Polari (from Italian parlare 'to talk') is a form of slang or cant historically used in Britain by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals and sex workers, and particularly among the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origins,^[2] but it can be traced to at least the 19th century and possibly as early as the 16th century.^[3] Polari has a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppeteers, who traditionally used it to converse.^[4]

Alternative spellings include Parlare, Parlary, Palare, Palarie and Palari.

Polari is a mixture of Romance (Italian^[5] or Mediterranean Lingua Franca), Romani, rhyming slang, sailors' slang and thieves' cant, which later expanded to contain words from Yiddish and 1960s drug subculture slang. It was constantly evolving, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words, including: bona (good),^[6] ajax (nearby), eek (face), cod (bad, in the sense of tacky or vile), naff (bad, in the sense of drab or dull, though borrowed into mainstream British English with a meaning more like that of cod), lattie (room, house, flat), nanti (not, no), omi (man), palone (woman), riah (hair), zhoosh or tjuz (smarten up, stylise), TBH ('to be had', sexually accessible), trade (sex) and vada (see).^[7] There were once two distinct forms of Polari in London: an East End version which stressed Cockney rhyming slang and a West End version which stressed theatrical and classical influences. There was some interchange between the two.^[8]

From the 19th century on, Polari was used in London fish markets, theatres, fairgrounds, and circuses, hence the many borrowings from Romani.^[9] As many homosexual men worked in theatrical entertainment, it was also used among the gay subculture to disguise homosexuals from hostile outsiders and undercover policemen. It was also used extensively in the British Merchant Navy, where many gay men worked as waiters, stewards, and entertainers.^[10]

Although William Shakespeare used the term bona (good, attractive) in Henry IV, Part 2 as part of the expression bona roba (a woman wearing an attractive outfit),^[11] "little written evidence of Polari before the 1890s" exists according to Oxford English Dictionary associate editor Peter Gilliver. The dictionary's entry for rozzer (policeman) includes a quote from P. H. Emerson's 1893 book Signor Lippo – Burnt Cork Artiste:^[12] "If the rozzers was to see him in bona clobber they'd take him for a gun" ("If the police were to see him dressed in this fine manner, they would know that he is a thief").^[11]

The almost identical Parlyaree has been spoken in fairgrounds since at least the 17th century^[13] and is still used by show travellers in England and Scotland. As theatrical booths, circus acts, and menageries were once common parts of European fairs, it is likely that the roots of Polari/Parlyaree lie in the period before both theatre and circus became independent of fairgrounds. The Parlyaree spoken on fairgrounds tends to borrow much more from Romani, as well as other languages and cants spoken by travelling people, such as thieves' cant and back slang.

Henry Mayhew gave an account of Polari as part of an interview with a Punch and Judy showman in the 1850s. The discussion he recorded references Punch's arrival in England, crediting these early shows to an Italian performer called Porcini (John Payne Collier's account calls him Porchini, a literal rendering of the Italian pronunciation).^[14] Mayhew provides the following:

Punch Talk

"Bona Parle" means language; name of patter. "Yeute munjare" – no food. "Yeute lente" – no bed. "Yeute bivare" – no drink. I've "yeute munjare", and "yeute bivare", and, what's worse, "yeute lente". This is better than the costers' talk, because that ain't no slang and all, and this is a broken Italian, and much higher than the costers' lingo. We know what o'clock it is, besides.^[4]

There are additional accounts of particular words that relate to puppet performance: "'Slumarys' – figures, frame, scenes, properties. 'Slum' – call, or unknown tongue"^[4] ("unknown" is a reference to the "swazzle", a voice modifier used by Punch performers).

• James Thomson added a glossary of words he thought "obsolete" in his 1825 work The Seasons and Castle of Indolence.^{[clarification needed]} He chose to write "Castle of Indolence" "In the manner of Edmund Spenser". Two words he thought needed explaining were "eke", meaning "also", pronounced like Polari's "eek" (face); and "gear or geer", meaning "furniture, equipage, dress". The latter is still used in slang and has thus avoided obsolescence.
• Polari (spelt "Polare") was popularised on the 1960s BBC radio show Round the Horne. The camp gay Polari-speaking characters Julian and Sandy were played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams.^[25]
• In the Doctor Who serial Carnival of Monsters (1973), Vorg, a showman, attempts to converse with the Doctor in Polari.^[26]
• Ralph Filthy, a theatrical agent played by Nigel Planer in the BBC TV series Filthy Rich & Catflap, regularly used Polari.
• In 1990 Morrissey released the single "Piccadilly Palare" containing a number of lyrics in Polari and exploring a subculture in which Polari was used. "Piccadilly Palare" later appeared on his compilation album Bona Drag, whose title is also taken from Polari.
• In 1990, in Issue #35 of Grant Morrison's run of Doom Patrol, the character Danny the Street is introduced; they speak English heavily flavoured with Polari, with "bona to vada" ("good to see [you]") being their favourite way to greet friends.
• In the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, two characters speak Polari in a London nightclub. The scene has English subtitles.
• In 2002, two books on Polari were published, Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men and Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang, both by Paul Baker.
• In 2015, filmmakers Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston made Putting on the Dish, a short film with dialogue entirely in Polari.^[27]
• The 2016 David Bowie album Blackstar contains a song, "Girl Loves Me", that uses Polari and Nadsat in its lyrics.^[28]
• In 2017, a service at Westcott House, Cambridge was conducted in Polari. Trainee priests held the service to commemorate LGBT History Month; following media attention, Chris Chivers, the principal, expressed his regret.^{[29][30][31][32]}
• In the 2017 EP Ricky, gay singer Sakima used Polari.^[33]
• In 2019, the first opera in Polari, The Sins of the Cities of the Plain (based on the book of the same title), premiered at Espacio Turina in Seville, Spain. The libretto was written in Polari by librettist and playwright Fabrizio Funari and the music is by Germán Alonso. Niño de Elche played the main role. The opera was produced and performed by instrumental ensemble Proyecto OCNOS, formed by Pedro Rojas-Ogáyar and Gustavo A. Domínguez Ojalvo, with the support of ICAS Sevilla, Fundación BBVA and The Librettist.^[34]
• The same year, the English-language localisation of the Japanese video game Dragon Quest Builders 2 included a character called Jules, who spoke in Polari with non-standard capitalisation.^[35][36]
• In 2019, Reaktion Books published Fabulosa!: The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language, by Paul Baker.^[37][38]
• In the 2020 film Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse, a young Roald Dahl, running away from home, meets a man (played by Bill Bailey) who speaks in Polari.
• Richard Milward's 2023 novel Man-Eating Typewriter is written almost entirely in Polari, in the form of fictional memoirs by the character Raymond M. Novak.
• In the fourth episode of Funny Woman (2024), characters discuss BBC Radio using Polari in Round the Horne and visit a comedy club where gay and entertainment-industry characters converse in Polari.

Numbers:

Some words or phrases that may derive from Polari (this is an incomplete list):

• African-American Vernacular English (sometimes called Ebonics)
• Bahasa Binan
• Boontling
• Caló (Chicano)
• Carny, North American fairground cant
• Gayle language
• Gay slang
• Grypsera
• IsiNgqumo
• Lavender linguistics
• Lunfardo and Vesre
• Mediterranean Lingua Franca
• Pajubá
• Julian and Sandy
• Rotwelsch
• Shelta
• Swardspeak, argot used by LGBT people in the Philippines
• Verlan
• Lubunca