Polari

Polari (from Italian parlare 'to talk') is a form of slang or cant historically used primarily in the United Kingdom by some actors, circus and fairground performers, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals and sex workers, and particularly among the gay subculture.

It was constantly evolving, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words, including: bona (good),[6] ajax (nearby), eek (face), cod (bad, in the sense of tacky or vile), naff (bad, in the sense of drab or dull, though borrowed into mainstream British English with a meaning more like that of cod), lattie (room, house, flat), nanti (not, no), omi (man), palone (woman), riah (hair), zhoosh or tjuz (smarten up, stylise), TBH ('to be had', sexually accessible), trade (sex) and vada (see).

[10] Although William Shakespeare used the term bona (good, attractive) in Henry IV, Part 2 as part of the expression bona roba (a woman wearing an attractive outfit),[11] "little written evidence of Polari before the 1890s" exists according to Oxford English Dictionary associate editor Peter Gilliver.

The popularity of the BBC radio comedy Round the Horne, with its camp gay characters Julian and Sandy, ensured that some of the Polari terms they used became public knowledge.

The phrase "naff off" was used euphemistically in place of "fuck off" along with the intensifier "naffing" in Keith Waterhouse's Billy Liar (1959).

[18] Usage of "naff" increased in the 1970s when the television sitcom Porridge employed it as an alternative to expletives which were not broadcastable at the time.

[17] Princess Anne allegedly told a reporter to "naff off" at the Badminton horse trials in April 1982,[19] however, the photographers who were present have since stated that this was a censored version of what she actually said.

[29] Linguist Paul Baker attributes increased interest in Polari primarily to the growing body of academic work on the subject.

[34] In 2012 and 2013, Manchester artists Jez Dolan and Joe Richardson presented a performance-based tour and exhibition titled Polari Mission, which explored LGBTQ+ history and language use in the UK.

[38] In December 2016, to launch LGBT+ History Month 2017 and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, poet Adam Lowe performed his Polari poem "Vada That" in Parliament's Speaker's House with accompaniment by musician Nikki Franklin.

Trainee priests held the service to commemorate LGBT History Month; following media attention, Chris Chivers, the principal, expressed his regret.

In the bar we would stand around with our sisters, vada the bona cartes on the butch omme ajax who, if we fluttered our ogle riahs at him sweetly, might just troll over to offer a light for the unlit vogue clenched between our teeth.

episode "The Old Order Changes", Captain Peacock asks Mr Humphries to get "some strides for the omi with the naff riah" (i.e., trousers for the fellow with the unstylish hair).