To show just how quickly and inventively Londoners produce slang, here's a question:

A supermarket chain to the East of London, in Essex, where the descendants of the old,now extinct Cockneys, are found is selling men's suits at a very good price (£30, about $50 ). The locals instantly called these 'Henrys '. Why ? [Clue: the name used is American in origin ]

I'll take a wild stab: "Henrys" = Henry Fords, rhymes with "cords", short for corduroys. Do they make suits out of corduroy?

In the US, they sold corduroy suits to instructors of history and American lit in small colleges.

...with patches sewn on the elbows, right?

Yep.

Cockney is really extinct now? I guess it's kind of a hard thing to keep up?

It's more likely to be rhyming slang for "Henry Root"

Henry Root, who retired at 45 having made a fortune in wet fish, was not a real person, though many thought he was. Root was the alter ego of William Donaldson, author and satirist, who used Root as a vehicle through which to prick the egos of the great and the good of late 1970s Britain.

The American connection could be to the Surveyor and engineer, Henry Root, who was with the Central Railroad in the 19th Century.
He wrote very funny letters to self important people in public life.

quote:

Originally posted by Professor:
I'll take a wild stab: "Henrys" = Henry Fords, rhymes with "cords", short for corduroys. Do they make suits out of corduroy?

It's the right man but the wrong explanation.

The explanation is that Henry Ford mass produced things that were cheap and " You can have any color so long as it's black". So these suits which are cheap, mass produced and presently, at any rate, available in only one colour viz. a business suit 'black' are called 'Henry Fords' or 'Henrys'.

This may be a little more obvious to people in that part of Essex/ Greater London, than to most. The Ford Motor Company had an enormous factory at Dagenham, which employed many a local, so we may imagine that familarity with his supposed response to Mr Chrysler's coloured cars, is greater there than elsewhere

And yes, you can get corduroy suits. I own three, two of them are black and two were bought in the rue d'Antibes in Cannes, which is certainly not a street noted for academic fustian: perhaps they were a fashion item at the time The third was bought in Cambridge, which most certainly is noted for such apparel. I haven't got round to having leather elbow patches sewn on to it yet.That is obligatory, to show status as one who by constant abrasion on reading desks over decades, wears through the elbows of jackets or coats (or who anticipates such wear and protects the garment in advance).

Yes Jusork Cockneys are extinct and so is 'Cockney' in that nobody in London calls themself 'cockney', unless addressing tourists or outsiders who still expect the term. The descendants of the people who populated the old East End are now found further out to the East. However the language which they use, used indeed over much of Essex as well as other parts where they have settled,still shows the original thinking and wit that gave us old Cockney. It is modern Cockney, if you will, and its slang, its new words and its phrases often become part of the wider language of Southern England. So rhyming slang still gets created, almost invariably with some more or less obscure cultural allusion and the 'language' continues to revive old, forgotten words e.g chav ( originally from Romany) as well as import new ones from ethnic communities and foreigners . That too it always did: shufti for 'a peek, look or glance' comes to mind (it's from Arabic )

Yeah, because who's Henry Fords?

Ah, I see. Thanks, Fred.

Rhyming slang is also alive and well in Glasgow. Who can guess what a 'septic' is?

An American.

Septic tank, Yank...my Aussie pen pal used to tease me with that.

Some Glaswegian slang keeps the rhyming word, but is still difficult for 'outsiders' to get.

How about 'corn beef'? Even more obscure is 'Vera Lynn', which I've only ever heard my father-in-law use.

A "Vera" or a "Vera Lynn" as used by your father in law is probably a gin. It is also used in other circumstances as slang for "heroin" and also as "skin" (as in a cigarette paper)
Just found out that the expression is "corn beef" and it means "teeth"

"Corned beef" is Glaswegian slang for deaf! I wouldn't believe my Glaswegian friend when she first told me many years ago until she pointed out that they pronounce deaf as dief.

A Vera Lynn is cockney rhyming slang for gin. I vaguely remember that in 'Glasgae' it's the rhyming slang for 'skin', as in a cigarette paper. (But don't take that as gospel as my old memory isn't what it was!)

Yes, 'deaf' - pronounced 'deef'. 'Vera Lynn' is actually 'blind' - pronounced 'blin' (to rhyme with 'flint', but with almost no 't' sound).

I guess Cockneys would say 'teef'.