Part 20

Cock-Loft, subs. (old).—The head. [A cock-loft is properly a small loft, garret, or apartment at the top of a house. Cf., Garret, Upper Storey, etc.] An old proverb runs, ‘All his gear is in his cock-loft’; i.e., ‘all his wealth, work, or worth is in his head.’ For synonyms, see Crumpet.

1642. Thomas Fuller, Holy and Profane State, And. Ad. fen. 1. Often the cockloft is empty, in those whom nature hath built many stories high.

Cockney, subs. (colloquial).—One born within the sound of bow-bells. [The origin of cockney has been much debated; but, says Dr. Murray, in the course of an exhaustive statement (Academy, May 10, 1890, p. 320), the history of the word, so far as it means a person, is very clear and simple. We have the senses (1) ‘cockered or pet child,’ ‘nestle-cock,’ ‘mother’s darling,’ ‘milksop,’ the name being applicable primarily to the child, but continued to the squeamish and effeminate man into which he grows up. (2) A nickname applied by country people to the inhabitants of great towns, whom they considered ‘milksops,’ from their daintier habits and incapacity for rough work. York, London, Perugia, were, according to Harman, all nests of cockneys. (3) By about 1600 the name began to be attached especially to Londoners, as the representatives par excellence of the city milksop. One understands the disgust with which a cavalier in 1641 wrote that he was ‘obliged to quit Oxford at the approach of Essex and Waller, with their prodigious number of cockneys.’]

1607. Dekker, Westward Ho, Act ii., Sc. 2. As Frenchmen love to be bold ... and Irishmen to be costermongers, so cockneys, especially she-cockneys, love not aqua-vitæ when ’tis good for them.

1760. Foote, Minor, Act i. But you cockneys now beat us suburbians at our own weapons.

1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, p. 28. ‘You ’ad such an ’eadach’, sir,’ said British, sternly, who piques himself on his grammar and pronunciation, and scorns a cockney.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 Nov., p. 3, col. 2. London mist, when turned into London black fog by the poisonous carbonic anhydride and sulphurous anhydride with which it is loaded, encompasses all cockneys, good or bad with a real danger to health and life.

Cockney-Shire, subs. (common).—London. [From cockney, a native of London, + shire.]

Cock Pimp, subs. (old).—The husband, real or supposed, of a bawd or procuress. [From cock, male, + pimp, a procurer.]—Grose [1785].

Cockquean, subs. (obsolete).—A man who interests himself in women’s affairs. The common form is ‘cotquean.’ Cf., Molly.

Cockroaches. To get or eat cockroaches, verbal phr. (old).—To practise masturbation. For synonyms, see Frig.

Cock-Robin, subs. (old).—A soft, easy fellow.—Grose [1785].

Cock-Robin Shop, subs. phr. (printers’).—A small printing office, for cheap work done at vile wages. In other trades a slop shop.

1888. R. R., in Notes and Queries, 7 S., v., 333. Let me advise collectors of such things [cheap books] to avoid the regular booksellers, and try the cock-robin shops, and the general dealers in small wares, down back streets.

Cocks, subs. (popular).—1. See Cock, subs., sense 2.

2. (trade).—Explained by quotation. The word appears to be slang for anything fictitious. Cf., Cocks, subs., sense 2.

1880. Daily News, Nov. 4. [Quoted in N. and Q., 6 S., ii., p. 387.]

3. (Charterhouse).—A lavatory where changing for games, washing before meals, etc., goes on. [From the taps over the basins.] It is equivalent to the Winchester Moab (q.v.).

Cock’s Egg. To give one a cock’s egg, phr. (common).—To send one on a fool’s errand; to gammon (q.v. for synonyms). The expression is of the same type as ‘to send one to buy pigeon’s milk,’ ‘oil of strappum,’ ‘strap oil,’ etc.

Cock-Shy, subs. (popular).—A mark, butt, or target; any person or thing that is the centre of jaculation.

c. 1834. Marryat, Rattlin the Reefer, p. 92. What a fine cockshy he would make, said Master Blubberlips.

18(?). Lord Strangford, Letters and Papers, p. 215. This was as if the great geologists ... had invited two rival theorists to settle the question of a geological formation by picking up the stones and appealing to the test of a cockshy.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. iii. He had seen Tom Ricketts, of the fourth form, who used to wear a jacket and trousers so ludicrously tight, that the elder boys could not forbear using him in the quality of a butt or cockshy.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 262. A desperate fight ensued, the ‘nobblers’ arming themselves with cock-shy sticks.

Cock-Stand, subs. (venery).—An erection of the penis. For synonyms, see Horn and Cf., Stand.

Cock-Sucker, subs. (venery).—A fellatrix.

Cocksure, adj. (colloquial).—Confidently certain; pertly sure. [Probably a corruption of ‘cocky sure.’ We call a self-confident, overbearing prig a cocky fellow, from the barnyard despot. Shakspeare (I Henry IV., ii., 1) employs the phrase in the sense of ‘sure as the cock of a firelock.’

We steal as in a castle, cocksure:

and still earlier usages imply its derivation from the fact that the cock was much surer than the older fashioned match.]

1549. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers, p. 32 (Arber’s ed.) For the Deuyll was dysapoynted of his purpose for he thoughte all to be hys owne. And when he had once broughte Christe to the crosse, he thought all cock-sure.

1603. John Day, Law Trickes, Act iii., p. 30. Then did I learn to ... Make false conueyances, yet with a trick, Close and cock-sure, I cony-catch’d the world.

1667. Dryden, Sir Martin Marr-all, Act. iv. Nothing vexes me, but that I had made my game cock-sure, and then to be backgammoned.

b. 1738, d. 1819. Wolcot (‘Paul Pindar’), Odes to the Pope, II., in wks. (Dublin, 1795) V. ii., p. 492. Yet deem themselves, poor dupes, cocksure of Heav’n.

1837. R. H. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), 320. Last of all, gentle Reader, don’t be too secure!—Let seeming success never make you cock-sure.

1849. T. Carlyle, IV., 108. [Yes, Manning was shot there; he had told us Hyde was cocksure.]

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. iii. ‘Hawke will not get his daughter to have him, he may be cocksure of that.’

1889. The Star, Aug. 24, p. 3, col. 4. In his most insolent and cocksure manner he declared, etc.

Cocktail, subs. (common).—1. A prostitute; a wanton.

2. (common).—A coward.

3. (American).—A drink composed of spirits (gin, brandy, whisky, etc.), bitters, crushed ice, sugar, etc., the whole whisked briskly until foaming, and then drunk ‘hot.’

Cocktail or Cocktailed, adj. (military).—Unsoldierlike; uneven; showing bad form; and in its specifically military sense, anything unworthy of the regular army. For example, at one time the Volunteer auxiliaries were described as ‘such a cocktailed crew.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 67. He confessed he not only urged his brother into it, but compelled him to be as bad as himself, and had thrashed him many times for turning cocktail.

Cock-Teaser, or Cockchafer, subs. (venery).—A girl in the habit of permitting all familiarities but the last.

Cock-up, subs. (printers’).—What is technically known as a ‘superior’; e.g., the smaller letters in the following examples:

Ye Limtd Compy; Jno. Smith, Senr.; No.; London1

Cocked-up, adj.—See Cocky.

Cock Up One’s Toes, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft and Hop the twig.

1820. Reynolds, (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy. ‘King Tims the First.’ Now I see a neighbour cock his toe—Walk by his side in black—in well paid woe.

1864. E. D. Forgues, in Revue des deux Mondes, Sep. 15, p. 472, note. Cock one’s toes. Cette ... locution, si bizarre au premier coup d’œil, doit s’expliquer par un des phénomènes de la retraction cadavérique; les pieds du mort, ramenés en arrière, ont pu rappeler la position que prend le chien de la batterie quand le fusil est armé.

Cocky or Cocking, adj. (popular).—1. Pert or saucy; forward; coolly audacious; over confident, ‘botty.’ [Formerly cocking. An allusion to the strut of the barn-door bird.] Fr., se gourer, to be cocky; also se gonfler, faire sa merde, and faire son matador.

1711. Spectator, No. 153. But the cocking young fellow who treads upon the toes of his elders, and the old fool who envies the saucy pride he sees in him, are the objects of our present contempt and derision.

1820. Clare, Poems of Rural Life, Familiar Epistle, st. 5. I’ve long been aggravated shocking, To see our gentry folks go cocking.

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. vi. ‘It seems so cocky in me to be advising you.’

1864. Glasgow Citizen, Nov. 19. Cotgrave (1672) gives us ‘Herr, master or sir; a rogue.’ Aleman [‘The Spanish Rogue’] Vous faite du Herr. ‘You are very cockit, or lusty; you take too much upon you.’ Is it not gratifying to know that cockiness is older than this century, in which it has been developed to so alarming an extent?

1872. The Scotsman, 29 Oct. ‘Sir J. Pakington at Stourbridge.’ He should be inclined to offer him a little homely advice, and to tell him in somewhat plain language ‘Not to be too cocky.’

1884. Cornhill Mag., April, p. 442. ‘Davis,’ said Toddy, ‘you haven’t had a banging this term, and you’re getting cocky.’

2. (Stock Exchange).—Brisk; active—applied to the money market.

1871. Figaro, 3 June. ‘Notes on Change.’ Everything again brisk, and the market, what is expressly termed cocky.

Cocoa-Nut, subs. (general).—The head. Fr. le coco. For synonyms, see Crumpet.

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 176 (ed. 1864). ‘A thousand pities that so fine a fellow should have a sconce like a cocoa-nut!’

1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. iii. ‘The Major a-pokin’ along with his cocoa-nut down, a-studyin’ over somethin’ or another quite deep.’

c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘Waltzing Round the Water-butt.’ Gaily the troubadour will waltz round the water-butt, Blissful the happy thoughts that float round my cocoa-nut, Moonlight and spooning ’neath the old hazel tree!

That accounts for the milk in the cocoa-nut, phr. (common).—A rejoinder upon having a thing explained for the first time.

To have no milk in the cocoa-nut, phr.—To be insane; silly; ‘cracked.’—See Apartments.

Cocum, Kocum, subs. (common).—1. Shrewdness; ability; luck; cleverness. [From the Hebrew chochum, chochem, or cochem, crafty; learned, wise, or a wise man. The term is found passim in early Hebrew literature, especially in the Book of Proverbs: ‘A cochem will hear and increase learning’ (Prov. i. 5). The slang sense has been introduced by the Whitechapel Jews. In Yiddish cochemer or cochem, the pronunciation of which is not dissimilar to cocum, means wisdom; cochumwirth = a thieves’ landlord. (Cf., paragraph on German analogues.) Cocma is another Hebraism used by London Jews in a similar sense, but it has not made its way into slang.

English Analogues. Real jam (this in the sense of anything exceptionally good or lucky); all beer and skittles (extremely pleasant); rattling (extremely jolly, pleasant, or well appointed); to be in clover (happiness and luck); to stand on velvet (a variant of the last mentioned); to be cracking a tidy crust (to be doing very well); to be having a good swim (thieves’ for a good run of luck, i.e., being a long time out of the policeman’s clutches); well ballasted; on the spot; up to Dick; on it; right; and so forth.

French Analogues. Etre de la bonne (popular: to be lucky); décrocher la timballe (popular); être de la fête (popular and thieves’); avoir des as dans son jeu (popular: to have an advantage, ‘to be in luck’s way’); avoir l’assiette au beurre (popular: to be fortunate in life); bidard (m. lucky); être de la bate (popular).

German Analogues. Chochom, Chochem, Chochemer (which Hebraism is the root of the English cocum. Among German thieves who more frequently spell the word Kochem, Kochemer, the meaning is almost identical with that given it by their English brethren, except that the wisdom, profit, or luck, applies almost solely to the results of crooked ways and dealings. Chochom and its variants signify, therefore, the cunning, prudent, and successful vagabond; Chochem lehorre = a dangerous vagabond, one who is prepared for the worst; Chochem mechutten = a bad patron, a dangerous companion, a rogue of the worst type; Chochme = wisdom, cunning, circumspection, or the practice of swindling).

Italian Analogues. Cavazzonare (literally ‘to place well or be well placed’); aver primavera (this applies to cocum as represented by pleasure; literally ‘to have spring’).

Spanish Analogues. Cucarachera (f; a vulgarism for luck or good fortune); harlarse buena cucarachera (to be lucky or fortunate); potroso (a colloquialism signifying lucky; literally ‘afflicted with a rupture’); charanguero (m; a lucky fellow, one with cocum); hijo de la gallina blanca (a lucky bird).

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 279. ‘It’s decent and comfortable too, and it’s about 6d. a night to me for singing and patter in the tap-room. That’s my cokum (advantage).’

1861. Earl, Ups and Downs of Australian Life, p. 224. ‘No one was to get drunk, the governor said as how it wasn’t cokum, and he wouldn’t have it,—and so we were all fit for work the next day.’

1864. Hotten, Slang Dict., s.v. ‘Jack’s got cocum, he’s safe to get on, he is,’ viz., he starts under favourable circumstances.

c. 1886. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Flippity Flop Young Man.’ I once was a Member-for-Slocum young man, And for Parliament had a strong fancy, A know-pretty-well-what-is-kocum young man When addressing a constituency.

2. (publishers’).—A sliding scale of profit. [Publishers sometimes issue books without fixing the published price. These they sell to the retail trade at a fixed sum, leaving the bookseller to make what he can.

To fight or play cocum, verbal phr. (common). To play double; to be wary, cunning, or ‘artful.’

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3 ed.), p. 445, s.v. To be cunning, wary, or sly.

1885. Referee, April 26, p. 1, col. 2. The best show in the Crawfurd Plate—that is, unless a lot of the pulling-up division were playing cokum—was that of Ptolemy.

Cod, subs. (common).—1. A fool. [Cf., Cod’s head, of which it is possibly an abbreviation.] For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

2. (tailors’).—A drunkard.—[See verb, sense 2.]

3. (thieves’).—A purse; a cod of money = a large sum of money. [A.S. cod or codd, a small bag.] For synonyms, see Poge.

4. (street).—A ‘pal’ or friend; generally prefixed to a surname. [Here cod is the diminutive of ‘codlin,’ an old endearment.] Cf., Codd.

Verb (common).—1. To play the fool; to monkey (q.v.).

2. (tailors’).—To go on the drink; generally, to act loosely.

3. (common).—To chaff; hoax; ‘take a rise out of.’

1865. Evening Citizen, 28 Nov. Codding a Town Council.—The Fife Circular, Kirkcaldy, says:—According to usual practice, several members of the new Town Council attended divine service at the Parish Church on Sunday forenoon last. The Rev. M. J. Bryden officiated, and preached an eloquent and appropriate sermon to the Council from these words in the 10th chapter of St. Matthew:—‘Ye are of more value than many sparrows.’

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xxxi. ‘What do you think of that, cook?’ ‘Think?’ answered the cook, who had a rather sour eye; ‘why, that that rough sailor man was a-coddin’ of you, sir.’

Codd or Cod, subs. (Charterhouse).—A pensioner of the Charterhouse.—See quot., and Cf., Cod, sense 4.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, II., p. 333. Yonder sit some three score of gentlemen, pensioners of the hospital, listening to the prayers and psalms. You hear them coughing feebly in the twilight—the old reverend blackgowns. Is Codd Ajax alive, you wonder?—the Cistercian lads called these old gentlemen Codds, I know not wherefore—I know not wherefore—but is old Codd Ajax alive, I wonder? or Codd Soldier? or kind old Codd Gentleman? or has the grave closed over them?

Coddam or Coddom, subs. (common).—A public-house game played three, four, or more a side. The only ‘property’ required is a coin, a button, or anything which can be hidden in the clenched hand. The principle of the game, which is simplicity itself, is that of ‘Guess whose hand it’s in.’ If the guesser ‘brings it home,’ his side takes the ‘piece,’ and the centre man ‘works’ it. If the guess be wrong, a chalk is taken to the holders, who go on again.

1884. J. Greenwood, Seven Years’ Penal Servitude. The convicts take advantage of that to the extent sometimes of playing a gambling game called coddom.

1885. Good Words, August, p. 530. Some prefer coddam, and risk their pint of beer on the discovery of the coin.

1890. Pall Mall Gaz., March 1, p. 5, col. 2. The boys were playing a game called coddom, a guessing game.

Codding, verbal subs. (common).—Nonsense; humbug; chaff. [From cod (q.v., verb, sense 3).]

Codger, subs. (common).—A familiar term of address, especially in old codger; a curious old fellow; an odd fish; a ‘rum’ character; a precise, and sometimes a mean or miserly man.

English Synonyms. Most of the general slang terms for a man or fellow correspond in usage to ‘old codger,’ e.g., old chap; ben cull; old man; my pippin; old cock, etc.

French Synonyms. Un béquillard (popular: French thieves give the same name to the executioner); vieux canasson (popular: ‘old man,’ ‘old cock’); un birbe; ma vieille branche.

Italian Synonym. Fuino (literally a pole-cat).

1760. Colman, Polly Honeycombe, in wks. (1777) IV., 39. A clear coast, I find. The old codger’s gone, and has locked me up with his daughter.

1760. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, vol. I., ch. iii. She twisted her hand in Grove’s neckcloth without ceremony, crying—‘Sha’t then, I tell thee, old coger.’

1796. Mad. D’Arblay, Camilla, bk. IX., ch. iv. He gave himself the airs of an old justice of the peace, and said if he did not find the affair given up, nothing should induce him ever to help me again. What a mere codger that lad has turned out!

1837. Barham, I. L. (Lay of St. Nicholas). How a thirsty old codger, the neighbours call’d Roger, With them drank cold water in lieu of old wine.

1859. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, bk. II., ch. xxiv. Why, I am a boy, sir, to half-a-dozen old codgers here.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 61. His father, a rum old codger, had been a captain in the army.

1883. F. R. Stockton, Rudder Grange, ch. xi. I knew that any sensible man would rather have me in charge of his tent than a young codger like that.

1887. Baumann, Londinismen, Slang u. Cant. pref., vi. So from hartful young dodgers, From vaxy old codger, From the blowens we got Soon to know vot is vot.

Codicils, subs. (American journalists’).—A kind of literary sparring match; also called accumulatives (q.v.). Some editor will make a remark or a joke—with a capital J; another will cite it with comments; and, in his turn, he will be handled by a third. There are cases in which the original paragraph has gone the round of twenty or thirty prints. [A codicil is properly a writing by way of supplement to a will.]

1889. Polytechnic Mag., 24 Oct., p. 253. ‘How many apples did Adam and Eve eat?’ Some say Eve 8 and Adam 2—a total of 10. Now, we figure the thing out far different. Eve 8, and Adam 8 also—total 16.—Boston Journal. We think the above figures are entirely wrong. If Eve 8, and Adam 8–2, certainly the total will be 90. Scientific men, however, on the strength of the theory that the antidiluvians were a race of giants, and consequently great eaters, reason something like this:—Eve, 8–1st, and Adam 8–2—total, 163.—Gloucester Advertiser. Wrong again; what could be clearer than if Eve 8–1–1st, and Adam 8–1–2, would not the whole be 1,623?—Boston Journal. Now we think these figures are not according to Cocker. The following is probably the true solution:—Eve 8–1–4 Adam, Adam 8–1–2–4 Eve—total, 8,698.—Veritas. Stop friend; still another calculation is as follows:—If Eve 8–1–4 Adam, Adam 8–1–2–4–2 oblige Eve—total, 82,056. We think, however, this is not a sufficient quantity; for, if we admit that Eve 8–1–4 Adam, Adam, if he 8–0-8–1–2–4–2 keep Eve company—total, 1,082,056.—New York Mail. You do the fair thing by Adam, brother, but you slight Eve. This poor smit 10–1–8–1–4–2 please the serpent, and Adam, of course, if he as good husbands do of-10–8–0–8–1–2–4–2 keep Eve company—total, 109,099,384.—Syracuse Journal. The American newspaper calculators, with the savagery of all other historians, meanly stigmatise the woman. Adam, a mere dupe, lacked the nobility to try a dangerous experiment first. Eve eat an apple for dinner: Adam, forgetting the injuries to many an unborn 1,000,000–8–1–4 millions more—the coward! True total, 1,000,000,814,000,000. Whoopee! Now is the time to subscribe.—Polytechnic Magazine.

Codland, subs. (American).—Newfoundland. Cf., Cod-preserves.

Codlings.—See Cods.

Cod-Preserves, subs. (nautical).—The Atlantic Ocean. [An obvious allusion. Cf., Codland = Newfoundland; also Briney.]

Cods, subs. (venery).—1. The testicles. [From A.S. cod or codd = a small bag.] Also codlings.

English Synonyms. Bawbels, baubels, or bobbles; bollocks; balls; beef (the penis and testes); bird’s-eggs; bobbies; bullets; bum-balls; cannon-balls; clock-weights; culls (old); dowsetts (old); gingambobs; jelly-bags (more properly in sing = the scrotum); knackers; love-apples; marbles; nick-nacks; pebbles; seals (Cf., watch-and-seals = the male pudenda); spunk-holders; stones; thingambobs.

French Synonyms. Les antilles (thieves’: f. pl.); les virolets (obsolete: in allusion to a man’s virility); les sonnettes (common: literally bells); les frères siamois (popular: an allusion to the Siamese twins); les prunes (common); les grains (leger de deux grains = an eunuch).

German Synonym. Dickmann (also ‘an egg,’ and ‘the penis.’ Dick = enciente; dick machen, to deflower and quicken. Dick means literally ‘thick’).

Spanish Synonym. Cojones.

2. (old).—See quot.

1871. Bookseller, 4 Nov. The Cods and Hooks were the Whigs and Tories of Dutch William’s land.

Cod’s-Head, subs. (old).—A stupid fellow; a fool.—See Buffle and Cabbage-Head.

1675. The Woman turn’d Bully. Dash. Sweet sir, I think it is neer octa hora. Your servant, gentlemen. Good. Farewell, cods-head.

1694. Dunton, Ladies’ Dictionary. You confounded toad, you, where were your eyes, in your heels? that you should be such a bungling cods-head to see no better.

Cofe.—See Cove.

Coffee, subs. (American thieves’).—Beans.

1859. G. W. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, p. 19, s.v.

Greased coffee, subs. phr. (American).—Pork and beans.

Coffee-House or Coffee-Shop, subs. (common).—1. A water-closet. For synonyms, see Mrs. Jones, and Cf., Bury a Quaker.

2. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Coffee-Housing, subs.—See quot.

1877 Hawley Smart, Play or Pay, ch. iv. ‘Not going to hunt? Why Miss Bazing told me you had a regular string of horses coming down!’ ‘Ah, Bessie’s wrong. I always was a changeable beggar, you know. The string consists of a hack, just good enough to do a little bit of coffee-housing occasionally.’

Coffee-Mill, subs. (old).—The mouth: a ‘grinder’ itself, and furnished with ‘grinders’—American ‘cogs,’—as well. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 2. Gas. Come, come, silence your coffee-mill.