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"
Prick (slang) as fairly inoffensive. By the 20th and 21st centuries, several expressions related to prick were being used. “To look at every woman through a hole in one's prick” refers to a man who views every woman as a potential instrument of sexual pleasure. A short stout person has sometimes been described as 'short and thick like a Welshman's prick.” In Cockney rhyming slang, a penis is described as a “Hampton Wick”, a “Hampton” or a "wick" because it rhymes with 'prick'. An English proverb says "A standing prick has no conscience.". In "Pedagogical Desire: Authority, Seducation, Transference, and the Question