Polari

Polari
Palare, Parlary, Palarie, Palari
Region	United Kingdom and Ireland
Native speakers	None
Language family	English-based slang
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pld
Glottolog	pola1249
ELP

Polari (from Italian parlare 'to talk') is a form of slang or cant used in Britain and Ireland by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals, sex workers, and the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced back to at least the 19th century and possibly as far as the 16th century. There is a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppet performers, who traditionally used Polari to converse.

Terminology

Alternate spellings include Parlare, Parlary, Palare, Palarie, and Palari.

Description

Rainbow Plaque on Leeds City Varieties theatre

Polari is a mixture of Romance (Italian or Mediterranean Lingua Franca), Romani, 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), 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. According to a Channel 4 television documentary, 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

From the 19th century on, Polari was used in London fishmarkets, the theatre, 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, 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.

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). However, "there's little 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): "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).

The almost identical Parlyaree has been spoken in fairgrounds since at least the 17th century 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 Romani, as well as other languages and argots spoken by travelling people, such as Thieves' 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, a literal rendering of the Italian pronunciation). 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."

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

Decline

Polari had begun to fall into disuse amongst the gay subculture by the late 1960s. The popularity of Julian and Sandy, played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams (introduced in the radio programme Round the Horne, in the 1960s) ensured that some of this secret language became public knowledge. 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.

Entry into mainstream slang

Bona Togs, a shop named in Polari.

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". There are a number of false etymologies, many based on acronyms— 'Not Available For Fucking', 'Normal As Fuck', etc. —though these are backronyms. The phrase "naff off" was used euphemistically in place of "fuck off" along with the intensifier "naffing" in Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse (1959). Usage of "naff" increased in the 1970s when the television sitcom Porridge employed it as an alternative to expletives which were not considered broadcastable at the time. Princess Anne allegedly famously told a reporter, "Why don't you just naff off" at the Badminton horse trials in April 1982, but it has since been claimed that this was a bowdlerised version of what she actually said.

"Zhoosh" (/ˈʒʊʃ/, /ˈʒuːʃ/ or /ˈʒʊʒ/) meaning to smarten up, style or improve something, became commonplace in the mid 2000s, having been used in the 2003 United States TV series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and What Not to Wear.

In popular culture

• James Thomson added a glossary of words he thought "obsolete" in his 1825 work The Seasons and Castle of Indolence. He chose to write "Castle of Indolence" "In the manner of Edmund Spenser". Two words he by then thought needed explaining were: "Eke", meaning "also", pronounced like Polari's "Eek", (face); and "Gear or Geer", meaning "furniture, equipage, dress". This last usage being maintained to this day in slang, and being then-contemporary, too, by 1960's Polari-users, avoiding Thomson's stated complete obsolescence.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 1990, in Issue #35 of Grant Morrison's run of Doom Patrol, the character Danny the Street is introduced; they speak English that is heavily flavored with Polari, with "bona to vada" ("good to see [you]") being their favorite way of greeting friends.
• 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 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 2015, filmmakers Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston made Putting on the Dish, a short film entirely in Polari.
• The 2016 David Bowie album Blackstar contains a song Girl Loves Me which utilises Polari.
• 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.
• In the 2017 EP Ricky, gay singer Sakima used Polari.
• 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.
• The same year, the English-language localisation of the Japanese video game Dragon Quest Builders 2 included a character called Jules, who spoke in Polari with non-standard capitalisation.
• Also in 2019, Reaktion Books published Fabulosa!: The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language, by Paul Baker.
• In the 2020 film Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse, a young Roald Dahl, running away from home, meets a man (played by Bill Bailey) who speaks in Polari.

Glossary

Numbers:

Number	Definition	Italian numbers
medza	half	mezza
una, oney	one	uno
dooey	two	due
tray	three	tre
quarter	four	quattro
chinker	five	cinque
say	six	sei
say oney, setter	seven	sette
say dooey, otter	eight	otto
say tray, nobber	nine	nove
daiture	ten	dieci
long dedger, lepta	eleven	undici
kenza	twelve	dodici
chenter	one hundred	cento

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

Word	Definition
acdc, bibi	bisexual
ajax	nearby (shortened form of "adjacent to")
alamo!	they're attractive! (via acronym "LMO" meaning "Lick Me Out!)
arva	to have sex (from Italian chiavare, to screw)
aunt nell	listen!
aunt nells	ears
aunt nelly fakes	earrings
barney	a fight
bat, batts, bates	shoes
bevvy	drink (diminutive of "beverage")
bitch	effeminate or passive gay man
bijou	small/little (from French, jewel)
bitaine	whore (French putain)
blag	pick up
bold	homosexual
bona	good
bona nochy	goodnight (from Italian – buona notte)
butch	masculine; masculine lesbian
buvare	a drink; something drinkable (from Italian – bere or old-fashioned Italian – bevere or Lingua Franca bevire)
cackle	talk/gossip
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)
carsey, karsey, khazi	toilet
cartes	penis (from Italian – cazzo)
cats	trousers
charper	to search or to look (from Italian acchiappare, to catch)
charpering omi	policeman
charver	sexual intercourse
chicken	young man
clevie	vagina
clobber	clothes
cod	bad
corybungus	backside, posterior
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
dhobi / dhobie / dohbie	wash (from Hindi, dohb)
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)
dish	buttocks
dolly	pretty, nice, pleasant, (from Irish dóighiúil/Scottish Gaelic dòigheil, handsome, pronounced 'doil')
dona	woman (perhaps from Italian donna or Lingua Franca dona)
ecaf	face (backslang)
eek/eke	face (abbreviation of ecaf)
ends	hair
esong, sedon	nose (backslang)
fambles	hands
fantabulosa	fabulous/wonderful
farting crackers	trousers
feele / feely / filly	child/young (from the Italian figlio, for son)
feele omi / feely omi	young man
flowery	lodgings, accommodations
fogus	tobacco
fortuni	gorgeous, beautiful
fruit	gay man
funt	pound £ (Yiddish)
fungus	old man/beard
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
lavs	words (Gaelic: labhairt to speak)
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")
martinis	hands
measures	money
medzer	half (from Italian mezzo)
medzered	divided
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
metzas	money (Italian -mezzi "means, wherewithal")
mince	walk affectedly
mollying	involved in the act of sex
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
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
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
schooner	bottle
scotch	leg (scotch egg=leg)
screech	mouth, speak
screeve	write (from Irish scríobh/Scottish Gaelic sgrìobh, Scots scrieve 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
willets	breasts
yeute	no, none
yews	(from French "yeux") eyes
zhoosh	style hair, tart up, mince (cf. Romani zhouzho – "clean, neat") zhoosh our riah — style our hair
zhooshy	showy

Usage examples

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", one of the Julian and Sandy sketches from Round The Horne, 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).

See also

• 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
• Pajubá
• Julian and Sandy
• Rotwelsch
• Shelta
• Swardspeak
• Verlan
• Lubunca

Bibliography

• 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

• 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
• A brief history of Polari: the curious after-life of the dead language for gay men, February 8, 2017.