Rhyming slang all cases, omitting, from the end of the phrase, the secondary rhyming word (which is thereafter implied), making the origin and meaning of the phrase elusive to listeners not in the know. The form that is followed is made clear with the following example. The rhyming phrase "apples and pears" evolved to mean "stairs". Following the pattern of omission, "and pears" is dropped, thus the spoken phrase "I'm going up the apples" means "I'm going up the stairs". The following are further common examples of these phrases: Thus a construction of the following type could conceivably arise: "It nearly knocked
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