Wacko Jacko’s mad dash to court in his pyjamas is said to have let the cat out of the bag on his syrup.
Photos of the star’s bonce appeared to show a mesh cap with false hair sewn in.
What the heck does this mean?
Wacko Jacko’s mad dash to court in his pyjamas is said to have let the cat out of the bag on his syrup.
Photos of the star’s bonce appeared to show a mesh cap with false hair sewn in.
What the heck does this mean?
Hello Dianna, I'm very happy that you read the entire thread but am saddened that you remain unfulfilled.
One of the reasons why I love to read The Sun is because I enjoy studying our English language and it's many variations, colloquialisms and dialects that exist within our own country as well as that in English-speaking cultures elsewhere. Great Britain has a version of English all it's own (our British Friends may argue that theirs is the 'correct' version and ours is the 'damaged' one) and I'm sure that you're familiar with some of the spelling variations such as spelling 'color' as 'colour'. The United Kingdom also has a proud and ancient tradition of slang, and The Sun enthusiastically uses these expressions at what seems every possible opportunity. To my eyes and ears it makes for quite a captivating read, as it's a reminder of where the story is coming from, who it's being written for, and it also serves to educate me more fully on some of the more subtle aspects of British language, and therefore, culture. In fact, within Great Britain, there are numerous dialects as well, much as here in the USA most of us can spot a Southern Drawl, a Maine or Massachusetts accent and of course the several accents within New York such as the Brooklyn and Bronx; as well as others elsewhere.
When confronted with unknown British slang expressions, there are numerous resources on the web that provide British Slang dictionaries, histories of British slang, usage suggestions and their various etymologies. An easy thing to do is to just Google with search keywords such as "British Slang Dictionary". I did that and here's what I came up with:
A dictionary of slang - S - Slang and colloquialisms of the UK.
| syrup | Noun. A wig. Abb. of the rhyming slang Syrup of Fig; making a comeback into everyday usage. |
A dictionary of slang - B - Slang and colloquialisms of the UK.
| bonce | Noun. The head. |
This may also be of some help, as it deals with the 'rhyming slang' as seen in 'syrup' above:
Cockney Rhyming Slang
Perhaps the most infamous of all the British slang, Cockney Rhyming Slang is a richly complicated, in-the-know type of language. It is said that slang was originally developed by the thieves of London, so that they could communicate without the bobbies understanding what they were saying.
And they were most definitely successful. With the familiar words showing up in unlikely places in a sentence, the uninitiated can only shake their head in bewilderment.
In Cockney Rhyming Slang, a word is represented by a phrase that ends in a rhyme. For example, the word mate rhymes with china plate. So the phrase china plate represents mate. However, in spoken slang, only the beginning of the phrase would remain. So the word china means mate. Simple right?
DO be advised, however, that there are some RATHER bawdy expressions in British slang, just like in our American slang expressions, and you may run across some of these when doing these searches.
I hope that this will be of some help :-)