Are some rhymes more than coincidence?

Like fluther:mother ? :-)

Nope dope?

look up rhyming slang

Mental coincidental?

Are you Cockney, mate? :)

@aprilsimnel Cockney? me? No… Why would I garner that question? Are you asking because they make rhyming jokes like in Oceans 11? (Barney Rubble: Trouble) my only frame of reference for what you ask.

Yeah, I’m just joking. I saw “wife” and “strife” and one of my Brit friends uses that one all the time: “Oh, the strife just texted me, she’s on her way,” that sort of thing. He’s from Essex, though.

There is something called Cockney rhyming slang in which rhymes are used as synonyms for nouns. Some examples, as @aprilsimnel says, are “trouble and strife” for wife, “plates of meat” for feet, and “apples and pears” for stairs. This is very colorful but I don’t think it arose etymologically.

I believe this is a fine example of finding patterns by ignoring data that doesn’t fit the pattern.

@Laureth makes a well thought out point!

@Janbb is correct to point out that the there is little similarity in the origin of words that happen to rhyme.

@laureth got it. If words like “wild” and “child” didn’t rhyme, we wouldn’t consider that phrase particularly popular in our language. Instead, we would be using a different word that both rhymed and fit the context.

Another way to think about it: some of these words don’t have anything in common (as far as pronunciation) in other languages of the same root as English. Therefore, they’re not “meant” to be together as an idea, you know?

We need some Brits to give us some more Cockney Rhyming Slang. Originally used as a sort of criminal-activity pig latin, to be able to discuss things in public without others being able to understand. Examples I know, from having been a British resident for eight years, but, alas, never within the sound of the bells of St. Clemons.

Trouble and strife, that’s the wife

Brown bread, you’re dead.

Jam tart, that’s the heart.

Dog and bone, telephone.

I always loved to hear them use it. There’s also a great British Sitcom, which I miss dearly, that once in a blue moon appears on US PBS, called “Fools and Horses” (Only fools and horses work, about a character named Del boy, a small-time hustler. One of his expressions:
After a bad day of business: “I couldn’t sell a black hat to a witch.” I LOVE that!

@Dilettante more Cockney rhymes please….

That’s all I can think of…if only my dear late Yorkshire Lass wife was alive, she knew scads of them. Re my reference to St. Clements ( I misspelled it). It’s my understanding that this saying: “Oranges and Lemons say the bells of St. Clements.” Is further understood to mean that if one grew up within earshot of the bells of St. Clements church, London, then they were considered to be a Cockney. I could be wrong about this. Just thought of one more: Gregory Peck, means your neck.
CMON YOU BRITS, elp us out ere, mate!

Oops, just read the answers above…I should do that first, shouldn’t I? I’ve been a bit redundant. HEY, I thought I said I was going to bed now….is there a fluther rehab?
Hey, if Tiger can find one for his ailment (I wish I had that one), why not fluther rehab?

Hormones: Whore moans.

Boat race : Face
Tom Foolery : Jewellery
North & South : Mouth
Acker Bilk : Milk
Adam & Eve : Believe

Just a flavour of cockney spiel.

@Dilettante Are you a guy, then? I thought you were a woman for some reason.

I also thought it was living within the sound of Bow Bells that determined if you were a Cockney?

Here’s one site with examples of Cockney rhyming slang and here’s another good one.

Everything is a coincidence. But the fact that some words that rhyme seem to belong together would give those words and phrases greater strength in the language, increasing the frequency and longevity of their use. Like symbiotic organisms, they will be found together and their life will be longer than other words.

@rebbel has spontaneously thought of a similar question involving stitches and itches. Thus it is proven that others observe this phenomenon.