are a few words I'd use in my family (2nd gen London) or in certain circumstances. Mainly don't even think about the rhyming origin! Probably about as many as we use unthinkingly from Polari tbh.

Oohoureli@reddit

Spike Milligan got away with naming one of the minor Goons characters Hugh Jampton. BBC bosses didn't work out that it sounded like "Huge Hampton", and that Hampton was Cockney rhyming slang: Hampton Wick = Dick/Prick.

See also the song “The day King Harry got his Hampton Court”.

ResplendentBear@reddit

I live in Kent. I've never heard it used non-ironically but it's fairly well understood.

I don't think it's ever been seriously used outside London, which is kind of what you'd expect.

Other places have their own versions. Manchester has Bobbins (of cotton) for rotten.

Australia has Noahs (Arks) for sharks.

mibbling@reddit

Oh HUH - I’ve just realised where all that childhood slang around ‘bobbins’ must have originated (was at school on the border of Yorkshire and Lancashire)

ButterscotchSure6589@reddit

Corned beef, for hard of hearing in the North East.

RuneClash007@reddit

Depends where in Kent you're from

I'm Medway, a few things are used but not properly I guess? Saying "I'll have a quick butchers at that"

Or calling the toilet a khazi/carsey

Exotic-Cod4067@reddit (OP)

I have some friends from kent and I dont think I have ever heard them use it. Do you reckon you could understand most cockney slang if it was spoken?

AF_II@reddit

I ended up looking up a cockney rhyming slang dictionary without realising how extensive rhyming slang is,

Bear in mind a lot of this is modern pastiche or recent invention (or in the case of some lists, entirely made up). While some slang has become routinised, a lot more has been credited with being 'cockney slang' when it's nothing of the sort. There really isn't any "authentic" cockney any more (because most of us born within the sound of bow bells aren't mudlarking urchins running from the peelers any more).

British English has a huge amount of slang and regional specialist words, sometimes as specific as a single village; cockney is a very small dialect, it's just a tiny region of London, it's not the "south east" at all. Parts of our speech come from that, but much of what we call 'cockney' is just slang popularised by the media, it's not actually cockney at all.

stabdarich161@reddit

Mostly dead now. Few people do it but nah, mostly dead.

bookfrombox@reddit

Cockneys have been ethnically cleansed from the UK. Majority of cockney rhyming slang is now purely academic.

ukbot-nicolabot@reddit

A top level comment (one that is not a reply) should be a good faith and genuine attempt to answer the question

PassiveChemistry@reddit

That's... not what ethnic cleansing is. Go read a history book.

Zorro-de-la-Noche@reddit

This is the worst example of how to use “ethnically cleansed” I’ve ever seen.

pm_me_boobs_pictures@reddit

I wouldn't say that. A lot of traditional cockneys moved to Essex

There’s a lot of Cockney rhyming slang in every day use that I didn’t even realise was Cockney rhyming slang until later

PbJax@reddit

Unfortunately mass migration saw to the cockneys and they are now a very rare and dying breed. As to what they’ve been replaced by… well.

cupidstunt01@reddit

Replaced by a load of Reebok Trackies.

Actual-Tower8609@reddit

Not used so much but, but certainly was up until at least the 80s.

Use your loaf. (If bread - head)

Give us a butchers ( hook, look)

Me old China. (Plate for mate)

Fell on me arris. (Aristotle for bottle. Bottle and glass for arse).

Never said a dickie. (Bird for word)

Told a porky. (Pie, lie)

Bristols. ( Always plural)

Trouble and strife. (Wife)

Although there are a hundred more, these were the points that we used all the time.

Bloody_Star_Wars@reddit

Bristol Cities- titties.

llynglas@reddit

66 year old Brit, don't live in London, but Surrey, and never heard it outside of TV and movies, even on frequent trips in the city.

wopsywoo@reddit

I remember thinking Braxton hicks was cockney rhyming slang for sh*ts. I couldn't understand why people were saying they had it or why people were asking.

TangoMikeOne@reddit

I've always used Brads (Pitt) or Earthas (Kitt), never even heard of Braxton Hicks - but that probably shows my age more than anything.

NifferKat@reddit

Tomtit up in Edinburgh, but I think inevitably will have originated from cockney.

I believe so (although shits, as in brads/erthas refers to diarrhoea, rather than a normal bowel movement, referred to as a tomtit or pony).

Although some CRS has fallen into disuse down south, but still survives in Scotland (my colleague doesn't understand "china" despite living in south London for the last 30 years, but I've seen it used in Brookmyre novels published in the 00s)

It's a pregnancy thing, means false contractions

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