noun General Slang

El-Rig

/ˈɛlrɪɡ/ · noun · slang

Cockney back-slang for 'girl' — 'girl' reversed and split to make it speakable.

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Definitions

1

Used among traders to flag a young customer or a sweetheart without naming her openly.

“He's only minding that pitch to be near a certain el-rig.”
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2

A daughter or a young female helper working a family barrow.

“His el-rig sold flowers at the corner while he ran the fruit.”
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3

A girl or young woman. From 'girl' reversed; because a straight reversal ('lrig') is hard to say, costermongers broke and softened it into 'el-rig', a good example of back-slang bending phonetics to fit the mouth.

“The el-rig minding the next stall called the prices louder than anyone.”
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El-Rig In A Sentence

A bright el-rig can out-shout any grown man down the market.
He bought a ribbon for his el-rig with the last of his yennep.
The el-rigs of the family learned the back-slang before they could read.

Origin & Usage

Cockney costermonger back-slang of the 1840s ('girl' reversed and adapted for pronunciation), among the people-terms documented by Mayhew (1851) and Hotten (1859); the el-/le- prefix shows how back-slang reshaped awkward reversals into sayable words.

Variants elriglrig
Tags #cockney#back-slang#british#uk#people

People Also Ask

What does el-rig mean?

It means a girl — 'girl' reversed in Cockney back-slang, softened to 'el-rig' so it can actually be said.

Why isn't it just 'lrig'?

A pure reversal of 'girl' is unpronounceable, so back-slang added a vowel and split it, a common move when the strict reversal won't fit the tongue.

How does el-rig pair with nammow?

El-rig is a girl, nammow a woman — the back-slang pair for younger and older females, just as dunop and yennep pair the coins.

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