"Polari" meaning in English

See Polari in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

IPA: /pəˈlɑːri/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Polari.wav Forms: Palare [alternative], Palari [alternative], Palarie [alternative], Parlare [alternative], Parlary [alternative], Parlyaree [alternative]
Etymology: Borrowed from Polari, from Italian parlare (“to talk”). The loss of the first r and the changing vowel quality of the non-stressed vowels is due to the non-rhotic UK accent which reinterpreted the phonemes. The adoption of the infinitive form means that the word probably originated from a Romance-based creole or pidgin like Sabir. First use in English appears c. 1846, in the writings of Lord Chief Baron. Etymology templates: {{bor+|en|pld|-}} Borrowed from Polari, {{der|en|it|parlare||to talk}} Italian parlare (“to talk”), {{der|en|pml|-}} Sabir Head templates: {{en-proper noun}} Polari
  1. A cant used in the London fishmarkets, in the British theatre, and by the gay community in Britain, attested since at least the 19th century and popularised in the 1950s and 1960s by the camp characters Julian and Sandy in the popular BBC radio show Round the Horne. Translations (Gay community slang): polari [masculine] (French), καλιαρντά (kaliarntá) [neuter, plural] (Greek), polari [masculine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-Polari-en-name-fP~oARhu Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with French translations, Terms with Greek translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 57 43 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 53 47 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 52 48 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 50 50 Disambiguation of Terms with Greek translations: 54 46 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 49 51 Disambiguation of 'Gay community slang': 58 42
  2. A cant used by travelling showmen in Britain. Related terms: Parlyaree, polari
    Sense id: en-Polari-en-name-3L6ijg-t Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with French translations, Terms with Greek translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 53 47 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 52 48 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 50 50 Disambiguation of Terms with Greek translations: 54 46 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 49 51

Alternative forms

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        "A cant used in the London fishmarkets, in the British theatre, and by the gay community in Britain, attested since at least the 19th century and popularised in the 1950s and 1960s by the camp characters Julian and Sandy in the popular BBC radio show Round the Horne."
      ],
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      "word": "polari"
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      "word": "καλιαρντά"
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      ],
      "word": "polari"
    }
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    "Polari"
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}

Download raw JSONL data for Polari meaning in English (2.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (db0bec0 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.