Polari: Learning the forgotten gay language

By Samuel Leighton-Dore

The unique ways in which gay men communicate are constantly evolving. With the rise of animal terminology (bears, otters, cubs, pandas), an ever-expanding list of hookup abbreviations (GWM, GAM, BB, BDSM), and the sassy slang of queer nightlife and drag culture (slayyyyyyyyy mama!), it can sometimes be difficult to keep up with the onslaught of new compliments and insults.

However, what some LGBT millennials mightn’t realize is that there once existed a secret language/slang called Polari, the use of which allowed gay men to openly communicate at a time when homosexuality was illegal and being outed posed genuine threat. Derived from a variety of different sources, including rhyming slang and backslang, Polari was first used in the dockside pubs of England around the early 1900’s, before making its way abroad via the queer members of local shipping crews.

The language, which also has linguistic roots in Italian and English, allowed gay men to establish tight inner-circles where they would’ve otherwise faced discrimination, boast about their latest shags, perv on straighties, and even host radio shows that were completely indistinguishable to their hetero-speaking peers. Despite having already been around for several decades, the language became particularly popular off the back of Round the Horne, a national BBC radio comedy show in the 1960’s featuring a pair of camp out-of-work actors.

Sadly, Polari became effectively extinct when the 1967 sexual offenses act made homosexuality legal in the UK, rendering a secret form of language largely unnecessary. However, my gay uncles (Mal and Al – true story) still reminisce fondly about the cheeky sense of community it gave them in their raucous clubbing days.

“Oh yeah, we’d all use it,” Al assures me.

“When we were out dancing with friends, we wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, check out that young guy’ – it would be, ‘Have a vada of that feely omi walloper!'” He laughs.

Now, without suggesting Polari should become part of the school curriculum (it probably fucking should, but can you even begin to imagine the backlash it would receive from conservatives after Safe Schools?), I do think it’s a damn shame that such an interesting element of recent LGBT history has been forgotten.

So maybe it’s time for a Heaps Gay lesson in language?

Okay, here goes:

Batt = shoe; bijou = small; bona = good; camp = excessive; charper = too search; dolly = pleasant; dona = woman; drag = clothes; eek = face; fantabulosa = excellent; feele = child; lally = leg; lattie = house; leucoddy = body; naph = bad; nante = none; ogle = eye; omi = man; omipalone = homosexual; palare = talk; palone = woman; riah = hair; troll = walk; vada = look; walloper = dancer; zhoosh = fix.

Oh, and if counting happens to be your jam, you can totally count to ten in Polari: una, duey, trey, quarter, chinker, sey, otto, nobber, dacha.

Got it? Good – because the most creative Polari sentence posted in our comment section below wins a pretty sick little prize.

Fantabulosa omipalones!

*Prize not cocaine.