Jinelz (n)

Means: A con, or a con-artist

Usage: “That bargain phone contract is just a jinelz.”“Don’t trust ‘im, ‘e’s a jinelz.”

Those high-street special offers are a rip-off, your classmates are out to trick you out of your pocket money - and that girl who says she likes you just wants you to pay for her cinema ticket. The Yoof suffer from paranoia just like the rest of us and Yoofspeak has its own term to describe both the schemers and the schemes. Probably borrowed from a Jamaican grannie but re-spelled to make it look cool, it’s a fair guess that the multiethnic yoofs who say or text it are ignorant of its colourful history. “Ginnal” is Caribbean patois, a local pronunciation of ”(con)genial” and describes a sort of anti-hero of Afro-Caribbean folklore, a smooth-talking trickster, typically an urban loafer who swindles out-of-towners or a woman who deceives a naive suitor. In the UK playground, just as in the folktales, the one who successfully “jams” or “jumps” (outwits) you is often admired, while the poor victim is mocked.