Saturday 29 October 2011

Aristocratic Non-Rhyming Slang


Thanks to my great friend, Nautilus Beanfeast, Professor of Quantum Antiques at the University of Westphalia, for introducing me to the intellectual playground of Aristocratic Non-Rhyming Slang, which pre-dates Cockerney Rhyming slang by some seven centuries.

Below are some commonly used examples of ANRS. The meanings are somewhat shrouded in mystery, so I haven’t given them.

Nouns:

 “working class”
soda-syphon
brown shoes
that man
“smoking” class
Timothy Teapot
yesterday’s shed

Verbs:

to sell another Reubens
to Roger de Floor
imitating the Germans
shooting rabbits with Aunt Dahlia
to leave the back door open for Reginald
to “Australia” Mrs Hatpin
irritating the ffrench

Adjectives:

scrumbly
bunty-m’a-cnunty
fribberish
torque de lammity
walletty
candleabry

If you want to fit in with the chinless Nigels of this world, then being au fait with the above is a must, even if you don’t know what they mean.

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