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The Oxford Dictionary of Rhyming Slang
John Ayto
Oxford University Press
Oxford
2002
xi + 309 pp.
ISBN 019 280122 8
L9.99
Keyword English language
Review DOI 10.1108/09504120310473515
Rhyming slang is a subject of perennial though casual interest to most of us in the UK. Our knowledge is rarely profound, limited usually to a handful of rhymes. Available phrase books of London rhyming slang (such as the long-lived Rhyming Cockney Slang by Jack Jones, first published in 1971 and into its 27th impression by the year 2001) are souvenirs rather than practical dictionaries. Ayto sets the current scene authoritatively: (r)hyming slang serves as a saleable icon of London life and culture. It has become a commodity, to an extent unparalleled in any other area of language and usage. In the process it has become embalmed, but it has also been given new life. Whiskery rhymes that in the normal course of linguistic evolution might have faded away (apples and pear, skin and blister, whistle and flute) are preserved and polished as much-loved heirlooms, and their high profile keeps alive the impulse to create new rhymes...