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Rhyming slang

Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhyming slang. In the United States, especially in the criminal underworld of the West Coast between 1880 and 1920, rhyming slang has sometimes been known as Australian slang.

Examples
The form of Cockney slang is made clear with the following example. The rhyming phrase apples and pears is used to mean . Following the pattern of omission, "and pears" is dropped, thus the spoken phrase "I'm going up the apples" means "I'm going up the stairs". The following are further common examples of these phrases: In some cases the meaning is further obscured by additional iterations of rhyme. For example, Aris and plaster are double and triple rhymes of respectively. First, arse was rhymed with bottle and glass, shortened to bottle. Next, bottle was rhymed with Aristotle and truncated to Aris. Thus Aris emerged as a double rhyme of . Aris was then itself further rhymed with plaster of Paris, producing plaster as a triple rhyme of .