airt : compass point, direction
avic : a mhic-o, pronounced “a vick oh,” is Gaelic for oh, son, used indulgently
bash : cigarette
bend, round the : nuts, screwy, insane
bevy : alcoholic beverage
bird : prison sentence (from rhyming slang: birdlime for time)
Black and Tans : recruits of the Royal Irish Constabulary, enlisted in England for service in Ireland during the disturbances of 1919-21—so called from the khaki uniform and black hat and arm band usually worn.
bloke : fellow—similar to geezer, but more widespread and respectable in usage
blow-through : sexual intercourse—similar to a bit of crumpet
bogey : policeman
boggy up : surrender—renounce the I.R.A.
bogman : country fellow (Dublin slang)
Borstal : English prisons for offenders between the ages of 16 and 21 (named from the village near which the first such corrective institution was established)
bottle, no : no good, of no use
brass : money; also, a prostitute (from rhyming slang: brass nail for tail)
browned off : fed up
buck cat, head : chief or leader (Irish)
buckshee : free or surplus food or clothing—from backsheesh, which in the Near East means tip or gratuity
bully : bully beef, canned beef
bundle : a fight, a free-for-all; also used as a verb
bunk-up : sexual intercourse
burn : tobacco; to have a burn is to smoke a cigarette
caff : London slang pronunciation of café
canatt : Irish pronunciation of gnat
casing the gaff : examining the prospects of robbing the place
cat : cat-o’-nine-tails, lash used to flog prisoners (The author reports that he never heard of its being used in the Borstal institution in which he served his sentence.)
cawsy (or cassy) : lavatory
ceilidh : an Irish dance, pronounced “caley”
cheesed off : fed up
china : pal, buddy (from rhyming slang: china plate for mate)
chokey : punishment cells
C.I.D. : Criminal Investigation Department
cobs : testicles
common : common sense
craw-thumper : breast-beater, a religious person
croak : to murder; also, to die
crumpet, a bit of : sexual intercourse
Culchie : a primitive type, a boor (term of abuse applied to West of Ireland men, mostly by other Irishmen in England)
daddy : a big boy, one who is accorded special respect because of his forceful personality, a leader
dicky-bird : rhyming slang for word digs with the other foot: of a different religion dimp: cigarette butt
ding-dong : rhyming slang for sing-song, a concert
dog-end : cigarette butt
dossy : silly
duff : pudding
drum : house, place, premises
F.A. : Football [Soccer] Association
Famine Queen : Queen Victoria
fanny adams : nothing; “I have fanny adams” means “I have nothing”
Fenians : members of the Fianna, professional warriors in the Ireland of the second and third centuries a.d. The secret organization called the Fenian Brotherhood, founded in New York in 1856, spread to Ireland the following year as the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Its aim was the overthrow of English rule in Ireland.
Fianna : Republican Boy Scouts; see also Fenians above
flash : smart, fashionable
fly : smart, clever
flowery : cell, usually occupied by only one prisoner (from rhyming slang: flowery dell for cell)
frit : frightened
fugh, fughing : a generic expletive swear or curse word, frequently used, especially in moments of stress, in conversation within certain male groups (in place of the similar, but milder, damn, etc.)
Gaeltacht : those parts of Ireland (or other countries) in which Gaelic is the everyday language of the people
gaff : a place—similar to drum
garsun : boy (from Gaelic)
geeing : mocking, teasing
bit up of a gee up : a bit of teasing
geezer : a fellow—similar to U.S. guy
Geordie : a native of northeast England, especially of Newcastle-on-Tyne
German band : rhyming slang for hand
getting it up for you : mocking you (Dublin slang)
Glasshouse : military prison
graft : work (English slang)
grass : squealer, spy, informer (from grasshopper: rhyming slang for copper, “policeman,” and probably also for shopper, “informer”)
half-inching : stealing (rhyming slang for pinching)
half-sheet : an official in England is charged with an offence by being requested to answer a query, and the document containing this query is the half-sheet
handful : five years
heave : row, fight (Dublin)
hit and miss : to urinate (rhyming slang)
H.M.P. : Her Majesty’s Pleasure; when a person under 18 or an insane adult is found guilty of murder, he is ordered "to be held till pleasure of Her Majesty may be made known"
hooley : party
hunker-sliding : backsliding
hurley, hurling : an Irish game resembling hockey
I.R.A. : Irish Republican Army (originally the Irish army that fought the British, 1916-21; now applied to the sections that refused to accept Partition and the Treaty of 1922)
jackeen : a Dublin-born person; a city slicker
jannock : the truth jarred: drunk
judy : girl friend
King Lear : rhyming slang for queer
kip in : shut up, go to sleep (from kip, English slang for bed; the term is respectable in England, but not in Ireland, where, in Dublin slang, kip means brothel)
knock off : to steal
lagging : imprisonment for three or more years
lags : convicts
laiking : playing, particularly football (Yorkshire)
leery : clever, sometimes also implying truculence
licence : parole
loaf of bread : rhyming slang for head
lock hospital : formerly, a hospital for treatment of venereal diseases
loop-the-loop : rhyming slang for soup
L.R. : Licence Revoke, parole violator
lumpers : lumpen proletariat
mince pies : rhyming slang for eyes
mingy : mean, miserly
mot : Dublin slang for wife or girl
nark : informer
nattering : chattering, incessant talk
navvies : unskilled laborers, especially construction or excavation workers
N.C.R. : North Circular Road (Dublin)
needle, have or take the : to be annoyed
nick : prison
out it on him : put it on him, hit him
owt : Lancashire for anything
P.C.T.F.O. : Penal Class Till Further Orders—Borstal punishment (confinement to punishment cells for an indefinite period, but with ordinary diet) for breaking rules
piss, taking the : to mock someone, to tease
ponce : one who lives on the earnings of a prostitute
P.S. : penal servitude
P.T .: physical training
puff : a male prostitute (more properly pouff, Scots Lallan dialect)
punch : a breed of horse from Suffolk; also, a native of Suffolk
punters : betters at a race; the customers
ring : homosexual behaviour
rissole : a type of hamburger
Rosy Lee : rhyming slang for tea
scarper : to escape from prison (from rhyming slang: Scapa Flow for go)
scoff : food
Scouse : native of Liverpool (from the name of a popular local stew)
screw : prison officer
screwing : burglary
scrumpy : rough cider
sea-pie : a variety of Irish stew, made with suet instead of potatoes
shivved : cut or stabbed with knife or razor
shoneen : a collaborator (from Gaelic Sean-in, "Little John"—one who imitates John [Bull])
shop : betray
shop-front : rhyming slang for woman’s genitals
Sinn Fein : a society founded in 1905 to promote a policy of independent industrial development in Ireland as a preliminary to political separation from Great Britain. The movement was accompanied by a revival of the Irish language, literature, art, and customs. As the political party of the extreme Irish nationalists, Sinn Fein opposed the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 as a British dominion, and persisted in demands for an independent Irish Republic.
skilly : porridge
skivvy : domestic servant
sky-rocket : rhyming slang for pocket
slan α't : good-bye (Gaelic)
slan leat : good-bye (Gaelic)
Smoke, the : the Big Smoke, London
snout : tobacco
speedioch : spiteful (Gaelic)
spit : a drag of a cigarette
spiv : smart boy, crook (usually small-time)
squaddy : a soldier
stir-lawyer : prison lawyer; sometimes, wise guy
stretch : sentence. Thus, fifteen stretch : fifteen-year sentence
summat : Lancashire for something
swede-hasher : Cockney slang for country yokel, applied to anyone not from London or another large city; often a term of amiable abuse, similar to Dubliner’s bogman
T.D. : member of Irish Parliament
tea leaf : rhyming slang for thief
team-handed : “ganging up”—for more than one to join on one side of a fight
tic-tac : hand signals used at race tracks by bookmakers’ assistants
toff : rich person, gentleman
top : to execute by hanging
Trouble, the : Irish designation for the “Anglo-Irish War,” 1919-21, when Irish nationalists challenged British rule in Ireland and won dominion status for 26 Irish counties.
vic-o : a mhic-o, pronounced “a vick oh,” is Gaelic for oh, son, used indulgently.
wank : to masturbate
weighed off : tried and sentenced
Y.P. : Young Prisoner
Από το αυτοβιογραφικό βιβλίο του Μπρένταν Μπήαν, Borstal Boy. Νέα Υόρκη: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959.
avic : a mhic-o, pronounced “a vick oh,” is Gaelic for oh, son, used indulgently
bash : cigarette
on the bash : on the streets as a prostitute
bend, round the : nuts, screwy, insane
bevy : alcoholic beverage
bird : prison sentence (from rhyming slang: birdlime for time)
do his bird : serve his sentence
Black and Tans : recruits of the Royal Irish Constabulary, enlisted in England for service in Ireland during the disturbances of 1919-21—so called from the khaki uniform and black hat and arm band usually worn.
Πιο εκτεταμένα σε ειδικότερο λήμμα της Λεξιλογίας: χακένιος: ένα επίθετο με μακρινά ταξίδια
bloke : fellow—similar to geezer, but more widespread and respectable in usage
blow-through : sexual intercourse—similar to a bit of crumpet
bogey : policeman
boggy up : surrender—renounce the I.R.A.
bogman : country fellow (Dublin slang)
Borstal : English prisons for offenders between the ages of 16 and 21 (named from the village near which the first such corrective institution was established)
bottle, no : no good, of no use
brass : money; also, a prostitute (from rhyming slang: brass nail for tail)
brassed off : fed up
live off the brasses : live on the earnings of prostitutes
browned off : fed up
buck cat, head : chief or leader (Irish)
buckshee : free or surplus food or clothing—from backsheesh, which in the Near East means tip or gratuity
bully : bully beef, canned beef
bundle : a fight, a free-for-all; also used as a verb
bunk-up : sexual intercourse
burn : tobacco; to have a burn is to smoke a cigarette
caff : London slang pronunciation of café
canatt : Irish pronunciation of gnat
casing the gaff : examining the prospects of robbing the place
going case-o : sleeping with a girl (from the game faro)
cat : cat-o’-nine-tails, lash used to flog prisoners (The author reports that he never heard of its being used in the Borstal institution in which he served his sentence.)
cawsy (or cassy) : lavatory
ceilidh : an Irish dance, pronounced “caley”
cheesed off : fed up
china : pal, buddy (from rhyming slang: china plate for mate)
chokey : punishment cells
C.I.D. : Criminal Investigation Department
cobs : testicles
common : common sense
craw-thumper : breast-beater, a religious person
croak : to murder; also, to die
crumpet, a bit of : sexual intercourse
Culchie : a primitive type, a boor (term of abuse applied to West of Ireland men, mostly by other Irishmen in England)
daddy : a big boy, one who is accorded special respect because of his forceful personality, a leader
dicky-bird : rhyming slang for word digs with the other foot: of a different religion dimp: cigarette butt
ding-dong : rhyming slang for sing-song, a concert
dog-end : cigarette butt
dossy : silly
duff : pudding
drum : house, place, premises
F.A. : Football [Soccer] Association
Famine Queen : Queen Victoria
fanny adams : nothing; “I have fanny adams” means “I have nothing”
Fenians : members of the Fianna, professional warriors in the Ireland of the second and third centuries a.d. The secret organization called the Fenian Brotherhood, founded in New York in 1856, spread to Ireland the following year as the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Its aim was the overthrow of English rule in Ireland.
Fianna : Republican Boy Scouts; see also Fenians above
flash : smart, fashionable
flash outside tie : smart tie from the outside world
fly : smart, clever
flowery : cell, usually occupied by only one prisoner (from rhyming slang: flowery dell for cell)
frit : frightened
fugh, fughing : a generic expletive swear or curse word, frequently used, especially in moments of stress, in conversation within certain male groups (in place of the similar, but milder, damn, etc.)
Gaeltacht : those parts of Ireland (or other countries) in which Gaelic is the everyday language of the people
gaff : a place—similar to drum
garsun : boy (from Gaelic)
geeing : mocking, teasing
bit up of a gee up : a bit of teasing
geezer : a fellow—similar to U.S. guy
Geordie : a native of northeast England, especially of Newcastle-on-Tyne
German band : rhyming slang for hand
getting it up for you : mocking you (Dublin slang)
Glasshouse : military prison
graft : work (English slang)
graft china : working mate
grass : squealer, spy, informer (from grasshopper: rhyming slang for copper, “policeman,” and probably also for shopper, “informer”)
half-inching : stealing (rhyming slang for pinching)
half-sheet : an official in England is charged with an offence by being requested to answer a query, and the document containing this query is the half-sheet
handful : five years
heave : row, fight (Dublin)
hit and miss : to urinate (rhyming slang)
H.M.P. : Her Majesty’s Pleasure; when a person under 18 or an insane adult is found guilty of murder, he is ordered "to be held till pleasure of Her Majesty may be made known"
hooley : party
hunker-sliding : backsliding
hurley, hurling : an Irish game resembling hockey
I.R.A. : Irish Republican Army (originally the Irish army that fought the British, 1916-21; now applied to the sections that refused to accept Partition and the Treaty of 1922)
jackeen : a Dublin-born person; a city slicker
jannock : the truth jarred: drunk
judy : girl friend
King Lear : rhyming slang for queer
kip in : shut up, go to sleep (from kip, English slang for bed; the term is respectable in England, but not in Ireland, where, in Dublin slang, kip means brothel)
kip-in time : an easy time
kip-in job : a soft job
knock off : to steal
lagging : imprisonment for three or more years
lags : convicts
laiking : playing, particularly football (Yorkshire)
leery : clever, sometimes also implying truculence
licence : parole
loaf of bread : rhyming slang for head
lock hospital : formerly, a hospital for treatment of venereal diseases
loop-the-loop : rhyming slang for soup
L.R. : Licence Revoke, parole violator
lumpers : lumpen proletariat
mince pies : rhyming slang for eyes
mingy : mean, miserly
mot : Dublin slang for wife or girl
nark : informer
nark it : stop it
nattering : chattering, incessant talk
navvies : unskilled laborers, especially construction or excavation workers
N.C.R. : North Circular Road (Dublin)
needle, have or take the : to be annoyed
nick : prison
give the nick or keep the nick : to warn of or watch for the approach of a prison officer nicker: pounds sterling
had it off for a million nicker : got away with a million pounds nipper: baby nut: the head
doing his nut : furiously angry
giving the nut : butting with the head
out it on him : put it on him, hit him
owt : Lancashire for anything
P.C.T.F.O. : Penal Class Till Further Orders—Borstal punishment (confinement to punishment cells for an indefinite period, but with ordinary diet) for breaking rules
piss, taking the : to mock someone, to tease
ponce : one who lives on the earnings of a prostitute
P.S. : penal servitude
P.T .: physical training
puff : a male prostitute (more properly pouff, Scots Lallan dialect)
punch : a breed of horse from Suffolk; also, a native of Suffolk
punters : betters at a race; the customers
ring : homosexual behaviour
rissole : a type of hamburger
Rosy Lee : rhyming slang for tea
scarper : to escape from prison (from rhyming slang: Scapa Flow for go)
scoff : food
Scouse : native of Liverpool (from the name of a popular local stew)
screw : prison officer
screwing : burglary
done for screwing : sentenced for burglary
scrumpy : rough cider
sea-pie : a variety of Irish stew, made with suet instead of potatoes
shivved : cut or stabbed with knife or razor
shoneen : a collaborator (from Gaelic Sean-in, "Little John"—one who imitates John [Bull])
shop : betray
shopper : informer
shop-front : rhyming slang for woman’s genitals
Sinn Fein : a society founded in 1905 to promote a policy of independent industrial development in Ireland as a preliminary to political separation from Great Britain. The movement was accompanied by a revival of the Irish language, literature, art, and customs. As the political party of the extreme Irish nationalists, Sinn Fein opposed the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 as a British dominion, and persisted in demands for an independent Irish Republic.
skilly : porridge
skivvy : domestic servant
sky-rocket : rhyming slang for pocket
slan α't : good-bye (Gaelic)
slan leat : good-bye (Gaelic)
Smoke, the : the Big Smoke, London
snout : tobacco
speedioch : spiteful (Gaelic)
spit : a drag of a cigarette
spiv : smart boy, crook (usually small-time)
squaddy : a soldier
stir-lawyer : prison lawyer; sometimes, wise guy
stretch : sentence. Thus, fifteen stretch : fifteen-year sentence
summat : Lancashire for something
swede-hasher : Cockney slang for country yokel, applied to anyone not from London or another large city; often a term of amiable abuse, similar to Dubliner’s bogman
T.D. : member of Irish Parliament
tea leaf : rhyming slang for thief
team-handed : “ganging up”—for more than one to join on one side of a fight
tic-tac : hand signals used at race tracks by bookmakers’ assistants
toff : rich person, gentleman
top : to execute by hanging
Trouble, the : Irish designation for the “Anglo-Irish War,” 1919-21, when Irish nationalists challenged British rule in Ireland and won dominion status for 26 Irish counties.
vic-o : a mhic-o, pronounced “a vick oh,” is Gaelic for oh, son, used indulgently.
wank : to masturbate
weighed off : tried and sentenced
Y.P. : Young Prisoner
Από το αυτοβιογραφικό βιβλίο του Μπρένταν Μπήαν, Borstal Boy. Νέα Υόρκη: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959.
