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Oh, and yob, too

Posted by Gary on October 16, 2003

In Reply to: Oh, and yob, too posted by pdianek on October 16, 2003

: I've been following Blunkett's and The Sun's resolve to rid the UK of domestic terrorism, and wonder about the word "yob". Origin? -- from "boy" spelled backwards? Pronounced to rhyme with "hob"?

: Wish we had ASBO's here, because naming a thing helps. If the only thing a society chooses to do is wait until horribly criminal action occurs, the waste is enormous.

Yes, yob is generally accepted to have originated as backslang. There are many such forms of 'secret code' dialects in the UK. They were usually originated by criminals or children, or anyone who wanted to talk in a way that the authorities couldn't follow.

One other example is egg langauge. In that boy would become beggoyegg.

BTW what's ASBO?

  • ASBO Henry 16/October/03

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