Coming from London's East End, chances are I would be a Costermonger also known as a Barrow Boy, and sell my wares in the street market, probably calling out in Cockney rhyming slang. Fresh fruit and vegetables would be my wares. Did you know that rhyming slang works in reverse just as well? For example, vegetables, or veg, is Uncle Reg. But fruit is, or was, known as Gums. There's a popular confection called fruit gums, hence the term, Gums.
The word fruit in rhyming slang has always had a mental health connotation as in, nutty as a fruitcake. Why nuts should be compared with a human head is anyone's guess, perhaps it's because walnuts look similar to the brain hemispheres, or is that just being fanciful?
