First off, I understand HOW rhyming slang works, by replacing a word with one from a term that rhymes (i.e. “He’s up the apples”, with ‘apples’ coming from the phrase ‘apples and pears’, where ‘pears’ rhymes with ‘stairs’) but my question is, is there an established “canon” or can you just make up new ones? If so, how does that work?
For instance, if I said, “See you later, mate, I’m going for a Challenger,” how reasonably sure could I be that the listener could follow my logic of ‘Challenger’ from ‘Challenger tank’ rhyming with ‘wank’?
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There’s no canon for any slang. If anyone tells you there is, they’re telling porkies. What “counts” is whatever people understand and repeat. If you wanted to introduce a new slang, it’s best to start with something that a person only has to make one leap to understand. From there, once enough people use that, you can add another layer of complexity.
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