Polari

noun

Po·​lari pō-ˈlär-ē 

: a slang lexicon used mostly among gay men and lesbians in Britain

Note: Polari has its roots in the argot of theatrical and circus performers.

Polari flourished in the difficult years between the trial of Oscar Wilde and the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. It was a kind of code, which enabled one gay man to identify another, allowed them to express themselves publicly without fear of arrest or reprisal and provided a vocabulary for talking about gay sex and sexuality.

—Colin Richardson

Polari made a game out of words, borrowing and twisting the grammars of the margins—Italian slang, Romani, cockney, Yiddish, and circus-speak …

—Mike Dressel

Some speakers were so adept at talking in Polari that it sometimes resembled a language rather than a vocabulary.

—Paul Baker

Polari's ghost lingers in queer slang today. Words like camp, butch … and drag—now globalised terms within LGBTQ+ lexicons—carry traces of Polari's syntax and sensibility.

—Sasha Brandt

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Polari, earlier pallary, parlyaree "speech, language, the Polari speech register," derivative of palarie "to speak, talk, speak using Polari," probably borrowed from Italian parlare "to speak" — more at parlando

First Known Use

1967, in the meaning defined above