While I first learned about rhyming slang in London, there are definite vestiges of it in Sydney, too. (How did Australia get all the cool Briticisms?) When I was out in the Blue Mountains a couple weekends ago, my Australian friends gave me a rundown of some of the highlights:
Noah's ark = shark
Cream crackered = knackered (really tired)
Dead horse = (tomato) sauce
Joe Blake = snake
Barry Crocker = shocker (a really bad night/day/etc; i.e., a shocking night/day/etc.)
A few others I've dug around online for:
Steak and kidney = Sydney
Dalai Lamas = dramas (i.e., no Dalai Lamas! = don't worry, not a big deal!)
Germain Greer = beer
Lemon squash = wash (lemon squash is a drink roughly along the lines of a 7Up)
Optic nerve = perv (i.e., pervert)
Dog's eye = meat pie
Oxford scholar = dollar
Septic tank = Yank (sigh. again, see notes at chivalry.)
Saturday, March 5, 2011
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2 comments:
OK, so I'm a bit slow on the uptake. How would one use this in a sentence? "I am sure cream crackered today" to mean "I'm really knackered", which in American English means "I'm really tired" ? Which way would it be used in a real conversation?
Half of those I've never heard but here are some others:
frog and toad = road ("Gotta hit the frog and toad")
Captain Cook or butcher's hook = look ("Have a butcher's hook at this.")
Slabs of meat = feet
Dog & bone = 'phone
Reg Grundy's = undies (underpants)
BTW, Barry Crocker is a singer (he's now 75) and Germaine Greer is a feminist writer who spends most of her life in the UK (as does entertainer Rolf Harris, comedian talk show host Clive James, barrister Geoffrey Robertson...). Reg Grundy is a media mogul.
Why did we get these Btitishisms? Because our first white settlers were largely from the East End of London whereas yours were largely from the West Country. This is also why you tend to pronounce the "r" in words like "iron" whereas we almost turn it into "ion".
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