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Polari is a mixture of Lingua Franca, Italian, Romany, Cockney Rhyming Slang, Parlyaree (a form of slang developed from Cant and used by prostitutes, criminals, beggars, travelling circus people and grafters and backslang, in which common words are pronounced as if spelt backwards. For example, in back slang 'face' becomes 'ecaf', which then became 'eek' in Polari (this gives rise to the archetypical Polari phrase: "How bona to vada your eek!" - "How good to see your face!"). It also contains words from the Jewish subculture which settled in the East End of London, the American airforce (who occupied London during World War II) and 1960s drug-users. It was a constantly developing form of language, with a small core lexicon of about 20 words (including bona, ajax, eek, cod, naff, lattie, nanti, omi, palone, riah, zhoosh, TBH, trade, vada), with over 500 other less well-known items.

Polari was used in London fishmarkets, the theatre and the gay subculture in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, becoming more widely known from its use by two camp characters, Julian and Sandy, in Round the Horne, a popular BBC radio show which ran from 1964 to 1969. It grew up primarily to disguise homosexual activity from potentially hostile outsiders (such as undercover policemen), but also because many gay men worked in entertainment (including circuses, hence the many borrowings from Romany in Polari). It was also used extensively in the Merchant Navy, where many gay men joined cruise ships (particularly P&O) as waiters, stewards and entertainers. It was mainly used by campAs an adjective, camp or high camp refers to an ironic appreciation of that which might otherwise be considered outlandish or corny, such as Carmen Miranda with her tutti frutti hats. The term is often applied to popular culture events that are particular or effeminate gay men, who tended to come from working classThe term working class is used to denote a social class. The definition of the term "working class" is controversial, and depends on the politics and period of the person making the definition and on the society being discussed. For example, pre-war Briti backgrounds. In a sense, they had the least to lose by being "out".

Polari had begun to fall into disuse by the late 1960s, the popularity of Julian and Sandy ensured that this secret language was public property, and the gay liberationists of the 1970s viewed it as rather degrading, divisive and politically incorrect (a lot of it was used to gossip about or criticise people, as well as discussing sexual exploits). Since the mid-1990s, with the redistribution of tapes and cds of Round the Horne and increasing academic interest, Polari was undergone a slight revival. It will probably never die out completely, but new words are continually being invented and updated to refer to more recent cultural concepts - for example, the recent term "Madonna claw" means an old withered hand. In 2002 two books on Polari were published, Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men, and Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang (both by Paul Baker).

A great many words from polari have entered mainstream slang, such as "naff". This word became famous in the televisionSee TV (disambiguation) for other uses and Television (band) for the rock band Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. The term has come to refer to all the aspects of television p sitcomA sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. Sitcoms usually consist of recurring characters in a format in which there are one or more humorous story lines centred aro PorridgePorridge is a British BBC television sitcom ( 1974 1977), written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and starring Ronnie Barker. In a 2004 BBC poll of the 100 greatest British sitcoms, it was voted number 6. It is set in the fictional "Slade Prison" in Cu in the 1970sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Events and trends, which employed it as an alternative to expletives which were not at the time considered broadcastable. There are a number of possible origins of the term "naff", many based around acronyms (e.g. Not Available For Fucking, Normal As Fuck) - the term was originally used to dismissively refer to heterosexual people. Porridge also introduced a verb sense: "naff off!".

See also: Cockney rhyming slang