rhyming slang
Rhyming slang originated in the cockney underworld in the early part of the 19th c., and later spread to Australia, and the United States, and Ireland. The slang term consists of two or more words of which the last is a rhyme or assonance of the word to be represented. A few examples are: apples and pears (stairs), Cain and Abel (table), elephant’s trunk (drunk), France and Spain (rain), plates of meat (feet), round the houses (trousers), trouble and strife (wife), Uncle Ned (bed). The slang term is often abbreviated: thus the slang for feet is plates and for trousers is round me. Rhyming slang sometimes passes into ordinary colloquialism; it is for instance the origin of brass tacks (facts), dicky (unsound), and raspberry (expression of disapproval).
