Polari

Polari
Palare, Parlary, Palarie, Palari
Region	United Kingdom and Ireland
Native speakers	None[1]
Language family	English-based cant
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pld
Glottolog	pola1249[2]
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Polari (or alternatively Parlare, Parlary, Palare, Palarie, Palari; from Italian parlare, meaning 'to talk') is a form of cant slang used in Britain by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals, prostitutes, and the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origins,^[3] but it can be traced back to at least the 19th century and possibly the 16th century.^[4] There is a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppet performers, who traditionally used Polari to converse.^[5]

Description[edit]

Polari is a mixture of Romance (Italian^[6] or Mediterranean Lingua Franca), Romani, London slang,^[6] backslang, rhyming slang, sailor slang, and thieves' cant. Later it expanded to contain words from the Yiddish language and from 1960s drug subculture slang, it was a constantly developing form of language, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words, including: bona (good^[7]), 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 the sense of the aforementioned cod), lattie (room, house, flat, i.e. room to let), nanti (not, no), omi (man), palone (woman), riah (hair), zhoosh or tjuz (smarten up, stylize), TBH ('to be had', sexually accessible), trade (sex), and vada (see), and over 500 other lesser-known words.^[8] According to a Channel 4 television documentary,^[9] there was once (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.

Usage[edit]

Since the 19th century, Polari was used in London fishmarkets, the theatre, fairgrounds, and circuses, hence the many borrowings from Romani;^[10] as many homosexual men worked in theatrical entertainment it was also used among the gay subculture, at a time when homosexual activity was illegal, to disguise homosexuals from hostile outsiders and undercover policemen. It was also used extensively in the British Merchant Navy, where many gay men joined ocean liners and cruise ships as waiters, stewards, and entertainers.^[11]

William Shakespeare used the term bona (good, attractive) in Henry IV, Part 2, part of the expression bona roba (a lady wearing an attractive outfit).^[12] However, "there's little [other] written evidence of Polari before the 1890s," according to Peter Gilliver, associate editor of the Oxford English Dictionary; the dictionary's entry for rozzer (policeman), for example, includes this quote from an 1893 book (P. H. Emerson's Signor Lippo - Burnt Cork Artiste):^[13] "If the rozzers was to see him in bona clobber they'd take him for a gun." (If the police were to see him dressed in this fine manner, they would know that he is a thief).^[12]

The almost identical Parlyaree has been spoken in fairgrounds since at least the 17th century^[14] and continues to be used by show travellers in England and Scotland. As theatrical booths, circus acts, and menageries were once a common part of European fairs, it is likely that the roots of Polari/Parlyaree lie in the period before both theatre and circus became independent of the fairgrounds; the Parlyaree spoken on fairgrounds tends to borrow much more from Romany, as well as other languages and argots spoken by travelling people, such as cant and backslang.

Henry Mayhew gave a verbatim account of Polari as part of an interview with a Punch and Judy showman in the 1850s; the discussion he recorded references the arrival of Punch in England, crediting these early shows to a performer from Italy called Porcini (John Payne Collier's account calls him Porchini).^[15] Mayhew provides the following:

Punch Talk

"'Bona Parle' means language; name of patter. 'Yeute munjare' – no food. 'Yeute lente' – no bed. 'Yeute bivare' – no drink. I've 'yeute munjare,' and 'yeute bivare,' and, what's worse, 'yeute lente.' This is better than the costers' talk, because that ain't no slang and all, and this is a broken Italian, and much higher than the costers' lingo. We know what o'clock it is, besides."^[5]

There are additional accounts of particular words that relate to puppet performance: "'Slumarys' – figures, frame, scenes, properties. 'Slum' – call, or unknown tongue"^[5] ("unknown" is a reference to the "swazzle", a voice modifier used by Punch performers, the structure of which was a longstanding trade secret).

Decline in use[edit]

Polari had begun to fall into disuse amongst the gay subculture by the late 1960s; the popularity of the Julian and Sandy characters played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams (first introduced in the radio programme Round the Horne in the 1960s)^[16] ensured that some of this secret language became public knowledge. In addition, the need for a secret subculture code declined with the partial decriminalization of adult homosexual acts in England and Wales under the Sexual Offences Act 1967.

In popular culture[edit]

Polari was popularised in the 1960s on the popular BBC radio show Round the Horne starring Kenneth Horne. Camp Polari-speaking characters Julian and Sandy were played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams.^[17]

In the Doctor Who serial Carnival of Monsters from 1973, Vorg, a showman, believing the Doctor to also be a showman, attempts to converse with him in Polari; the Doctor states that he does not understand him.^[18]

In 1987 character Ralph Filthy, a Theatrical Agent played by Nigel Planer in the BBC TV series Filthy, Rich & Catflap regularly used Polari.

In 1990, Morrissey released the single "Piccadilly Palare" containing a number of lyrics in Polari and exploring a subculture in which Polari was used. "Piccadilly Palare" is also the first song appearing on Morrissey's compilation album Bona Drag, whose title is itself taken from Polari.

In the 1999 film Velvet Goldmine, two characters speak Polari while in a London nightclub; this scene contains subtitles for viewers not familiar with the language.

In 2015, filmmakers Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston made Putting on the Dish, a short film entirely in Polari.^[19]

In 2016, David Bowie released the album Blackstar, containing the song "Girl Loves Me". Polari makes up half of the lyrics of the track.

In 2017, a service at Westcott House, Cambridge (a Church of England theological college) was conducted in Polari; the service was held by trainee priests to commemorate LGBT History Month; following media attention, Chris Chivers, the Principal, expressed his regret.^{[20][21][22][23]}

In the 2017 EP Ricky, Sakima sang about heteronormativity and Polari.^[24]

In 2019, the first ever opera in Polari, The Sins of the Cities of the Plain (based on the book of the same title), premiered at Espacio Turina in Seville (Spain); the libretto was entirely written in Polari by librettist and playwright Fabrizio Funari (b. 1991) while the music was composed by Germán Alonso (b. 1984) with cantaor Niño de Elche (b. 1985) in the main role. The opera was produced and performed by instrumental ensemble Proyecto OCNOS, formed by Pedro Rojas-Ogáyar and Gustavo A. Domínguez Ojalvo, with the support of ICAS Sevilla, Fundación BBVA and The Librettist.^[25]

References[edit]

In 2002, two books on Polari were published, Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men, and Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang (both by Paul Baker).

In 2012, artists Jez Dolan and Joseph Richardson created an iPhone app which makes available the Polari lexicon and a comprehensive list of etymologies.^[26][27]

Entry into mainstream slang[edit]

A number of words from Polari have entered mainstream slang; the list below includes words in general use with the meanings listed: acdc, barney, blag, butch, camp, khazi, cottaging, hoofer, mince, ogle, scarper, slap, strides, tod, [rough] trade.

The Polari word naff, meaning inferior or tacky, has an uncertain etymology. Michael Quinion states that it is probably from the sixteenth-century Italian word gnaffa, meaning "a despicable person".^[28] There are a number of false etymologies, many based on acronyms—Not Available For Fucking, Normal As Fuck—though these are backronyms. More likely etymologies include northern UK dialect naffhead, naffin, or naffy, a simpleton or blockhead; niffy-naffy, inconsequential, stupid, or Scots nyaff, a term of contempt for any unpleasant or objectionable person. An alternative etymology may lie in the Romany naflo, itself rooted in násfalo, meaning ill; the phrase "naff off" was used euphemistically in place of "fuck off" along with the intensifier "naffing" in Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse (1959).^[29] Usage of "naff" increased in the 1970s when television sitcom Porridge employed it as an alternative to expletives which were not considered broadcastable at the time.^[28] Princess Anne famously told a reporter, "Why don't you just naff off" at the Badminton horse trials in April 1982.^[30]

"Zhoosh" (/ˈʒʊʃ/, /ˈʒuːʃ/ or /ˈʒʊʒ/^[31]) meaning to smarten up, style or improve something, became commonplace more recently, having been used in the 2003 United States TV series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and What Not to Wear.

Polari glossary[edit]

Numbers:

Number	Definition
medza	1/2
una, oney	one
dooey	two
tray	three
quarter	four
chinker	five
say	six
say oney, setter	seven
say dooey, otter	eight
say tray, nobber	nine
daiture	ten
long dedger, lepta	eleven
kenza	twelve

Some words or phrases that may derive from Polari (this is an incomplete list):

Word	Definition
acdc, bibi	bisexual[32]:49
ajax	nearby (shortened form of "adjacent to")[32]:49
alamo!	they're attractive! (via acronym "LMO" meaning "Lick Me Out!)[32]:52,59
arva	to have sex (from Italian chiavare, to screw)[33]
aunt nell	listen![32]:52
aunt nells	ears[32]:45
aunt nelly fakes	earrings[32]:59,60
barney	a fight[32]:164
bat, batts, bates	shoes[32]:164
bevvy	drink[7]
bitch	effeminate or passive gay man
bijou	small/little (from French, jewel)[32]:57
bitaine	whore
blag	pick up[32]:46
bold	homosexual[33]
bona	good[32]:26,32,85
bona nochy	goodnight (from Italian – buona notte)[32]:52
butch	masculine; masculine lesbian[32]:167
buvare	a drink; something drinkable (from Italian – bere or old-fashioned Italian – bevere or Lingua Franca bevire)[32]:167
cackle	talk/gossip[32]:168
camp	effeminate (possibly from Italian campare "exaggerate, make stand out") (possibly from the phrase 'camp follower' those itinerants who followed behind the men in uniform/highly decorative dress)
capello, capella, capelli, kapella	hat (from Italian – cappello)[32]:168
carsey, karsey, khazi	toilet[32]:168
cartes	penis (from Italian – cazzo)[32]:97
cats	trousers[32]:168
charper	to search or to look (from Italian acchiappare, to catch)[32]:168
charpering omi	policeman
charver	sexual intercourse[32]:46
chicken	young man
clevie	vagina[34]
clobber	clothes[32]:138,139,169
cod	bad[32]:169
corybungus	backside, posterior[34]
cottage	a public lavatory used for sexual encounters (public lavatories in British parks and elsewhere were often built in the style of a Tudor cottage)[1]
cottaging	seeking or obtaining sexual encounters in public lavatories
cove	taxi[32]:61
dhobi / dhobie / dohbie	wash (from Hindi, dohb)[32]:171
Dilly boy	a male prostitute, from Piccadilly boy
Dilly, the	Piccadilly, a place where trolling went on
dinari	money (Latin denarii was the 'd' of the pre decimal penny)[35]
dish	buttocks[32]:45
dolly	pretty, nice, pleasant, (from Irish dóighiúil, handsome, pronounced 'doil')
dona	woman (perhaps from Italian donna or Lingua Franca dona)[32]:26
ecaf	face (backslang)[32]:58,210
eek	face (abbreviation of ecaf)[32]:58,210
ends	hair[7]
esong, sedon	nose (backslang)[32]:31
fambles	hands[34]
fantabulosa	fabulous/wonderful
farting crackers	trousers[34]
feele / feely / filly	child/young (from the Italian figlio, for son)
feele omi / feely omi	young man
flowery	lodgings, accommodations[34]
fogus	tobacco
fortuni	gorgeous, beautiful[34]
fruit	gay man
funt	pound £ (Yiddish)
fungus	old man/beard[34]
gelt	money (Yiddish)
handbag	money
hoofer	dancer
HP (homy palone)	effeminate gay man
irish	wig (from rhyming slang, "Irish jig")
jarry	food, also mangarie (from Italian mangiare or Lingua Franca mangiaria)
jubes	breasts
kaffies	trousers
khazi	toilet, also spelt carsey
lacoddy	body
lallies / lylies	legs, sometimes also knees (as in "get down on yer lallies")
lallie tappers	feet
latty / lattie	room, house or flat
lau	lay or place upon[36]
lavs	words[37]
lills	hands
lilly	police (Lilly Law)
lyles	legs (prob. from "Lisle stockings")
lucoddy	body
luppers	fingers (Yiddish — lapa — paw)
mangarie	food, also jarry (from Italian mangiare or Lingua Franca mangiaria)
manky	worthless, dirty (from Italian mancare, to be lacking)[38]
martinis	hands
measures	money
medzer	half (from Italian mezzo)
medzered	divided[39]
meese	plain, ugly (from Yiddish mieskeit, in turn from Hebrew מָאוּס repulsive, loathsome, despicable, abominable)
meshigener	nutty, crazy, mental (from Yiddish 'meshugge', in turn from Hebrew מְשֻׁגָּע crazy)
meshigener carsey	church[37]
metzas	money (Italian -mezzi "means, wherewithal")
mince	walk affectedly
mollying	involved in the act of sex[40]
mogue	deceive
munge	darkness
naff	awful, dull, hetero
nana	evil
nanti	not, no, none (Italian — niente)
national handbag	dole, welfare, government financial assistance
nishta	nothing[7]
ogle	look admiringly
ogles	eyes
oglefakes	glasses
omi	man (from Romance)
omi-palone	effeminate man, or homosexual
onk	nose (cf "conk")
orbs	eyes
orderly daughters	police
oven	mouth (nanti pots in the oven = no teeth in the mouth)
palare / polari pipe	telephone ("talk pipe")
palliass	back
park, parker	give
plate	feet (Cockney rhyming slang "plates of meat"); to fellate
palone	woman (Italian paglione - "straw mattress", [cf. old Cant "hay-bag" = woman]); also spelled "polony" in Graham Greene's 1938 novel Brighton Rock
palone-omi	lesbian
pots	teeth
quongs	testicles
reef	touch
remould	sex change
rozzer	policeman[12]
riah / riha	hair (backslang)
riah zhoosher	hairdresser
rough trade	a working class or blue collar sex partner or potential sex partner; a tough, thuggish or potentially violent sex partner
scarper	to run off (from Italian scappare, to escape or run away or from rhyming slang Scapa Flow, to go)
scharda	shame (from German schade, "a shame" or "a pity")
schlumph	drink
schmutter	apparel[41]
schooner	bottle
scotch	leg (scotch egg=leg)
screech	mouth, speak
screeve	write[41] (from Irish scríobh, to write)
sharpy	policeman (from — charpering omi)
sharpy polone	policewoman
shush	steal (from client)
shush bag	hold-all
shyker / shyckle	wig (mutation of the Yiddish sheitel)
slap	makeup
so	homosexual (e.g. "Is he 'so'?")
stimps	legs
stimpcovers	stockings, hosiery
strides	trousers
strillers	piano
switch	wig
TBH (to be had)	prospective sexual conquest
thews	thighs
tober	road (a Shelta word, Irish bóthar); temporary site for a circus, carnival
todd (Sloan) or tod	alone
tootsie trade	sex between two passive homosexuals (as in: 'I don't do tootsie trade')
trade	sex, sex-partner, potential sex-partner
troll	to walk about (esp. looking for trade)
vada / varder	to see (from Italian — dialect vardare = guardare – look at) vardered — vardering
vera (lynn)	gin
vogue	cigarette (from Lingua Franca — fogus - "fire, smoke")
vogueress	female smoker
wallop	dance[42]
willets	breasts
yeute	no, none
yews	(from French "yeux") eyes
zhoosh	style hair, tart up, mince (Romani - "zhouzho" - clean, neat) zhoosh our riah — style our hair
zhooshy	showy

Polari in use[edit]

Omies and palones of the jury, vada well at the eek of the poor ome who stands before you, his lallies trembling.—taken from "Bona Law", a Round The Horne sketch written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman

Translation: "Men and women of the jury, look well at the face of the poor man who stands before you, his legs trembling."

So bona to vada...oh you! Your lovely eek and your lovely riah.—taken from "Piccadilly Palare", a song by Morrissey

Translation: "So good to see...oh you! Your lovely face and your lovely hair."

As feely ommes...we would zhoosh our riah, powder our eeks, climb into our bona new drag, don our batts and troll off to some bona bijou bar. In the bar we would stand around with our sisters, vada the bona cartes on the butch omme ajax who, if we fluttered our ogle riahs at him sweetly, might just troll over to offer a light for the unlit vogue clenched between our teeth.—taken from Parallel Lives, the memoirs of renowned gay journalist Peter Burton

Translation: "As young men...we would style our hair, powder our faces, climb into our great new clothes, don our shoes and wander/walk off to some great little bar. In the bar we would stand around with our gay companions, look at the great genitals on the butch man nearby who, if we fluttered our eyelashes at him sweetly, might just wander/walk over to offer a light for the unlit cigarette clenched between our teeth."

In the Are You Being Served? episode "The Old Order Changes", Captain Peacock asks Mr Humphries to get "some strides for the omi with the naff riah" (i.e. trousers for the fellow with the unstylish hair).^[43]

See also[edit]

• African American Vernacular English (sometimes called Ebonics)
• Bahasa Binan
• Boontling
• Caló (Chicano)
• Carny, North American fairground cant
• Gayle language
• Gay slang
• Grypsera
• IsiNgqumo
• Lavender linguistics
• Lunfardo and Vesre
• Rotwelsch
• shelta
• Swardspeak
• Verlan

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Baker, Paul (2002) Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang. London: Continuum: ISBN 0-8264-5961-7
• Baker, Paul (2003). Polari – The Lost Language of Gay Men. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-50635-4.
• Elmes, Simon & Rosen, Michael (2002) Word of Mouth. Oxford University Press: ISBN 0-19-866263-7

External links[edit]

For a list of words relating to Polari, see the English Polari slang category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Chris Denning's article on Polari with bibliography
• The Polari Bible compiled by The Manchester Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
• Polari Mission exhibit (archived) at the University of Manchester's John Rylands Library
• Colin Richardson, The Guardian, 17 January 2005, "What brings you trolling back, then?"
• Liverpool Museums: The secret language of polari (archived)
• Paul Clevett's Polari Translator
• Putting it on the Dish, a 2015 short film featuring Polari extensively