
Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men (2016) - richardhod
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/bakerjp/polari/home.htm
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sctb
Discussion from a couple of years ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15238366](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15238366).

And from 2015:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10104648](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10104648)

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benj111
I find it interesting that within the space of a human lifetime these words
can go from secret language to common usage, completely divorced from where
they came from. I wonder what my Grandparents think when I discuss having a
bevvy.

Although that shouldn't really be surprising, as my younger brother will
happily use bad to mean good without any context/intonation whatsoever. So if
a common word can reverse in meaning in a decade....

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clouddrover
> _my younger brother will happily use bad to mean good_

Here's an example of that from the 1989 movie The Wizard:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVc6xuQfq9Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVc6xuQfq9Q)

He loves the Nintendo Power Glove. It's so bad.

~~~
benj111
Yes its been around for a while, but the intonation etc clarified the meaning.

My brother doesn't say "that is _bad_ ", he says "that is bad".

Then he gets exasperated when I ask him if he means good or not good.

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Angostura
Bad to mean good was certainly in playground use in the UK in the 1970s, in
London. If something was particularly good - it was ‘well bad’

~~~
benj111
"without any context/intonation whatsoever"

I grew up with that usage, I coped very well with that usage. If I'm talking
with my 12 year old mates saying "wow that's well bad" it is obvious what I
mean. If I bake a new cake recipe and ask you to try it, and you neutrally
reply "that is bad", what am I to infer from that? Not "wow that is well bad",
or "that's bad ass", or "mmm that is one bad cake".

If Stephen Hawking said "that is bad", what would you infer from that?

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bartread
> If Stephen Hawking said "that is bad", what would you infer from that?

That he'd faked his death.

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mercer
That comment of yours is bad.

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vincentpants
First thought that came to mind was "Oh hey, I know almost all those words in
the first list thanks to Monty Python!" My mind is blown.

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TheOtherHobbes
They were widely used on BBC Radio comedy in the 50s and 60s, less so in the
70s. Also less so on TV.

Most people - including me, and almost everyone else who watched Monty Python
- had no idea what they were hearing.

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KineticLensman
Yes, a good example being the radio show “Round the Horne”. Polari was used to
smuggle all sorts of innuendo past the BBC sensors

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foxhill
that reminded me about this video!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8yEH8TZUsk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8yEH8TZUsk)

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eindiran
If you thought this was interesting, it's worth looking up other argots/cants.
Here are some interesting examples:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves%27_cant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves%27_cant)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padonkaffsky_jargon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padonkaffsky_jargon)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelta)

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threesquared
For some reason Cloudflare DNS does not resolve that domain....

    
    
      *** one.one.one.one can't find www.lancaster.ac.uk: Server failed

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kseistrup
Are you sure it was not just a glitsch?

    
    
        $ dig a www.lancaster.ac.uk @1.1.1.1 +short
        www.lancs.ac.uk.
        148.88.65.80
        $ dig aaaa www.lancaster.ac.uk @1.1.1.1 +short
        www.lancs.ac.uk.
        2001:630:80:2ff::80:1

~~~
threesquared
Yeah but if you do the long version the status is SERVFAIL?

edit: It's a known issue: [https://community.cloudflare.com/t/www-lancaster-
ac-uk-not-r...](https://community.cloudflare.com/t/www-lancaster-ac-uk-not-
resolving-servfail/32211/2)

~~~
NeedMoreTea
...and has been for six months. That's disappointing of Cloudflare,
considering the Nasa domain problems reported at similar time were resolved in
short order.

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ATsch
What does "female impersonators" refer to here? Surely not transwomen or
crossdressers? That seems like an extremely rude term.

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lenticular
It's an old term for drag queens, not for transwomen. It's not offensive.

