a lovely word to describe a cant or semi-secret
and of course unwritten language
such as Shelta
and Po[r]lare/Polari/Parlare
a cant derived from performers' Italian
(Commedia del arte; Punch and Judy)
and Romani, as well as some Cockney rhyming-slang
and back-slang (like modern verlan* in French)
which leaked into ordinary English slang with words like
to scarper (to bugger - i.e. run - off) from Italian scappare, to escape or run away
and/or from rhyming slang Scapa Flow** = to go.
A double etymology is bonarissima,
nespa ?
* verlan is an embellished back-formation of envers = back to front, reversed, wrong way round.
** Scapa Flow is a stretch of deep, calm water in the Orkney islands of Northern Scotland, notorious for being a place where ships (British, German) were deliberately sunk (by Germans, British).
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