How egg got to borrow and beg: Decoding Cockney rhyming slang

How did we get the phrase “use your loaf”, meaning “use your head”? Well, it dates to the late-19th century, and is drawn from Cockney rhyming slang; in which head, is “loaf of bread”.

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The Cockneys are a trading community (traditionally, they sold produce), and are native residents of London, specifically the East End. The slang began as a code by which they could communicate in front of outsiders, other traders or customers, without being understood. It then became a key element of identity (along with a distinct accent; and a plain dislike of pomp and pretentiousness).

The way rhyming slang is created involves replacing a common word with a rhyming phrase of two or three words, and then usually omitting the secondary rhyming word too. For example, “going upstairs” was “apples and pears” and now it’s, “I’m going up the apples”.

Likewise, “telephone” became “dog and bone”, then just “dog”. “Wife” became “trouble-and-strife” and then just “trouble”.

Simpler examples have become favourites outside the Cockney community, adopted into the general lexicon of English slang. These include “mince pies” for eyes, “nanny goat” for coat, “plate of meat” for street, “daisy roots” for boots, “bread and honey” for money, and “whistle and flute” for suit.

How did the specific terms evolve? This is where the story gets really interesting. The best examples to draw from are more contemporary, from the middle of the last century, because the arc was visible as it formed.

Egg, for instance, became “borrow and beg” — because that’s what one did for such wares amid the intense food-rationing of World War 2. Gravy became “army and navy”, because both were plentiful and everywhere. Port, in an absolutely smashing example, became “didn’t ought” (based on the simpering of ladies who, when asked to “have another”, replied that they “really didn’t ought”).

By the 1950s, working-class Londoners, in a city inordinately fond of wordplay, were adopting some of these phrases and making them their own. So, “taking the mickey bliss”, for “taking the piss”, became simply “taking the mickey”. Telling porky pies, became “telling porkies”, for telling lies.

Recently, a Museum of London survey found that Cockney rhyming slang is dying out, replaced by contemporary youth slang, which borrows largely from rap and hip-hop lyrics. In addition, the museum said, SMS lingo was driving out this “traditional dialect” of working-class London.

Amid it all, some of the Cockney rhymes are being updated (as they have been, from time to time). Beers, once “pig’s ears”, has become “Britney Spears”. Gym is “Fatboy Slim”.

New local dialects are emerging in that city as well. There’s the pseudo-Afro-Caribbean “Jafaican”, a portmanteau of “fake Jamaican”. Th, in Jafaican, becomes t — so thing is ting (or fing); thanks is tanks (or fanks). New twists include “blud” for bud or blood brother; “long” for too much effort; “creps” for shoes. Jafaican is itself part of the new tapestry the survey referred to, collectively called Multicultural London English or MLE.

We could say tanks for this ting. Or just sigh and sit down to some didn’t ought with a bit of borrow and beg.

(Adam Jacot de Boinod is the author of The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from around the World)