Barney Rubble. ---was: dime

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

But this *is* Cockney(-style) rhyming slang.  Very much so.  There's the rhyme, the shortening ("Barney" from "Barney Rubble," just like "butcher's" from "butcher's hook" = a look, e.g. "Take a butcher's at this."
And occasionally Cockney rhyming slang has a semantic justification too, e.g. "apples and pears" (stairs),
with the imagery of a fruit stand in which the fruit is arranged in a graded fashion, like stairs.

Gerald Cohen

Message from Wilson Gray,  Thu 1/5/2012 8:22 PM:

This isn't Cockney(-style?) rhyming slang, then?

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain


On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 9:05 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Barney Rubble. ---was: dime
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But "Barney Rubble" does seem to make sense. Â He's the character in the Flinststones cartoons, and from the little I remember of them, Barney was always getting into trouble. Â Or do I remember it wrong?
> Gerald Cohen
>
> Original message from Victor Steinbok, Thu 1/5/2012 12:47 AM:
> <snip>
> To me, this makes about as much sense as the following exchange in, I
> believe, Oceans Eleven:
> "You're in Barney."
> "Say what?"
> "Barney--Barney Rubble... You're in trouble. Get it?"
> "No."
>
> Or something like that...
>
> This is no longer a singular case of "in Barney"
>
> http://goo.gl/F8rWg
>>
>> Â  Â  <name> pulls a bone shard out of the organ grinder and stabs him
>> Â  Â  for X damage, shouting "Stick that up yer Khyber, ya chav!".
>> Â  Â  <name> says "You're in Barney now!" and scrapes all the grease off
>> Â  Â  the bottom of his pie oven, then smears it on her for X damage.
>>
>
> http://goo.gl/wMtaq
>> Jabba you're in Barney! Rubble! Trouble!!! (different movie reference!)
>
> http://goo.gl/YFOVy
>> All of you familiar with the original Getaway will be even more
>> impressed with the sequel. All of you who did not enjoy the original,
>> well, you're in Barney.
>> ...Barney Rubble. Trouble! Fuckit.
>
> http://goo.gl/vslbu
>> Lesson Learned: If you're in "barney," you're in trouble.
>
> This hidden rhyming euphemism still makes no sense to me. But I hear
> it's popular in London (at least two separate sources suggest this!).
>
> VS-)
>
>

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