charlie

I. n

1.

British

a foolish person. This innocu-ous word, often encountered in the expression 'a right/proper charlie', is in fact derived from the more vulgar cock-ney rhyming slang Charlie Hunt: cunt. In pre-World War II cockney usage cunt merely meant a fool, rather than the modern sense of a thoroughly unpleasant person.

2.

cocaine. A euphemism from the inter-national alphabet designation for the let-ter 'C', or simply a nickname. (The full form of the proper name, Charles, is occasionally used, usually facetiously, in Britain in this sense of the word.)

► 'She came steaming into the room when I had a massive great pile of charlie drying out on the floor.' (News of the World, 29 October 1989)

3.

American

the Viet Cong personified.

During the Vietnam War the military alphabet designation 'Victor Charlie' was shortened thus.

4.

South African

a friend. Recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the Cape Sun-day Times, 29 January 1995.

5.

British

the penis

II. adj

British

cheap and nasty, flashy or in bad taste. A public-school and Sloane Ranger term of disapproval, heard in the early 1980s.

► He's really awfully charlie.

► The flat's a bit charlie, if you ask me.