Six may be referred to as " Jimmie Hicks " or " Jimmie Hicks from the sticks ", examples of rhyming slang.

This is both an example of rhyming slang and of a sexual double entendre.

Rhyming slang is a form of phrase construction in the English language and is especially prevalent in dialectal English from the East End of London ; hence the alternative name, Cockney rhyming slang ( or CRS ).

The use of rhyming slang has spread beyond the purely dialectal and some examples are to be found in the mainstream British English lexicon and internationally, although many users may be unaware of the origin of those words.

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.

It remains a matter of speculation whether rhyming slang was a linguistic accident, a game, or a cryptolect developed intentionally to confuse non-locals.

At any point in history, in any location, rhyming slang can be seen to incorporate words and phrases that are relevant at that particular time and place.

By the mid-20th century many rhyming slang expressions used the names of contemporary personalities, especially actors and performers: for example " Gregory Peck " meaning " neck " and also " cheque "; " Ruby Murray " meaning " curry "; " Alans ", meaning " knickers " from Alan Whicker ; " Max Miller " meaning " pillow " when pronounced / ˈpilə / and " Henry Halls ".

This usage can be seen as either an abuse of history, or as a good example of the ever-changing nature of rhyming slang.

Outside England, rhyming slang is used in many English-speaking countries.

In Australian slang the term for an English person is " pommy ", which has been proposed as a rhyme on " pomegranate " rhyming with " immigrant ".

In London rhyming slang is continually evolving, and new phrases are introduced all the time.

" Taking the Mick " or " taking the Mickey " is thought to be a rhyming slang form of " taking the piss ", where " Mick " came from " Mickey Bliss ".

In December 2004 Joe Pasquale, winner of the fourth series of ITV's I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here !, became well known for his frequent use of the term " Jacobs ", for Jacob's Crackers, a rhyming slang term for knackers i. e. testicles.

In Britain rhyming slang had a resurgence of popular interest beginning in the 1970s resulting from its use in a number of London-based television programmes such as Steptoe and Son, Mind Your Language, The Sweeney ( the title of which is itself rhyming slang —" Sweeney Todd " for " Flying Squad ", a rapid response unit of London ’ s Metropolitan Police ), Minder, Citizen Smith, Only Fools and Horses, and EastEnders.

In The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, a comic twist was added to rhyming slang by way of spurious and fabricated examples which a young man had laboriously to explain to his father ( e. g. ' dustbins ' meaning ' children ', as in ' dustbin lids ' = ' kids '; ' Teds ' being ' Ted Heath ' and thus ' teeth '; and even ' Chitty Chitty ' being ' Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ', and thus ' rhyming slang '...).

In modern literature, Cockney rhyming slang is used frequently in the novels and short stories of Kim Newman, for instance in the short story collections " The Man from the Diogenes Club " ( 2006 ) and " Secret Files of the Diogenes Club " ( 2007 ), where it is explained at the end of each book.

In popular music, London-based artists such as Audio Bullys and Chas & Dave ( and others from elsewhere in the UK, such as The Streets, who are from Birmingham ) frequently use rhyming slang in their songs.

In the rhyming catechism this doctrine is worded thus: `` In Adam's fall We sin-ned all ''.

However, there is considerable variation on this pattern in almost every respect, including length, number of lines and rhyming scheme, making the strict definition of a ballad extremely difficult.

The most frequently cited example — although it is almost never employed by current users — involves the replacement of " stairs " with the rhyming phrase " apples and pears ".

In Australia and South Africa, the colloquial term " China " is derived from " mate " rhyming with " China plate " ( the identical form, heard in expressions like " me old China " is also a long-established Cockney idiom ).

In present day feature films rhyming slang is often used to lend authenticity to an East End setting.

Examples include Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels ( 1998 ) ( wherein the slang is translated via subtitles in one scene ); The Limey ( 1999 ); Sexy Beast ( 2000 ); Snatch ( 2000 ); Ocean's Eleven ( 2001 ); and Austin Powers in Goldmember ( 2002 ); It's All Gone Pete Tong ( 2004 ), after BBC radio disc jockey Pete Tong whose name is used in this context as rhyming slang for " wrong "; Green Street Hooligans ( 2005 ).

Partick Thistle are known as the " Harry Rags ", which is taken from the rhyming slang of their ' official ' nickname " the jags ".

Heart of Midlothian are known as the " Jambos ", which comes from " Jam Tarts " which is the rhyming slang for " Hearts " which is the common abbreviation of the Clubs name.

* Cobblers is short for " cobbler's awls " which is a rhyming slang for ' balls ' ( testicles )

The complexity of a language's orthography or spelling rhyming words formally, its orthographic depth – has a direct impact on how difficult it is to learn to read that language.

A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poetry ; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines.

The degree of richness of a language's rhyming structures plays a substantial role in determining what poetic forms are commonly used in that language.

Arabic language poets used rhyme extensively from the first development of literary Arabic in the sixth century, as in their long, rhyming qasidas.

The meaning of the " weasel " is unclear but the two most likely definitions are: a flat iron used for finishing clothing ; or rhyming slang for a coat ( weasel and stoat ).

* Shairi ( also known as Rustavelian Quatrain ) is an AAAA rhyming form used mainly in The Knight in the Panther's Skin.

Old School flows were relatively basic and used only few syllables per bar, simple rhythmic patterns, and basic rhyming techniques and rhyme schemes.

As with other poetic techniques, poets use it to suit their own purposes ; for example William Shakespeare often used a rhyming couplet to mark off the end of a scene in a play.

The use of coded languages like verlan is uncommon in English-speaking countries, but similar manners of speaking, such as Cockney rhyming slang, Pig Latin or " backslang ", are used in English-speaking cultures ( see Language game ).

In addition to his appearance in Through the Looking-Glass, as a character Humpty Dumpty has been used in a large range of literary works, including L. Frank Baum's Mother Goose in Prose ( 1901 ), where the rhyming riddle is devised by the daughter of the king, having witnessed Humpty's " death " and her father's soldiers ' efforts to save him.

*" Eighter from Decatur ", a form of rhyming slang used in craps

The words to which they are sung are generally to a rhyming scheme and are in a strophic form ( the same melody used for different verses ).

The rhyming style is the alliterative verse line style commonly used in Middle English poetry.

When pronounced ( rhyming with did ), it can generally be perceived as a pejorative — and is used as a derogatory epithet by antisemites.

In the United States, Bronx cheer is sometimes used ; otherwise, in the U. S. and in other English-speaking countries, it is known as a raspberry, rasp, or razz – the origin of which is an instance of rhyming slang, in which the non-rhyming part of a rhyming phrase is used as a synonym.

John Hoole's 1783 translation used rhyming couplets.

In the early 1900s, Karlgren conducted large surveys of a number of Chinese dialects and studied historical information on rhyming in ancient Chinese poetry, then used them to create the first ever complete reconstructions of what is now called Middle Chinese and Old Chinese.

Doggerel has been deliberately used for comic or satiric effect, as exemplified by John Skelton ( giving rise to a variety of verse known as " skeltonics ", defined as " short rhyming lines of irregular length, which build up a spasmodic energy from a rumble-tumble of rhymes in a melange of different languages, in which dog Latin and dog English fight out the sense between them ".