Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang

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write [46] (either from Irish scríobh/Scottish Gaelic sgrìobh, Scots scrieve to write or italian 'scrivere' meaning to write) a b c Beverley D'Silva (10 December 2000). "Mind your language". The Observer . Retrieved 9 May 2018. Jez Dolan’s Polari - an Etymology According to a Diagrammatic by Alfred H. Barr (1936),which heoffers with the caveat that it’s likely“full of holes and assumptions and bare-faced lies.” (Image courtesy of Jez Dolan) Translation: “As young men…we would style our hair, powder our faces, climb into our great new clothes, don our shoes and wander/walk off to some great little bar. In the bar we would stand around with our gay companions, look at the great genitals on the butch man nearby who, if we fluttered our eyelashes at him sweetly, might just wander/walk over to offer a light for the unlit cigarette clenched between our teeth.” He said he wanted to 'put together this Bona forecast' to honour the language as Pride Month drew to a close in June.

A number of words from Polari have entered mainstream slang. The list below includes words in general use with the meanings listed: acdc, barney, blag, butch, camp, khazi, cottaging, hoofer, mince, ogle, scarper, slap, strides, tod, [rough] trade. drag – clothes, esp. women’s clothes (prob from Romani — indraka — skirt; also possibly from German – tragen – v. to wear (clothes))[citation needed] In a period when homosexuality was illegal and heavily stigmatised, it was useful as a means of conducting conversations in public spaces, which would have alerted others to your sexuality. Many of the words allowed speakers to gossip about mutual friends or to critique the appearance of people who were in the immediate vicinity. Every Julian and Sandy sketch revolved around the show’s host, Kenneth Horne, visiting a new enterprise the men were embarking on, from travel agencies to law practices. It was quite clear that the men were gay, although this was illegal at the time — and Round The Horne even made fun of the criminality:While Round the Horne is attributed for bringing Polari into the mainstream, it could also be recognised for playing a part in its downfall too. Yet, for all the good that Round The Horne did for the acceptance of homosexuality, the more people learned about Polari, the less queer people wanted to speak it themselves. Decriminalization & Cultural Shift People learned Polari through the mingling of different social groups, from their lovers, and from their queer friends,” he says. The language was particularly well known in London and was associated with chorus boys who danced and sang in West End productions, and male prostitutes who drank endless cups of tea in seedy cafes hanging out around Piccadilly ("the dilly") looking for "steamers" (clients). Round The Horne also had the unfortunate effect of breaking Polari’s spell of secrecy. While researching the language, Paul Baker asked Polari speakers why they thought the language died out. “Some people said it had become too popular, that Julian and Sandy killed it off because suddenly everyone in the country knew what it was about.” This is easy to understand. After all, part of the fun of Polari was that it was a secret code, and there were scores more people asking “What is Polari?” or having never heard of it at all.

Mainly gay men, although also lesbians, female impersonators, theatre people, prostitutes and sea-queens (gay men in the merchant navy). It was not limited to gay men, however. Straight people who were connected to the theatre also used it, and there are numerous cases of gay men teaching it to their straight friends.These were not the butch sailors of Jean Genet – instead they were the outrageous precursors to today's camp flight attendants. The most elegant of these sea-queens would host fabulous soirees in their cabins, complete with printed invitations, vodka martinis, Alma Cogan records and costumes that would have made Shirley Bassey weep with jealousy.