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.

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 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 ".

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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 '...).

The affectionate, rhyming, name " Curly Wyrley " is derived from the fact that the canal is a contour canal, and so it twists and turns in order to avoid any gradients, and thus the need for locks.

Later they acquired nicknames such as Kokom for Komariah, Gugun or Wawan for Gunawan, and Yaya or Nana for Suryana ; as the result the nickname become the first name thus creating rhyming names such as Kokom Komariah, Wawan Gunawan, and Nana Suryana.

Here the vowels are the same, but the consonants, although both palatalized, do not fall into the same class in the bardic rhyming scheme.

The construction involves replacing a common word with a rhyming phrase of two or three words and then, in almost all cases, omitting the secondary rhyming word, in a process called hemiteleia, making the origin and meaning of the phrase elusive to listeners not in the know.

In all cases, rhyming is obligatory.

" The Lyons translation includes all the poetry, omitted in some translations, but does not attempt to reproduce in English the internal rhyming of some prose sections of the original Arabic.

He is often cited as one of the most influential and skilled MCs of all time as he is a pioneer of mafioso rap / street / hardcore content and multisyllabic rhyming.

The text of Tristan is 19, 548 lines long, and is written, like all courtly romances, in rhyming couplets.

While in high school, Coleman freestyle battled in his hometown ; in his last interview, he stated, " in the beginning, all I ever saw me doing was battling everybody on the street corners, rhyming in the hallways, beating on the wall, rhyming to my friends.

The cywydd consists of a series of seven-syllable lines in rhyming couplets, with all lines written in cynghanedd.

The full rhyming couplet runs: By Tre, Pol and Pen shall ye know all Cornishmen, a version of which was recorded by Richard Carew in his Survey of Cornwall, published in 1602.

He is said to have boasted that he could recite a hundred long ' qasidas for each letter of the alphabet ( i. e. rhyming in each letter ) and these all from pre-Islamic times, apart from shorter pieces and later verses.

The rhythmic ( usually rhyming ) verse that accompanies military runs is referred to as cadence, due to the fact that it is intended to keep all the soldiers running in step at the same pace.

It is a conventional bout, which consists of parries, attacks, and returns, all rhyming together.

The metrical form of the Monk's Tale is the most complex of all the pilgrims ': An eight-line stanza rhyming ababbcbc.

The medieval chronicler William of Malmesbury records a story that when the new sheriff of Worcester, Urse d ' Abetot, encroached on the cemetery of the cathedral chapter for Worcester Cathedral, Ealdred pronounced a rhyming curse on him, saying " Thou are called Urse.

Ambroise ( flourished c. 1190 ) was a Norman poet and chronicler of the Third Crusade, author of a work called L ' Estoire de la guerre sainte, which describes in rhyming Old French verse the adventures of Richard Coeur de Lion as a crusader.

The dramatic works of Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine are typically composed of rhyming alexandrine couplets.

The rhyming songs, poems and tales written in the form of ballads often relate to the itinerant and rebellious spirit of Australia in The Bush, and the authors and performers are often referred to as bush bards.

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

Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales are written in rhyming couplets.

Because the rhyme comes so quickly in rhyming couplets, it tends to call attention to itself.

Good rhyming couplets tend to " explode " as both the rhyme and the idea come to a quick close in two lines.

On the other hand, because rhyming couplets have such a predictable rhyme scheme, they can feel artificial and plodding.

The ending credits of the show start with thanks to the colorfully nicknamed actual staffers: producer Doug " the subway fugitive, not a slave to fashion, bongo boy frogman " Berman ; " John ' Bugsy ' Lawlor, just back from the ..." every week a different eating event with rhyming foodstuff names ; David " Calves of Belleville " Greene ; Catherine " Frau Blücher " Fenollosa, whose name causes a horse to neigh and gallop ( an allusion to a running gag in the movie Young Frankenstein ); and Carly " High Voltage " Nix, among others.

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.

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