Balderdash and Piffle

by prydwen

Interested tonight to watch the BBC2 Program 'Bolderdash and Piffle' about word etymology. One item which amused me was the word 'Polari' a hidden language used by avariety of people but more famously by the Gay fraturnity in the 60's when being a homosexual was an arrestable offence.

What tickled me was the number of words which are in common usage which are 'Gay' words but straights use without knowing....

Naff for instance I thought was 'slang' for useless or crass. But actually it's Polari 'Not Available for Fucking' or a straight man, which is now reduced to 'Normal as fuck'.
A gay man was a 'Omi-Paloni' or Omi-Polone'

I list a number of Polari words and there meanings:

ajax nearby (from adjacent?)
basket the bulge of male genitals through clothes
batts shoes
bijou small
bod body
bold daring
bona good
butch masculine; masculine lesbian
camp effeminate (origin: KAMP = Known As Male Prostitute)
capello hat
carts/cartso penis
carsey toilet, also spelt khazi
chicken young boy
charper search
charpering omi policeman
cod naff, vile
cottage public loo (particularly with reference to cottaging)
cottaging having or looking for sex in a cottage
crimper hairdresser
dish an attractive male; buttocks
dizzy scatterbrained
dolly pretty, nice, pleasant
drag clothes, esp. women's clothes
ecaf face (backslang)
eek face (abbreviation of ecaf)
ends hair
esong nose
fantabulosa wonderful
feele child
fruit queen
gelt money
glossies magazines
handbag money
hoofer dancer
jarry food, also mangarie
kaffies trousers
khazi toilet, also spelt carsey
lallies legs
latty room, house or flat
lills hands
lilly police (Lilly Law)
luppers fingers
mangarie food, also jarry
measures money
meese plain, ugly (from Yiddish)
meshigener nutty, crazy, mental
metzas money
mince walk (affectedly)
naff bad, drab (from Not Available For Fucking)
nanti not, no
national handbag dole
nishta nothing, no
oglefakes glasses
ogles eyes
omi man
omi-polone effeminate man, or homosexual
onk nose
orbs eyes
palare pipe telephone
palliass back (as in part of body)
park give
plate feet; to fellate
polari chat, talk
polone woman
pots teeth
riah/riha hair
riah shusher hairdresser
scarper to run off (from Italian scappare, to escape)
scotch leg
sharpy policeman
shush steal (from client)
shush bag holdall
shyker/shyckle wig
slap makeup
strillers piano
thews = thighs
trade sex
troll to walk about (esp. looking for trade)
vada/varda see
willets breasts

For more see http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/cello/Polari.htm

What about Balderdash - To talk rubbish: Some argue its origin lies in the Welsh baldorddus, idle noisy talk or chatter (though that is pronounced very differently), while others point to related words in Dutch, Icelandic and Norwegian, such as the Dutch balderen, to roar or thunder.

and Piffle - To be sequeamish or delicate; hence, to act or talk triflingly or ineffectively; to twaddle; piddle.