General
plaster of paris
What does plaster of paris mean?
The arse, reached by a two-step rhyming chain. 'Arse' rhymes with 'bottle and glass' (clipped to 'bottle'), 'bottle' becomes 'Aristotle' (clipped to 'Aris'), and 'Aris' rhymes with 'plaster of Paris'. By the time you say it, nobody outside the East End knows what you mean — which was always the point.
"He fell straight on his plaster of Paris coming out the boozer."
Origin
A famous double-rhyme: arse → bottle and glass → bottle → Aristotle → Aris → plaster of Paris. One of the showiest examples of how deep Cockney rhyming slang stacks.
Frequently asked questions
How does it rhyme with arse?
It doesn't directly. It rhymes with 'Aris', which is short for 'Aristotle', which rhymes with 'bottle', which is short for 'bottle and glass' — which rhymes with arse. Two layers of slang stacked.
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