Quote:
Originally Posted by DixieGal
OK, I'll ask. What's a barrow boy?
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Typically from the east end of London, a barrow boy is a market trader, often working off a push along barrow and selling stuff like fruit and veg. Often from the East End and sometimes even uses Cockney Rhyming Slang. (like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins but with an English accent lol)
Cockney Rhyming slang is two words that rhymed together make a third:
Holy Ghost = Toast
Apples & Pears = Stairs
Rosie Lee = tea
Plates of Meat = Feet
therefore you can get :
Right, time to take the plates down the apples & pears for a cup of rosie.
Meaning :
time to go downstairs for a cup of tea.
(As you see even the two words are often shorted to one)
(I am 1/4 true London Cockney and quite proud of it - that means my Granmother was born with the sound of Bow Bells in London -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney)