Page "Rhyming slang" Paragraph 8

According to Partridge ( 1972: 12 ), it dates from around 1840 and arose in the East End of London, however John Camden Hotten in his 1859 Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words states that ( English ) rhyming slang originated " about twelve or fifteen years ago " ( i. e. in the 1840s ) with ' chaunters ' and ' patterers ' in the Seven Dials area of London.

( The reference is to travelling salesmen of certain kinds.

Chaunters sold sheet music and patterers offered cheap, tawdry goods at fairs and markets up and down the country ).

Hotten's Dictionary included a " Glossary of the Rhyming Slang ", the first known such work.

It included later mainstays such as " Frog and toad — the main road " and " Apples and pears — stairs " as well as many that later grew more obscure, e. g. " Battle of the Nile — a tile ( vulgar term for a hat )", " Duke of York — take a walk ", and " Top of Rome — home ".