Palone

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: en, /pəˈləʊni/, /pəˈləʊn/

Alternative forms

• polony

Origin

Of uncertain origin; common in Polari slang but with no clear source.

Full definition of palone

Noun

1. (Polari and other slang) A young woman, a girl.
• 1938, Graham Greene, Brighton Rock:‘I don't need a razor with a polony. If you want to know what it is, it's a bottle.’
• 1944, Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, volume 23-4:To nomads the road is the ‘drag,’ a man a ‘homey,’ a woman a ‘palone,’ a fair a ‘gaff,’ and a shop a ‘lolly’ (curtailed rhyming slang: lollipop = shop), but English Gypsies still use drom, mush, manushi, weggorus, and budiga.

Derived terms

• omi-palone, palone-omi

Related terms

• eau de Cologne Cockney rhyming slang

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