Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang - Hardcover

Baker, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826459617 ISBN 13: 9780826459619

Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group, 2003

Synopsis

Polari has been the secret language of gay men and women through the twentieth century. But more than a language, Polari is an attitude. From the prisons and music halls of Edwardian England to Kenneth Williams, American GIs in London and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Polari has been used to laugh, bitch, gossip and cruise.
Like all slang, Polari users coined an ever-changing vocabulary. Derived from words used by criminals, circus artists, beggars and prostitutes, it also employed Italian, Yiddish, French, rhyming slang and backslang. Polari speakers camped up a storm, from West End chorus boys and office workers to East End sea-queens.
Since gay liberation, lesbian and gay slang has become less a language of concealment than a language of specialization, though the tradition of camp remains. A carefully researched and entertaining read, Fantabulosa presents a lexicon of Polari and a more general dictionary of lesbian and gay slang.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Baker is Lecturer in Linguistics and Modern English Language at Lancaster University.

Review:

"Simply Fantabulosa!...[a] must have volume..." -- Scotsgay Magazine, March 2003

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0826459617
• ISBN 13: 9780826459619
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240