BS: naff, Polari, etc.

Subject: BS: naff, Polari, etc.
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 03:19 AM

In the interests of avoiding thread creep, or over-creep I should say, I thought we'd better separate Recording on a portastudio from this discussion.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: naff, Polari, etc.
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 03:27 AM

Just to introduce the subject properly, IanS said "... the word naff comes from a Polari word - naph meaning cheap, nasty or bad. The Polari language is believed to be a mix of English, Italian, Jewish, Irish Gaelic, Romany and anything else that happened to be around which was spoken by travelling entertainers over the past few centuries. It seems to be only a select few Polari words have ever made it into the english language (Khazi for toilet is one !!!)". I believe that "Naf Naf" is the name of one of the Three Little Pigs inthe French version; I await further enlightenment.

Oh, and somehow we got on to "Fanny", which, being British, I shall leave to an American to define.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: naff, Polari, etc.
From: CarolC
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 06:01 AM

Yer "fanny" is yer bum.

Carol

Subject: RE: BS: naff, Polari, etc.
From: Snuffy
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 08:40 AM

But in Britain it may be more politely referred to as a lady's "front bottom"

Subject: RE: BS: naff, Polari, etc.
From: CarolC
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 05:17 PM

Snuffy,

That's pretty interesting. I don't think we have a polite way of refering to that part of a lady in the U.S. Here, "fanny" refers to the back part and everyone's got one, even men.

Carol

Subject: RE: BS: naff, Polari, etc.
From: mousethief
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 05:22 PM

A close buddy of mine got very embarassed using this word in front of a very proper British lady.

He was describing his cat's antics (the cat slid across the desk and into the wastebasket), and said she (the cat) was stuck there with her fanny sticking up in the air. The woman looked at him like he just set her poodle, and he said, "What? we've all got one."

She said, in a very level voice, "No, we do not all have one. I have one. You do not."

It was shortly after that he walked upright under the closed door and went home, I think.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: naff, Polari, etc.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 07:42 PM

This is fascinating. At a Kenneth Williams website they talked about "polari" being the hip gay insiders lingo. There's a whole dictionary of terms, also ways of using certain common words and phrases in seemingly innocent ways to convey distinctly different meanings to those in the know.

Any connection between this and the other "polari"?

Rick