Yobbo

Question
Can you tell me what the origin of “yobbo” is? (Sam, Year 11 student)
 
Kate's response
This is a straightforward one. Yob is backslang for boy (with yobbo either extending yob with the -o ending). Backslang, as it’s known, was a secret language once used extensively by barrow boys, hawkers, and traders like greengrocers and butchers (1800s), so they could talk without their customers understanding. “Give her some old bit of scrap” would come out Evig reh emos delo tib fo parcs. Backslang appears in the Detective’s Handbook (1882) — it has a glossary of terms like dab “bad”; delog “gold”; helbat “table”; yad “day”. And yob and yobbo are among the few survivors.