Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (121 page)

plat
n Australian
a stupid person. The word's origin is uncertain (Eric Partridge derives it from the French
plat
: flat), but the resemblance to
prat
may not be fortuitous.

plate-face
n Australian

someone of ‘Oriental' origin. A derogatory racist term referring to the supposedly wide, flat, round faces of the Mongoloid racial type.

plates (of meat)
n pl British

the
feet
. A well-known example of cockney rhyming slang which is actually still used, although almost always in the shortened form, by working-class Londoners.

I've got to sit down – I've been on me plates all day.

player, playa
n

a person who has multiple and simultaneous sexual partners, ‘a smooth talker who cheats, is stylish'. This vogue term, heard among younger speakers since 2000, probably derives from the notion of ‘playing around' or ‘playing the field'. It probably originated in black US speech.

play footsie
vb

a.
to indulge in amorous or flirtatious caresses with the feet, typically covertly under a table

b.
to flirt with or toy with in a general sense; often in the context of business and commercial relationships

play gooseberry
vb British

to be the unwanted third person present at a romantic assignation, as a chaperone, uninvited guest or unwitting intruder. The expression dates from the 19th century: in the language of parents and children ‘gooseberry' then, as now, denoted a buffoon or figure of fun, possibly from the supposedly comic appearance of the fruit or its sour taste.

play hardball
vb American

to behave in a tough, unrelenting or uncompromising way. A phrase used for instance among business people, politicians, sportsmen, etc. from the 1960s, and now heard outside the United States. A metaphor taken from baseball, where a hard ball is used by professionals and a soft one by juniors and amateurs.

play hooky
vb American

to play truant. Hooky (or ‘hookey') is related to the cockney
hook it
: ‘to take to one's heels', escape.

playing away
n British

indulging in extra-marital or illicit sex. The use of the phrase was particularly apposite
when referring to sports celebrities such as David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Sven Goran Eriksson in 2004.

‘Unlucky in love, Kylie was furious last night after lover Olivier Martinez was caught playing away with Hollywood babe Michelle Rodriguez.'
(
Daily Star
, 29 July 2004)

play the arse
vb British

a.
to behave foolishly

b.
to behave in a truculent,
arsey
manner

play the whale
vb Australian

to vomit. The image is of a whale spouting.

pleb
n

a plebeian, member of the lower classes. A fashionable term in Britain in the early 1960s when class-consciousness preceded ‘consciousness-expanding' among the educated young.

plex
vb Jamaican and British

a synonym for
flex
in its slang sense, used by gang members since the mid-noughties decade

plod, the plod
n British

the police force or a uniformed policeman. From ‘P.C. Plod', a character from the popular children's stories featuring Noddy, written by Enid Blyton in the 1950s. The term additionally evokes a slow-witted, literal and figurative plodder in a civilian context.

plonk
n British

1.
wine, especially cheap wine. The word usually refers to red wine, although it was originally a corruption of
vin blanc
coined by British soldiers in France during World War I.

2.
a woman police officer. An item of derogatory police slang (from
plonker
) recorded by the
Evening Standard
magazine, February 1993.

plonker
n British

1.
the penis. A term probably influenced by ‘plonk (down)' in the sense of place down heavily or present defiantly. The word has been in use since early in the 20th century. It was rarely heard during the 1960s and 1970s but was revived during the 1980s vogue for ‘schoolboy' vulgarity.

‘If she's game and wants your plonker wear a Jiffi so you can bonk her.'
(Promotion slogan for
Jiffi
condoms, 1988)

2.
a
dickhead
. Inspired by the previous sense of the word and by the suggestion in ‘plonk' of ponderous or clumsy movement, this usage became a vogue term of the late 1980s.

‘You end up shouting at the people who care about yer, not to the plonkers who treat you like dirt.'
(
EastEnders
, British TV soap opera, 1989)

3.
a gaffe or blunder

4.
a kiss, particularly a heavy
smacker

plook, pluke
n Scottish

a spot or pimple on the skin,
zit
. The etymology of the word is obscure.

plop(s)
n British

excreta. A humorous nursery term sometimes used facetiously by adults.

plotting
n British

chilling out
. In this sense the word was in use among South London schoolchildren in 2010.

plough
vb

to have sex (with). The word is used in multiethnic youth slang and perhaps only coincidentally by some adults, too.

ploughed, plowed
adj American

drunk. One of many terms evoking an image of laid low, crushed or destroyed.
Blitzed
,
smashed
,
legless
, etc. are others on this theme.

p.l.u.
n British

‘people like us'. An old upper-class code term of approbation and social discrimination, still used occasionally.

I'm afraid they're not really quite p.l.u.

plum
n British

a foolish person. Synonyms are the less common
pear
and
peach
. The widespread term was recorded in use amongst junior schoolchildren in the 1980s and among teenage North London schoolboys in the 1990s.

plums
n pl

the testicles. One of many examples of fruit as a sexual metaphor.

plunge
vb British

to stab. An item of London argot in use by the older generation of professional criminals.

‘…I have been told that the new word for stabbed is “nanked”. I know it used to be “jerked”. I would have probably said “plunged” as in “he copped for him and plunged him”.'
(Recorded, white South London criminal, 2011)

plunker
n American

a condom

po
n British

a chamber-pot, potty, toilet. Now a dated nursery word, po was used by adults until the 1960s. The word is an imitation of the French pronunciation of
pot (de chambre)
.

pocket billiards/pool
n

(of a man) manipulation of one's genitals through the trouser pockets. The first phrase is British, the second the American version.

pod
n American

marihuana. A dated term derived from the seedheads found in herbal cannabis.

pods
n pl British

the testicles. This use of the word has been popularised by
Viz
comic.

pog
n British

a synonym for
chav
recorded in 2004

pogged
adj British

replete, full after eating. The expression, which may originate in dialect, is heard mainly in the north of England.

Properly pogged, I am.

pogie, pogey, pogy
n American

the female sex organs. The word is probably derived from the obsolete ‘pogie' or ‘pogue', which denoted a male homosexual, hence sexual activity in general.

point percy at the porcelain
vb

to urinate. An expression invented by Barry Humphries which, via the comic strip
The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie
, has passed into common currency in Britain as well as Australia.
Percy
is one of many common personifications of the male member.

pointy-head
n American

an intellectual or person of excessive refinement. The expression has been used in the USA since the late 1960s by the self-consciously philistine or genuinely uncultured in expressing contempt for political or social pundits, artists, academics, etc.

poke
n

1.
an act of sexual intercourse. Poke shares this sexual sense with
bang
,
boff
,
knock
, etc., which are all synonyms for strike.

2.
a punch, blow. A specialised sense of the standard English word poke meaning to prod (having the same meaning as the Middle Dutch
poken
).

pokies
n pl

the outlines of female nipples as seen through clothing, in the language of pornographers, paparazzi, fashion and media journalists

polack
n

a Polish person. The slang term, often pejorative in American usage, is, minus the e, the word for Pole in the Polish language.

polari
n

a variant form of
parlyaree
widely used, e.g. on the internet, since the 1990s.
Palari
is an alternative form.

polisher
n

a toady, ingratiating person, obsequious flatterer. A London working-class term also briefly in vogue in the media in the early 1980s. It is a truncated form of the (originally American)
apple-polisher
(from the image of a schoolchild presenting an apple to a teacher in order to curry favour).

Polish fire drill
n American

a chaotic situation, bungled operation, mess. A supposedly jocular expression heard in adult speech since the 1970s. (Polish may, in US slang, play the part that Irish or Egyptian have traditionally played in British racist jokes.)

polluted
adj American

drunk. A probably ephemeral campus and
preppie
term.

polone, poloni
n British

a woman, female. A near-obsolete term of theatrical and showman's slang, dating from the 19th century. The word is an example of non-Italian
parlyaree
, ultimately derived from
beluñi
, a Spanish gypsy term for an (immoral) woman.

See also
omipolone

Pom
n Australian

a native of Britain, especially an Englishman. The word is a shortening of the earlier term
Pommy
.

Pomgolia
n

an alternative form of
Pongolia

Pommy, Pommie
n
,
adj Australian

(a person who is) British. The standard, and usually derogatory, slang term for natives of or immigrants from the British Isles, Pommy is probably a corruption of ‘pomegranate', chanted as a humorous semi-rhyme for ‘immigrant'. The epithet has been in use since the first decade of the 20th century. The noun is now probably more common in the form
Pom
.

pom-pom
n Jamaican

the vagina. The word was used in the lyrics to ragga music.

ponce
n British

1.
a pimp, procurer. This sense of the word was first recorded in the late 19th century.

2a.
an ostentatious, effeminate male

2b.
a parasite, ‘sponger', idler

Ponce derives either from the standard English ‘pounce', or possibly from the French
pensionnaire
, in the sense of a nonpaying guest. In its first and literal sense, ponce is virtually standard English (used by the police force among others). The following senses are terms of contempt directed at individuals thought to be showy, smugly idle or parasitic.

ponce (off someone)
vb British

to take advantage (of someone), borrow or cadge (from someone). A widespread usage derived from the noun.

Can I ponce a fag off you?

ponce around/about
vb British

to behave in a showy and/or irresponsible manner. A usage based on the noun,
ponce
.

ponced-up
adj British

smartly dressed or overdressed. From the noun
ponce
(a pimp, idler or show-off).

pond scum, pond life
n

a contemptible, worthless person or people. Originating in American usage in the 1980s, this more colourful rendering of the colloquial ‘low-life' became widespread in all English-speaking areas in the 1990s.

Compare
bottom-feeder

pong
¹
vb
,
n British