Celebrity Lingo Enters The Mainstream

Of all the trappings that go with fame, this must rank as one of the least welcome. Rhyming slang is increasingly peppered with references to famous folk, and has become enough of a social phenomena to warrant a new book.

For many in the spotlight their move into everyday conversation is a badge of honour and will almost certainly, in the case of Pete Tong (wrong) or Gianluca Vialli (charlie; cocaine), outlast their careers.

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Others, such as Melvyn Bragg, who finds himself twinned with shag, and Belinda Carlisle, whose name is used to mean piles, may be more ambivalent.

According to a new Collins guide, Shame about the Boat Race, newer celebrities are simply replacing old, so Tony rather than Lionel Blair is increasingly used to refer to flares, and the footballer Billy Wright is superseded by soul singer Barry White as the link to "shite".

Cormac McKeown, an editor at Collins, said the number of modern celebrities in rhyming slang had increased in the past decade.

"Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels made geezer chic big in the 1990s and it was then that this ersatz cockney slang developed," he said. "A lot of the celebrities in rhyming slang 100 years ago would have been music hall stars who would have been very famous but only in the confines of the London area. Now it's opened up with figures from around the world, such a Britney Spears."

Much of the new rhyming slang is pretty coarse, revolving around drinking (Paul Weller/Stella; Winona Ryder/cider) and bodily functions (Wallace and Gromit/vomit), but it was ever thus, according to McKeown.

"It's purpose has always been to disguise and spare blushes. In the past there were lots of racial slurs which were hidden by rhyming slang. Now it's fairly tongue-in-cheek and it's got a register of its own. People are often being ironic when they use it."

While some names have an oblique relevance to the rhyming object (Brad Pitt/fit; Fatboy Slim/gym) most of the connections are incongruous. "It's linguistic frippery," said McKeown.

At least it adds richness and intrigue to crude, everyday language. After all, it is more interesting to say: "I left my Clare Rayners [trainers] down the Fatboy Slim [gym] so I was late for the Basil Fawlty [balti]. The Andy McNab [cab] cost me an Ayrton Senna [tenner] but it didn't stop me getting the Britney Spears [beers] in. Next thing you know it turned into a Gary Player [all-dayer] and I was off my Chevy Chase [face]."