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Polari () is a form of slang or cant historically used primarily in the United Kingdom among the gay subculture, as well as some actors, circus and fairground performers, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, and prostitutes.
There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced to at least the 19th century and possibly as early as the 16th century. Collins English Dictionary, Third Edition Polari has a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppeteers, who traditionally used it to converse.
There were once two distinct forms of Polari in London: an East End version which stressed Cockney rhyming slang and a West End version which stressed theatrical and classical influences. There was some interchange between the two.
In the LGBTQ people community, Polari also involves inverting gendered personal pronouns and names, typically switching them from male forms to female forms. For example, he may become she (known as she-ing), and the name Paul may become Pauline.
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), "little written evidence of Polari before the 1890s" exists according to Oxford English Dictionary associate editor Peter Gilliver. The dictionary's entry for rozzer (policeman) includes a quote from P. H. Emerson's 1893 book Signor Lippo – Burnt Cork Artiste: "If the rozzers was to see him in bona clobber they'd take him for a gun" ("If the police were to see him dressed in this fine manner, they would know that he is a thief").
The almost identical Parlyaree has been spoken in fairgrounds since at least the 17th century and is still used by show travellers in England and Scotland. As theatrical booths, circus acts, and menageries were once common parts of European fairs, it is likely that the roots of Polari/Parlyaree lie in the period before both theatre and circus became independent of fairgrounds. The Parlyaree spoken on fairgrounds tends to borrow much more from Romani, as well as other languages and cants spoken by travelling people, such as thieves' cant and back slang.
Henry Mayhew gave an account of Polari as part of an interview with a Punch and Judy showman in the 1850s. The discussion he recorded references Punch's arrival in England, crediting these early shows to an Italian performer called Porcini (John Payne Collier's account calls him Porchini, a literal rendering of the Italian pronunciation). Mayhew provides the following:
There are additional accounts of particular words that relate to puppet performance: "'Slumarys' – figures, frame, scenes, properties. 'Slum' – call, or unknown tongue" ("unknown" is a reference to the "swazzle", a voice modifier used by Punch performers).
The Polari word naff, meaning inferior or tacky, has an uncertain etymology. Michael Quinion says it is probably from the 16th-century Italian word gnaffa, meaning "a despicable person". There are a number of False etymology, many based on —"Not Available For Fucking", "Normal As Fuck", etc. The phrase "naff off" was used euphemistically in place of "fuck off" along with the intensifier "naffing" in Keith Waterhouse's Billy Liar (1959).
p35 "Naff off, Stamp, for Christ sake!" p46 "Well which one of them's got the naffing engagement ring?" Usage of "naff" increased in the 1970s when the television Situation comedy Porridge employed it as an alternative to expletives which were not broadcastable at the time. Princess Anne allegedly told a reporter to "naff off" at the Badminton horse trials in April 1982. However, the photographers who were present have since stated that this was a censored version of what she actually said.
"Zhoosh" (; alternatively spelled "zhuzh," "jeuje," and a number of other variety spellings), meaning to smarten up, style or improve something, became commonplace in the mid-2000s, having been used in the 2003 United States TV series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and What Not to Wear. "Jush", an alternative spelling of the word, was popularised by drag queen Jasmine Masters after her appearance on the seventh series of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2015.
Linguist Paul Baker attributes increased interest in Polari primarily to the growing body of academic work on the subject. Author George Reiner explains that "the revival of a language like Polari offers the possibility of an alternate queer linguistic space" at a time when closing LGBTQ+ venues and dating apps have reduced queer social spaces.
In 2007, writer and activist Paul Burston launched Polari Literary Salon in London to platform LGBTQ+ writers. He launched the Polari Prize in 2011. This was followed by the Polari Prize for LGBTQ+ writers at all stages of their career in 2019 and the Polari Children's & YA Prize in 2022. Other organisations have also taken names inspired by Polari, such as Polari Magazine, Vada Magazine, and VADA LGBTQ Community Theatre Company.
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. This was presented at The John Rylands Library and Contact Theatre. In 2015, Dolan also translated sections of the 1957 Wolfenden report into Polari for a commission from the UK Parliament. Dolan and Richardson also worked with Paul Baker to produce a 500-word dictionary of Polari as an app.
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. In 2017, a service at Westcott House, Cambridge was conducted in Polari. Trainee priests held the service to commemorate LGBT History Month; following media attention, Chris Chivers, the principal, expressed his regret.
In 2019, Reaktion Books published Paul Baker's third book on Polari, Fabulosa!: The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language. His first two books on the subject ( Polari: Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang and Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men) were published in 2002 and 2003, respectively.
So bona to vada...oh you! Your lovely eek and your lovely riah. – taken from "Piccadilly Palare", a song by Morrissey
As feely ommes...we would zhoosh our riah, powder our eeks, climb into our bona new drag, don our batts and troll off to some bona bijou bar. 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. – taken from Parallel Lives, the memoirs of renowned gay journalist Peter Burton
In the Are You Being Served? 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).
Decline
Polari had begun to fall into disuse among the gay subculture by the late 1960s. 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 need for a secret means of communication in the subculture also declined with the partial decriminalisation of adult homosexual acts in England and Wales under the Sexual Offences Act 1967; in the 1970s, the gay liberation movement began to view Polari as old-fashioned and perpetuating harmful camp stereotypes.
Mainstream usage
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.
Legacy and revival
Since the late 20th and early 21st century, there has been a renewed interest in Polari, especially as a part of LGBTQ+ heritage. Gay's the Word has held workshops in Polari, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have translated (partially relexified) the King James Bible into Polari, and Madame Jo Jo's nightclub in Soho taught its staff to speak Polari.
In popular culture
Glossary
Numbers:
Some words or phrases that may derive from Polari (this is an incomplete list):
mezza uno due tre quattro cinque sei sette otto nove dieci undici dodici chenter one hundred cento bisexual nearby (shortened form of "adjacent to") they're attractive! (via acronym "LMO" meaning "Lick Me Out!") to have sex (from Italian chiavare, to screw) listen! ears earrings a fight shoes drink (diminutive of "beverage") effeminate or passive gay man small/little (from French, jewel) whore (French putain) sexually pick up homosexual good goodnight (from Italian – buona notte) masculine; masculine lesbian a drink; something drinkable (from Italian – bere or old-fashioned Italian – bevere or Lingua Franca bevire) talk/gossip effeminate (possibly from Italian campare or campeggiare "emphasise, make stand out") (possibly from the phrase "camp follower" those itinerants who followed behind the men in uniform/highly decorative dress) hat (from Italian – cappello) house or a toilet penis (from Italian – cazzo) trousers to search or to look (from Italian acchiappare, to catch) policeman sexual intercourse young man vagina clothes bad backside, posterior a public lavatory used for sexual encounters (public lavatories in British parks and elsewhere were often built in the style of a Tudor cottage)[1] seeking or obtaining sexual encounters in public lavatories taxi wash (from Hindi, dohb) a male prostitute, from Piccadilly boy Piccadilly circus, a place where cruising went on money (Latin 'denarii' was the 'd' of the pre decimal penny. This word is cognate with the Spanish word 'dinero' also meaning money) C. H. V. Sutherland (1973). 071340731X 071340731Xbuttocks pretty, nice, pleasant, (from Irish dóighiúil/Scottish Gaelic dòigheil, handsome, pronounced 'doil') woman (perhaps from Italian donna or Lingua Franca dona) face (backslang) face (abbreviation of ecaf) hair nose (backslang) hands fabulous/wonderful trousers child/young (from the Italian figlio, for son) young man lodgings, accommodations tobacco gorgeous, beautiful gay man pound £ (Yiddish) old man/beard money (Yiddish) money dancer gay man, especially an effeminate one wig (from Cockney rhyming slang, "Irish jig") food, also mangarie (from Italian mangiare or Lingua Franca mangiaria) breasts trousers body legs, sometimes also knees (as in "get down on yer lallies") feet room, house or flat lay or place upon words (Irish: labhairt to speak) hands police (Lilly Law) legs (prob. from "Lisle stockings") fingers (from Yiddish lapa – paw) food, also jarry (from Italian mangiare or Lingua Franca mangiaria) worthless, dirty (from Italian mancare – "to be lacking") hands money divided plain, ugly (from Yiddish mieskeit, in turn from Hebrew מָאוּס repulsive, loathsome, despicable, abominable) nutty, crazy, mental (from Yiddish '', in turn from Hebrew מְשֻׁגָּע crazy) church money (from Italian mezzi, "means, wherewithal") walk affectedly involved in the act of sex deceive darkness awful, dull, hetero awful not, no, none (from Italian, niente) dole, welfare, government financial assistance nothing from Yiddish nishto נישטא meaning nothing look admiringly eyes glasses man (from Romance) nose (from "conk") eyes police mouth (nanti pots in the oven = no teeth in the mouth) telephone ("talk pipe") back give feet (Cockney rhyming slang "plates of meat"); to fellate woman (Italian paglione – "straw mattress"; cf. old Cant hay-bag – "woman"); also spelled "polony" in Graham Greene's 1938 novel Brighton Rock lesbian teeth testicles touch sex change policeman hair (backslang) hairdresser a working class or blue collar sex partner or potential sex partner; a tough, thuggish or potentially violent sex partner to run off (from Italian scappare, to escape or run away or from rhyming slang "scapa flow", to go) shame (from German schade, "a shame" or "a pity") drink apparel from Yiddish shmatte שמאטע meaning rag bottle leg (scotch egg=leg) mouth, speak write (either from Irish scríobh/Scottish Gaelic sgrìobh, Scots scrieve to write or italian 'scrivere' meaning to write) policeman (from – charpering omi) policewoman steal (from client) hold-all wig (mutation of the Yiddish sheitel) makeup homosexual (e.g. "Is he 'so'?") legs stockings, hosiery trousers piano wig prospective sexual conquest thighs road (a Shelta word, Irish bóthar); temporary site for a circus, carnival from Cockney rhyming slang "alone" sex between two passive or feminine homosexuals (as in: 'I don't do tootsie trade') sex, sex-partner, potential sex-partner to walk about (esp. looking for trade) to see (from Italian dialect vardare = guardare – look at) gin cigarette (from Lingua Franca fogus – "fire, smoke") female smoker dance breasts no, none (from French "yeux") eyes style, improve, clothes(cf. Romani zhouzho – "clean, neat") showy
Usage examples
Omies and palones of the jury, vada well at the eek of the poor ome who stands before you, his lallies trembling. – taken from "Bona Law", one of the Julian and Sandy sketches from Round The Horne, written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman
See also
Bibliography
(2025). 9780198662631, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198662631
External links
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