Costermonger a secret language, a code which only other costermongers understood. In her book, "Shadows of the Workhouse", Jennifer Worth observed that "Costers... spoke to each other almost entirely in back slang; incomprensible to an outsider." Many costermongers also used "rhyming slang"; where any word can be substituted with another word that rhymes with it. Examples of rhyming slang include: "tin lids" or "dustpan lids" for "kids"; "jimmy grant" for "emigrant"; "apple and pears" for "stairs"; "rubbidy dub" for "pub" and "trouble and strife" for "wife". The selection of rhyming words often suggested a symbolic association. For example, a "sorrowful tale"
A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words of two secret languages, spoken by the wandering tribes of London, the costermongers, and the patterers". It has also been published as The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical, and Anecdotal. The dictionary included criminal slang, back slang, rhyming slang, and other types of slang. Its author, Hotten, included histories of some slangs (back slang and rhyming slang), a detailed bibliography, and a noted definition: Hotten's work was arguably the most important work on swears since Francis Grose's 1785 "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue". A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar