Conference thebay::joyoflex

137.0. "Who you callin' a YOBBO???" by CLOSET::DEVRIES () Thu Jan 09 1986 14:30

A lexical discussion excerpted from:

<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>

 Edition :  980             Thursday  9-Jan-1986            Circulation :  2174 


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From: George Chaprass ....................................... Merrimack, NH, USA

Some  more  bric-a-brac  about  Brits and the Revolutionary Rabble was
suggested by the following item in VNS # 978.

    Parliament, European Parliament/EEC, Law and Politics
    -----------------------------------------------------
     Labour choose Militant Tendency supporter Pat Wall to fight
     marginal Conservative seat in Bradford North.

The  following is excerpted, paraphrased, stolen from, and added to an
article;  "On  Language",  William  Safire,  New York Times, 5 January
1986.

Britain's  Parliament,  like  the  American  Congress,  has  a list of
proscribed  words  that  members  must  not call one another.  Decorum
(whatever that is) must be maintained, even at the cost of suppressing
most  of  the  colorful  slang  that  politicos use in private debate;
politicos, incidentally, is the plural of POLITICO.

On occasion, comes a word that has not been ruled upon.  One such word
is  YOBBO,  a  term now sweeping Britain, though it has yet to make an
impact on this side of the Atlantic.

     In  the  House  of  Commons, when Norman Tebbit, the Conservative
     Party  chairman,  derided  a  group  called the Militant Tendency
     within  the Labor Party, Neil Kinnock, the opposition leader, led
     his  supporters  in  what was described in the daily telegraph as
     "uncontrolled  giggling"  and "tie-slicking."  This demonstration
     caused  the  Conservative  to label his tormentors, who would not
     let him speak, "a bunch of YOBBOS". --  [tie-slicking, i believe,
     is  holding  the tie twixt fore-finger and thumb, and stroking or
     slicking  the tie from about mid-tie to bottom; please correct me
     on this if i err].

A  YOBBO is a ruffian.  Mr Tebbit defines the slang word as follows: a
low-grade, street corner thug. A Labor front bencher called Mr. Tebbit
a "street-corner lout", which is synonymous with YOBBO; lout, however,
is  standard English.  The noun YOBBO has lent itself to adaptation in
the  adjective  YOBBISH and a second noun, YOBBISM, which, presumably,
is a belief in the values of hanging out on street corners and being a
YOB.   YOB  is  the  original  word  and  is  backslang  [spelling  or
pronouncing  a word backwards] for BOY; it came into general slang use
just after World war I.

Butcher's  backslang  was used as a code to conceal from customers the
nefarious  messages  that  passed between meat-cutters.  "give her the
DEE-LOW  TEAM" = "give her the OLD MEAT"; KAY-ROP = PORK and BEE-MAL =
LAMB.  A YOB was a butcher's boy, an assistant or delivery boy, and as
the extension BOY-O was used, so was its backslang YOB-O or YOBBO.

The   insulting   -O   formation   has   its  counterparts  among  the
Revolutionary  Rabble,  too;  KIDDO  (kid,  child), WINO (wine drinker
extraordinaire),  PINKO  (pink,  red, communist).  A pinko is called a
COMMO by the British, and garbage is called GARBO by the Aussies.

More on other "lovelies" as time permits -- just what is a "lovely"...
in  England... in Wales...in Scotland...in Ireland...in Australia...in
New Zealand...?

    I've only just discovered this NOTES file, hence the delay in this
    reply. Yobbo has been with us for longer than you think - at least
    twenty years. Yob was in use in use in the 19th century, being Cockney
    backslang (cf "the Hoxton Yob" in one of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock
    Holmes short stories - I can't remember which, but I'll try and
    find it.)
    
    Richard De Morgan.

    Re .1 - I was wrong, it was not in a Sherlock Holmes Story, it was
    in "The Case of Laker, Absconded" by Arthur Morrison, a contempory
    of Conan Doyle's. In "The Penguin Complete Rivals of Sherlock Holmes",
    ed Hugh Greene (former Controller of the BBC), a date of 1891 is
    given as the publication of the 2nd edition of the book containing
    it.

    I've never seen the usage COMMO to denote a communist, only COMMIE.
    
    I've heard "lovely" used as a 2nd person endearment in the West
    Country, as in "What can I do for you, lovely?"
    
    Chris