Polari Glossary

Researchers at the University of Cambridge recently warned that Polari, a old code language adopted by the gay community in the U.K. until the 1970s, could soon be extinct. Here's a short glossary from WikiPedia.

ajax	nearby (from adjacent?)
alamo	hot for you/him
aunt nell	listen, hear
aunt nells	ears
aunt nelly fakes	earrings
aunt nell danglers	earrings
barney	a fight
basket	the bulge of male genitals through clothes
batts	shoes
bibi	bisexual
bitch	effeminate or passive gay man
bijou	small/little (means "jewel" in French)
blag	pick up
blue	code word for "homosexual"
bod	body
bona	good bona nochy — goodnight (from Italian - buona notte)
bonaroo	wonderful, excellent
bungery	pub
butch	masculine; masculine lesbian
buvare	a drink (from Italian - bere or old-fashioned Italian - bevere or Lingua Franca bevire)
cackle	talk/gossip
camp	it|campare "exaggerate, make stand out")
capello/capella	hat (from Italian - cappello)
carsey	toilet, also spelt khazi
carts/cartso	penis (from Italian - cazzo)
cats	trousers
charper	to search (from Italian - chiappare - to catch)
charpering omi	policeman
charver	to shag/a shag (sexual intercourse) (from Italian - chiavare)
chicken	young man
clobber	clothes
cod	naff, vile
cottage	a public lavatory used for sexual encounters
cottaging	seeking or obtaining sexual encounters in public lavatories
cove	friend
crimper	hairdresser
dally	sweet, kind. Possibly an alternate pronunciation of dolly.
dilly boy	a male prostitute
dinari	money (perhaps from Italian denaro)
dish	butt(ocks)
dolly	pretty, nice, pleasant
dona	woman (perhaps from Italian donna or Lingua Franca dona)
dorcas	term of endearment, 'one who cares'. The Dorcas Society was a ladies' church association of the nineteenth century, which made clothes for the poor.
drag	clothes, esp. women's clothes (prob from Romani — indraka — skirt)
doss	bed
ecaf	face (backslang)
eek	face (abbreviation of ecaf)
ends	hair
esong	nose (backslang)
fantabulosa	fabulous/wonderful
feele/freely/filly	child/young
fruit	queen
funt	pound
gelt	money (Yiddish)
handbag	money
hoofer	dancer
HP (homy polone)	effeminate gay man
jarry	food, also mangarie (from Italian mangiare or Lingua Franca mangiaria)
jubes	breasts
kaffies	trousers
khazi	toilet, also spelt carsey
lacoddy	body
lallies (lylies)	legs
lallie tappers	feet
latty/lattie	room, house or flat
lills	hands
lilly	police (Lilly Law)
lyles	legs (prob. from "Lisle stockings")
lucoddy	body
luppers	fingers (Yiddish — lapa — paw)
mangarie	food, also jarry (from Italian mangiare or Lingua Franca mangiaria)
martinis	hands
measures	money
meese	plain, ugly (from Yiddish "meeiskeit, in turn from Hebrew מָאוּס repulsive, loathsome, despicable, abominable)
meshigener	nutty, crazy, mental (from Yiddish, in turn from Hebrew מְשֻׁגָּע crazy)
metzas	money (Italian -mezzi "means, wherewithal")
mince	walk (affectedly)
naff	awful, dull, hetero
nanti	not, no, none (Italian — niente)
national handbag	dole, welfare, government financial assistance
ogle	look, admire
ogles	eyes
oglefakes	glasses
omi	man (from Romance)
omi-palone	effeminate man, or homosexual
onk	nose (cf "conk")
orbs	eyes
palare pipe	telephone ("talk pipe")
palliass	back
park, parker	give
plate	feet; to fellate
palone	woman (Italian paglione - "straw mattress", [viz. old Cant "hay-bag" = woman])
palone-omi	lesbian
pots	teeth
remould	sex change
riah/riha	hair (backslang)
riah zhoosher	hairdresser
rough trade	a working class or blue collar sex partner or potential sex partner; a tough, thuggish or potentially violent sex partner
scarper	to run off (from Italian scappare, to escape or run away or from rhyming slang Scapa Flow, to go)
schlumph	drink
scotch	leg (scotch egg=leg)
screech	mouth, speak
sharpy	policeman (from — charpering omi)
sharpy polone	policewoman
shush	steal (from client)
shush bag	hold-all
shyker/shyckle	wig (mutation of the Yiddish sheitel)
slap	makeup
so	homosexual (e.g. "Is he 'so'?")
stimps	legs
stimpcovers	stockings, hosiery
strides	trousers
strillers	piano
switch	wig
thews	thighs
tober	road
todd (Sloanne)	alone
tootsie trade	sex between two passive homosexuals (as in: 'I don't do tootsie trade')
trade	sex, sex-partner, potential sex-partner
troll	to walk about (esp. looking for trade)
vada/varder	to see (from Italian — dialect vardare = guardare - look at) vardered — vardering
vera (lynn)	gin
vogue	cigarette (from Lingua Franca — fogus - "fire, smoke")
vogueress	female smoker
willets	breasts
yews	(from French "yeux") eyes
zhoosh	style hair, tart up, mince (Romani - "zhouzho" - clean, neat) zhoosh our riah — style our hair
zhooshy	showy