Here's a quick question, then. The barchap in the pub earlier, being of the pinker persuasion
was telling us that 'Queen' refers to the current monarch, whereas the correct spelling for a gay chap is 'Quean' based on Polari or somesuch. Is that a true thing at all? The internets say that the latter refers to ... a lady of negotiable affection, shall we say ...
(BrianHequator was stretching owls, on, or around, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 2:31, 2 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

Quean is actually an Elizabethan term
for a king's whore/mistress type I believe. I could be wrong.

Polari isn't actually that commonly used nowadays as gay slang though
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 2:34, Reply)

that faggot was talking out of his arse

( Sir Sand GOBLIN ^popular page dis, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 2:40, Reply)

Humph. I shall have a word next time.
Though I still remember the line from "Round the Horne" where Julian and Sandy got shipwrecked, and our Ken said "My word, that sounds terrible. Were you dragged up on deck?"

Answered, by Julian, saying "Oh no, we were in our civvies, weren't we Sands?"

Suit yourselves. ;-)
(BrianHequator was stretching owls, on, or around, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 2:48, Reply)

i do not know what any of that means.
what is "round the home" for starters?
( Sir Sand GOBLIN ^popular page dis, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 2:55, Reply)

Ah. OK. Right.
Have a gander at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_the_Horne for starters. I'm not so ancient as to have listened to it on the wireless as a nipper, but I remember hearing clips and seeing bits of it referred to on TV.

Being late sixties, the writers managed to get a fair bit of what (then) would probably have been rather close to the knuckle into the script using Polari so that the more knowing listeners would have a bloody good laugh, and the more straight-laced types have a giggle at the funny words. It's worth a listen.

Bona nochy, coves ...
(BrianHequator was stretching owls, on, or around, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 3:04, Reply)

bear in mind, my dad was probably too young to remember that,
not to make you feel old or anything but you are
( Sir Sand GOBLIN ^popular page dis, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 3:07, Reply)

*swats you with Freedom Pass*

(BrianHequator was stretching owls, on, or around, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 3:10, Reply)