Editing Rhyming slang (section)

== History ==
Rhyming slang is believed to have originated in the mid-19th century in the [[East End]] of London, with several sources suggesting some time in the 1840s.<ref name = Partridge72>{{cite book | author = Partridge, Eric | year = 1972 | title = Dictionary of Historical Slang | location = London | publisher = Penguin | isbn = 9780140510461 | url =https://archive.org/details/lenglish00eric| url-access = registration }}</ref>{{rp|12}}<ref name="hott">{{cite book|author=Hotten, John Camden| year=1859 | title=A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words |chapter=Some Account of the Rhyming Slang, the Secret Language of Chaunters and Patterers | pages=133–136 | chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Zhk9h-w1negC | access-date = 26 January 2017 | location = London}}</ref><ref name="vicweb">{{cite web |author=Sullivan, Dick | date = 16 July 2007 | title="Weeping Willow" Stands for "Pillow": Victorian Rhyming Slang | url=http://www.victorianweb.org/history/slang1.html |access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> ''The Flash Dictionary'', of unknown authorship, published in 1921 by Smeeton ([[48mo]]), contains a few rhymes.<ref name="Franklyn">{{Cite book|work=A Dictionary of Rhyming Slang|author=Julian Franklyn|date=1960|title=Essay}}</ref>{{rp|3}} [[John Camden Hotten]]'s 1859 ''[[A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words|Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words]]'' likewise states that it originated in the 1840s ("about twelve or fifteen years ago"), but with "chaunters" and "patterers" in the [[Seven Dials, London|Seven Dials]] area of London.<ref name="hott" /> Hotten's ''Dictionary'' included the first known "Glossary of the Rhyming Slang", which included later mainstays such as "frog and toad" (the main road) and "apples and pears" (stairs), as well as many more obscure examples, e.g. "Battle of the Nile" (a tile, a common term for a hat), "Duke of York" (take a walk), and "Top of Rome" (home).<ref name="hott" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Partridge |first1=Eric H. |title=Slang: To-Day and Yesterday |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-91211-3 |series=Routledge Revivals: The Selected Works of Eric Partridge |orig-date=1933 |doi=10.4324/9781315692111 |lccn=36006938}}</ref><ref name="Franklyn" />

It remains a matter of speculation exactly how rhyming slang originated, for example, as a linguistic game among friends or as a [[cryptolect]] developed intentionally to confuse non-locals. If deliberate, it may also have been used to maintain a sense of community, or to allow traders to talk amongst themselves in marketplaces to facilitate [[collusion]], without customers knowing what they were saying, or by criminals to confuse the police (see [[thieves' cant]]).{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

The academic, lexicographer and radio personality [[Terence Dolan]] has suggested that rhyming slang was invented by Irish immigrants to London "so the actual English wouldn't understand what they were talking about."<ref>{{cite news | date = February 2012 | title = Irish-English Explained | work = Eolas Magazine | url = http://www.eolasmagazine.ie/irish-english-explained/ | access-date = 26 January 2017 |department=Public Affairs}}</ref>