Wednesday, 6 September 2006

Look at this…

…or take a dekko
[n. vagrant’s slang, ex Romany dik=to look. In army, common since ca.1890, via Hindustani]

…or have a shufty
[n. or v. RAF, since ca 1925. The origin is Arabic. Note also shufti bint, a (Middle Eastern) woman willing to reveal her charms. Occurs in a vulgar WW2 song about Queen Farida of Egypt]

or, of course, a butcher’s
[n. Rhyming slang, from butcher’s hook. Oddly, the OED can't date this before 1936, though it must be 19th century]
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Tony,
All so interesting!!!
Have enjoyed having a "squiz" mate.... a shufty....
Also opportune as was presently writing words for a song about a middle eastern woman willing to reveal her charms and had got stuck trying to find a rhyme with naval lint.
Vonney X

10:51 am
Tony said...

Hello there young Vonney!
I was going to reject your comment because we at OMF Central don't care for that kind of suggestive talk, but I realised that you have taught me a word I didn't know, the first time anyone has done that since June 1963.
The OED says that squiz is Austral. or NZ slang for look or glance and dates from 1916. Thank you, Antipodean person.
Love XX
P.S. That's not how to spell belly-button.

1:00 pm

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