Cockney: barnet (in the sense of hair) (2025)

I read that the word barnet means hair in Cockney rhyming slang, and it's based on the term Barnet Fair where fair rhymes with hair and dropped, leaving the first word barnet, the way this kind of slang tends to do.

This sounds to me too complicated for developing a slang word. Am I missing something, or this is how the Cockney rhyming slang works and developed barnet = hair?

Context:

This is how most rhyming slang works. Use a multi-word rhyme, then drop the rhyming part:

apples = apples and pears = stairs
loaf = loaf of bread = head
elephants = elephant's trunk = drunk

spit = spit-roasted = cross-posted

entangledbank said:

spit = spit-roasted = cross-posted

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Sometimes more stages are involved:

Aris = arse: Bottle and glass = arse, drop the 'glass' bit, so 'bottle' = arse, but then 'bottle' rhymes with 'Aristotle', from which we drop 'totle', and we are left with 'aris'.

I won't mention 'Berk'

This is a useful CRS Dictionary: Cockney Rhyming Slang, London Slang, Rhyming Slang Dictionary

Expressions derived from rhyming slang vary considerably in how widely they are understood. "Barnet" is moderately common; anyone who does cryptic crosswords in British newspapers will know of it, but they probably won't actually use it themselves. On the other hand, there are almost certainly some people for whom it is a normal word. I expect that fewer than one in a hundred of the people who actually use it could tell you it comes from Barnet Fair.

Other words derived from rhyming slang are in common use. I, for example, might say "give us a butcher's", "use your loaf" or "I'm on my tod", without any thought of the rhyme that created "butcher's" (butcher's hook = look), "loaf" (loaf of bread = head) or "tod" (Tod Sloane, an American jockey = "own"). In fact, I had to look up Tod Sloane, and it is a little curious that a word that (as far as I am aware) only exists in British English should come from an American jockey.

It is perhaps not a good idea to enquire into the origins of the word "berk", which is in such widespread use that even the Prince of Wales has been recorded using it. I bet he didn't know its derivation.

There are very few examples of rhyming slang where the full rhyme is routinely said, and "half-inch" (= pinch, meaning "steal") is the only one that comes to mind.

Other slang terms for 'hair' include:

Fred Astaire: 'You had your Fred done?'
Tony Blair
Yogi Bear

And for 'Keep you hair on' (Calm down), they might say "For god's sake calm down! Keep your Elvis!' - rhyming 'hair on' with 'Aaron'.

My impression is that the more popular ones are used by people beyond London who don't necessarily realise they are rhyming slang. I'm thinking of how someone might be described as rabbiting on for a bit or having told porkies.

(Rabbit = rabbit and pork = talk; porky = pork = pork pie = lie)

natkretep said:

My impression is that the more popular ones are used by people beyond London who don't necessarily realise they are rhyming slang. ...

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Yes
I'd been using have a butcher's for many years before I realised it was rhyming slang.

natkretep said:

My impression is that the more popular ones are used by people beyond London who don't necessarily realise they are rhyming slang.

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And I suspect 'titfer' might fall under this category too. And maybe 'whistle'?

heypresto said:

And I suspect 'titfer' might fall under this category too. And maybe 'whistle'?

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"Whistle", heypresto? I don't know that one (unless its the thing you wet, but I didn't know that was rhyming slang). "Titfer" seems very dated to me, but then of course we hardly wear them these days. "China", like "Barnet" is a regular in crossword puzzles, and I have a friend who uses it, but I think the derivation from rhyming slang is obvious (certainly my friend knows its origin: china plate = mate).

What I really cannot understand is the apparent naivety of the British Board of Film Sensors for passing Carry on Up the Khyber for general release in 1968. Surely they knew... (Khyber Pass = arse)

lingobingo said:

Danny Dyer’s character on the BBC soap Eastenders is forever using boat (boat race) for face, but I confess I’ve never heard anyone use that in real life.

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He's also fond of saying 'Yer 'avin' a bubble' = 'You're having a bubble barf (bubble bath) = laugh' = You must me joking = You're talking out (of ) your aris' = You're talking nonsense!

Another one I've just remembered is 'Gary', but it's not for polite company such as this.

Uncle Jack said:

What I really cannot understand is the apparent naivety of the British Board of Film Sensors for passing Carry on Up the Khyber for general release in 1968. Surely they knew... (Khyber Pass = arse)

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Come on, they knew exactly what it meant. The whole film is based on things like this, think of Kenneth William's character the Khasi (of Kalabar, Charles Hawtrey's Private Widdle and Bernard Bresslaw's Bungdit Din and "Fakir off!" pronounced by Bungdit Din when a particularly irritating fakir was performing.

I grew up with more traditional CRS so 'me barnet' (Barnet fair) = 'my hair ' is very familiar to me and I also remember a more recent 'Alf Garnett' (Alf Garnett-Barnet fair-hair) but I haven't heard that in quite a while. And as the others have said it's common to abbreviate CRS. One that comes to mind is:

He's a bit of a merchant (banker).

I'll leave you work that one out by yourselves. Let's just say it isn't a compliment.

I think 'Eastenders' overdoes it with the slang. Nobody uses it that much in real life and I'm sure some was invented for the show.