Part 4

Canack, Canuck, Kanuck, K’nuck, subs. (American).—A Canadian, usually a K’nuck. [Obscure, and limited in its application within the Canadian frontier. There, a Canuck is understood to be a French Canadian, just as within the limits of the Union only New Englanders are termed Yankees; whereas elsewhere that appellation is given indiscriminately to natives of all the States. It is by some supposed that Canuck is a corruption of Connaught, the name applied by French-Canadians to the Irish, from which it would follow that, by a process of inversion, a nickname given by one section of a nation to another has, in course of time, been applied to the whole. Others, however, think the first syllable of ‘Canada’ has been joined to the Algonkin Indian substantive termination uc or uq.]

Canary or Canary-Bird, subs. (thieves’).—1. A prisoner; a very old cant term for habitual offenders; or, as Grose says [1785], ‘a person used to be kept in a cage’ (q.v.). The same idea occurs in some foreign equivalents, e.g., the French, oiseau de cage, and the German, Kastener, from Kasten, a chest or case. For synonyms, see Wrong ’un.

1673.—Head, Canting Academy, p. 157. Newgate is a cage of canary-birds.

1725.—New Canting Dictionary. Canary-bird, a little, arch, or knavish boy; a rogue or whore taken and clapped into the cage or roundhouse.

1839.—Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 55. Now for the cage, my pretty canary-bird. Before we start I’ll accommodate you with a pair of ruffles.

2. (general).—A mistress. [See preceding quot. (1725): the term is still in use.] For synonyms, see Tart.

3. (common).—Formerly a guinea, but now applied to a sovereign [From similarity of colour.]

English Synonyms. Yellow boy; goldfinch; yellow hammer; shiner; gingleboy; monarch; couter; bean foont; James (from Jacobus); poona; portrait; quid; thick ’un; skin; skiv; dragon; goblin. A guinea was also called a ‘ned.’

French Synonyms for the equivalent twenty franc piece are, un jaunet (popular: literally ‘butter-cup’ or ‘yellow-boy’); une sigue, sigle, sigolle or cig (thieves’); un bonnet jaune (popular: literally ‘yellow-cap’ or ‘bonnet’); un bouton (i.e., ‘a master-key’); une maltaise (old cant; according to Victor Hugo this gold coin was used on board the convict galleys at Malta); un moule à boutons (popular); une médaille d’or (popular: = a gold medal).

German Synonyms. Gelbling (gelb = yellow); Fuchs (a gold piece; literally ‘a fox’).

For synonyms of money generally, see Actual and Gilt.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Canary-Birds in a canting sense, guineas.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvi. Fifty as fair yellow canary-birds as e’er chirped in the bottom of a green silk purse.

1842. Punch, p. 168. ‘Prolusiones etymologicæ,’ 13. Goldfinches—Canaries.—Singing birds; the which whose possesseth needeth never to pine for lack of notes.

4. (thieves’).—A female watcher or stall; a mollisher (q.v.). Cf. Crow = a male watcher. Fr. une marque franche.

1862. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lond. Poor, IV., 337. Sometimes a woman, called a ‘canary,’ carries the tools [of burglars], and watches outside.

5. (Salvation Army).—A written promise of a donation or subscription. At some of the meetings of the ‘Army’ instead of sending round the plate, the ‘officers’ distribute slips of paper on which those present are invited to record their benevolent intentions. The original colour of the slips was yellow—hence the nickname.

Cancer. To catch or capture a cancer, phr. (common).—See Crab.

1857. Hood, Pen and Pencil Pictures p. 141. He had another way of capturing cancers, namely, by never putting his oar into the water at all.

Candle-Keepers, subs. (Winchester College).—The eight seniors in college by election who are not præfects. They enjoy most of the privileges of præfects without their powers.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 30. The Seven Candle-keepers (why so-called, I have no idea, nor have I ever heard any interpretation of the appellation). These were the seven inferiors who had been longest in the school, quite independently of their position in it; they were generally old and tough. Of these, the senior had almost as much power as a præfect; he had a ‘valet’ in chambers, one or two ‘breakfast fags,’ and the power of fagging the twenty juniors when in school, or in meads. The junior candle keeper was called ‘the Deputy,’ and had also some slight privileges besides that of having a valet and breakfast fag, which was common to all of them.

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 278. Presided over by a candle-keeper.

Candlestick, subs. 1. (Winchester College).—A humorous corruption of the word ‘candidate.’

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 175. Each of these [the Electors] had in turn the privilege of nominating a boy for admission into Winchester till all vacancies were filled, of which there were generally about twelve, but always many more ‘Candidates’ (or Candlesticks, as they were often called).

1878. H. C. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 418. Candlestick, merely a facetious version of ‘candidate.’

2 pl. (London).—The fountains in Trafalgar Square.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and Lon. Poor, I., p. 529. There was his (Nelson’s) pillar at Charing Cross, just by the candlesticks (fountains).

Candy, adj. (old).—Given by Grose in 1785, and by the Lexicon Balatronicum, in 1811, as ‘drunk—an Irish term.’

Candyman, subs. (northern).—A bailiff or process server. Originally a seller of candy. [In October, 1863, there was a great strike of miners at the collieries of Messrs. Strakers and Love, in the county of Durham. As no adjustment of the difference was possible, the owners determined to eject the miners from their cottages. For this purpose, an army of rascals were engaged, including at least one whose ordinary occupation was that of hawking candy and sweetmeats. The man was recognised and was chaffed; and candyman, which rapidly became a term of reproach, was soon applied to the whole class; and since that time is come into general use over the two northern counties whenever ejectments take place.]

1863. Newcastle Chronicle, Oct. 31. The colliery carts and waggons stood at the doors, and the furniture was handed out, and piled quickly but carefully upon them. It was evident that the candymen had warmed to their work. The name of candyman has been given to the loaders because of their avocations of ‘candy’ hawking, from which they are supposed to have been taken to be put to this work.

1876. Notes and Queries, 5 S., v., 405. A term in the North for men employed to carry out evictions against cottage occupiers.

1886. Notes and Queries, 7 S., i., p. 445.

Canister, subs. (general).—1. The head. [A transference of the original meaning, ‘a box or case for holding things.’] For synonyms, see Crumpet.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. To mill his cannister; to break his head.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 4. Tom. I’ve nobb’d him on the canister.

1885. Bell’s Life, Jan. 3, p. 8, col. 4. Once more did the star of Australia rise, but to set from additional raps on the canister. He fell on his knees, and his head droped on his breast.

2. (common).—A hat. [Formerly canister-cap (see sense 1); subsequently shortened to canister.] For synonyms, see Golgotha.

1887. Atkin, House Scraps. Turning round, I saw my unfortunate beaver, or canister, as it was called by the gentry who had it in their keeping, bounding backwards and forwards.

Cank, adj. (old).—Dumb; silent. [Curiously enough, cank also signifies ‘to chatter,’ or ‘cackle as a goose’; it only survives in this latter sense.]

1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 36. Cank: dumb.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Cank: dumb.

Cannibal, subs. (Cambridge University).—In the bumping races at Cambridge, a college may be represented by more than one boat. The best talent is put into the first, but it has sometimes happened that the crew of the second have got so well together that it has disappointed the prophets and bumped the first of its own college. In this case it is termed a cannibal, it having eaten up its own kind, and a fine is enacted from it by the University Boat Club.

Cannikin or Canniken, subs. (old).—The plague. [Grose includes it in his dictionary under the sense of ‘a small can,’ but this was not a slang usage.]

1688. R. Holme, Armoury. III., iii., § 68. Cannikin, the Plague. [m.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. s.v.

Cannis-Cove, subs. (American).—A dog-fancier. [Either from Latin canis, a dog, or the Fr. caniche, poodle + cove, a man.]

Cannon.—See Canon.

Cannon-Balls, subs. (political).—1. A nickname, now obsolete, given to the irreconcileable opponents of free trade in England.

1858. Saturday Review, 30 Oct., p. 413, col. 2. The amendment ... which sealed for ever the fate of Protection, was carried [in 1852] with only fifty dissentient voices—the celebrated cannon-balls. [m.]

2. (venery).—The testicles. For synonyms see Cods.

Canoe. To paddle one’s own canoe, phr. (American).—To make one’s own way in life; to exhibit skill and energy; to succeed unaided; a slang phrase of Western American origin, but now universal. [Extremely careful and clever manipulation is required in the management of canoes, especially in shooting rapids; otherwise the surging body of water might swamp the boat, or sunken rocks strike and seriously damage it. Hence the adoption of such an expression to signify skill, close attention, and energy.] A variant is to bail one’s own boat; and the French have a proverbial saying, il conduit or il mène bien sa barque.

1845. Harper’s Magazine, May. Voyager upon life’s sea, to yourself be true; And, where’er your lot may be, Paddle your own canoe.

1868. Broadside Ballad, sung by Harry Clifton. My wants are small, I care not at all, If my debts are paid when due. And to drive away strife on the ocean of life, I paddle my own canoe.

1870. C. H. Spurgeon. At Metropolitan Tabernacle [speaking of Mr. John Magregor said]—He puts his trust in God and paddles his own canoe.

1871. De Vere, English of the New World, p. 343. The familiarity with boating, which the unsurpassed number of watercourses all over the country naturally produces everywhere, has led to the use, not only of paddling one’s own canoe, ... but also of ‘bailing one’s own boat,’ in the sense of ‘minding one’s own business,’ independently and without waiting for help from others.

Canon or Cannon, adj. (thieves’).—Drunk. [The origin of this term is very obscure, although many guesses have been hazarded. Amongst these may be mentioned (1) From the ‘can’ having been used freely. Rather less absurd is (2) its derivation from the French slang expressions un canon, a glass drunk at the bar of a wine-shop; canonner, to drink wine at a wine-shop, or to be a habitual tippler; se canonner, to get drunk; and un canonneur, a tippler, wine-bibber, or drunkard. Yet another suggested origin is (3) from the German cannon, a drinking cup, from which is obtained canonised, = ‘shot’ or ‘drunk.’ A German proverb runs er ist geschossen, and Barrère points out that canon becomes naturally confused with can, German Kaune, a tankard, and Canonenstiefel, or ‘canon’ (i.e., long boots), a common pattern of tankard.] For synonyms, see Screwed.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. One night I was with the mob, I got canon (drunk), this being the first time.

Canoodle, verb (American).—1. To fondle; bill and coo; indulge in endearments.—See Canoodling. [There are two suggested derivations—(1) from cannie in the sense of gentle, and (2) that the primary signification may have been ‘to act as a noodle,’ i.e., to play the fool.] For synonyms, see Firkytoodle.

1864. G. A. Sala, Temple Bar, Dec., p. 40. He is an adept in that branch of persuasive dialectics known as conoodling. He will conoodle the ladies (bless their dear hearts! and how sharp they think themselves at making a bargain!) into the acquisition of whole packages of gimcrack merchandise.

1879. Punch, March 15, p. 117, col. 2. ‘Our Representative Man.’ Then he and the matchless one struggle, snuggle, and generally conoodle together rapturously. Then the matchless Ecstacy being the wife, not of the Chevalier, but of Charles VI., King of France, she, this impulsive, loving, beautiful, hugging, conoodling young Ecstacy, has the cool impudence to declare that theirs is a ‘guiltless love.’

2. (Oxford University).—To paddle or propel a canoe.

1879. E. H. Marshall, in Notes and Queries, 5 S., xi., 375. When I was an undergraduate at Oxford, to canoodle was the slang expression for paddling one’s own canoe on the bosom of the Cherwell or the Isis.

3. (American theatrical).—To share profits.

18(?). Green Room Jokes. ‘Pray, good sir, what is a canoodler?’ ‘Tell you, mum, queer business, mum, but prosperous, money—heaps of it, mum, for you and me’—and he winked significantly, jerked up a chair, and squatted in it, all in a breath.... Undeterred, he rattled on: ‘I’m an original thinker, mum. Invent business opportunities. Share ’m with actors, and then we canoodle—divvy the profits. Me and Sheridan made a big thing on the Japanese advertising screen in “School for Scandal!” Big thing.’

4. (common).—To coax.

Canoodler.—See Canoodle.

Canoodling, verbal subs. (American).—Endearments.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 11 a.m., par. 8. A sly kiss, and a squeeze, and a pressure of the foot or so, and a variety of harmless endearing blandishments, known to our American cousins (who are great adepts at sweet-hearting) under the generic name of conoodling.

1864 and 1879. [See quots. under Canoodle, sense 1.]

Cant, subs. and verb.—[As regards derivation (whether noun or verb), to signify the speech, phraseology, or whine peculiar to thieves, beggars, and vagrants, authorities differ among and with themselves: the word occurs as early as 1540, and has long since achieved respectability. Grose was probably wrong in thinking it a corruption of chaunting, and it was certainly in use long prior to the two Scotch clergymen, Oliver and Andrew Cant, who are said to have preached with such a voice and such a manner as to give their name to all speaking of the same kind. A correspondent of Notes and Queries (2 S., vii., 158) suggests as a possible source the ordinary word mendicant (fr. Lat. mendico), but this is historically improbable, and the weight of evidence is in favour of the Latin cantus, singing or song, though it must be observed that neither the ancient nor the modern usage implies a mere sing-song, but rather the whine of one bent on deceit. There is a consciousness of hypocrisy by the canting in connection with religion, politics, begging, or anything else; and this principle is recognized in the attempt on the part of The Scots Observer to substitute Bleat (subs. and verb) for the cant of æstheticism, the cant which deals with art in the language of sentiment and emotion. It has been further suggested that if the word meant singing, the A.S. cantere is a much more probable source of origin than the Latin canto or cantus; but there is an argument which seems to lend additional weight to the claim of the latter language: the French chanter, to sing, is sometimes used in the sense of cant. In answer to a whining, lying tale (in reply indeed to anything incredible whether whining or brazen), a Frenchman would say, ‘Qu’est-ce que vous chantez là.’ Whatever the derivation, however, there is little doubt that Andrew Cant has little to do with it; indeed, Pennant in his Tour in Scotland, vol. I., p. 122, says that ‘Andrew canted no more than the rest of his brethren, for he lived in a whining age.’]

Subs.—1. The secret speech or jargon of the vagrant classes—gipsies, thieves, beggars, etc.; hence, contemptuously, the peculiar phraseology of a particular class or subject. Identical with Thieves’ Latin, St. Giles’ Greek, Peddlar’s French, etc. (q.v.); but for synonyms, see Flash.

1706. In Phillips. [m.]

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.) Cant (s.): a barbarous broken sort of speech made use of by gypsies.

1856. C. Reade, Never too Late, ch. xlv. All this not in English, but in thieves’ cant.

Here follow specimens of ancient and modern jargon. Further illustrations will be found in the canting songs in the Appendix.

[ancient cant.]

1567. Harman, Caveat (E.E.T. Soc., extra series, IX., 1869), p. 84–86. The vpright Cofe canteth to the Roge. Vpright-man.—Bene Lightmans to thy quarromes, in what lipken hast thou lypped in this darkemans, whether in a lybbege, or in the strummell? Roge.—I couched a hogshead in a Skypper this darkemans. Vpright-man.—I towre the strummel trine vpon thy nabchet and Togman. Roge.—I saye by the Salomon I will lage it of with a gage of benebouse; then cut to my nose watch. Man.—Why, hast thou any lowre in thy bonge to bouse? Roge.—But a flagge, a wyn, and a make, etc., etc., etc.

[modern thieves’ lingo.]

1881. New York Slang Dictionary. ‘Oh! I’m fly. You mean jumping Jack, who was done last week for heaving a peter from a drag. But you talked of padding the hoof. Why, sure, Jack had a rattler and a prad?’ ‘Yes, but they were spotted by the harmans, and so we walked Spanish.’ ‘Was he nabbed on the scent?’ ‘No; his pal grew leaky and cackled.’ ‘Well, Bell, here’s the bingo—sluice your gob! But who was the cull that peached?’ ‘A slubber de gullion named Harry Long, who wanted to pass for an out-and-out cracksman, though he was merely a diver.’ ‘Whew! I know the kiddy like a copper, and saved him once from lumping the lighter by putting in buck. Why, he scarcely knows a jimmy from a round robin, and Jack deserved the tippet for making a law with him, as all coves of his kidney blow the gab. But how did you hare it to Romeville, Bell for I suppose the jets cleaned you out?’ ‘I kidded a swell in a snoozing-ken, and shook him of his dummy and thimble.’ ‘Ah! Bell! you were always the blowen for a rum bing.’

2. (pugilistic)—a blow or toss. [In Mem. Capt. P. Drake, II., xiv., 244 (1755), occurs this passage, ‘To give me such a cant as I never had before or since, which was the whole length of the coffee-room; he pitched me on my head and shoulders under a large table at the further end.’ Transition from the nautical sense of heeling over to that embodied in ‘cant on the chops,’ is easy.] For synonyms, see Bang, Dig, and Wipe.

3. (tramps’).—Food. Also Kant, but Cf., sense 4.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, vol. III., p. 415. The house was good for a cant—that’s some food—bread or meat.

1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, pt. I., ch. ix. The slavey’s been always good for a kant, and the cove for a bob.

4. (tramps’).—A gift. [Possibly connected with cant, sense 3, a share or portion.]

1857. Snowden. Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. Gift of Clothes—Cant of Togs.

Verb.—1. To speak with the beggar’s whine.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), 34. ‘It shall be lawefull for the to Cant’—that is, to aske or begge—‘for thy living in al places.’

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 17 (B. Club’s Repr., 1874). According to the saying that you [thieves and cadgers] haue among your selues (If you can Cant, you will neuer worke) shewing that if they haue beene rogues so long, that they can Cant, they will neuer settle themselues to labour againe.

2. To speak the jargon of gipsies, beggars, and other vagrants.—See Canting.

1592. Defence of Conny-catching, in Greene’s Works, XI., 45. At these wordes Conny-catcher and Setter, I was driven into as great a maze, as if one had dropt out of the clowds, to heare a peasant cant the wordes of art belonging to our trade.

1609. Dekker, English Villainies (1638), And as these people are strange, both in names and in their conditions, so do they speake a language (proper only to themselves) called Canting, which is more strange. This word canting, seemes to be derived from the Latine Verbe (Canto) which signifies in English to sing, or to make a sounde with words, that is to say, to speake. And very aptly may Canting take its derivation, à cantando, from singing, because amongst these beggerly consorts that can play on no better instruments, the language of canting is a kinde of Musicke, and he that in such assemblies can cant best, is counted the best musician.

1639. Ford, Lady’s Trial, V., 1. One can man a gulan, and cant, and pick a pocket.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.) Cant (v.): to talk gibberish like gypsies.

3. To speak; to talk.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. To Cante, to speake.

1881. New York Slang Dictionary. ‘On the trail.’ ‘But cant us the cues. What was the job?’ ‘A pinch for an emperor’s slang. We touched his leather too, but it was very lathy.’

Cantab, subs. (colloquial).—A student at Cambridge. [An abbreviation of ‘Cantabrigian.’]

1750. Coventry, Pompey Litt. II., x. (1785), p. 18, col. 1. The young cantab ... had come up to London. [m.]

1821. Byron, Don Juan, c. iii., st. 126. And I grown out of many ‘wooden spoons’ Of verse (the name with which we cantabs please To dub the last of honours in degrees).

Cantabank, subs. (old).—A common ballad singer. [From Latin cantare, to sing, + banco, bench; i.e., a singer on a stage or platform.]

1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 96. Small and popular Musickes song by these Cantabanqui vpon benches and barrels heads. [m.]

1834. Taylor, Ph. van Art, pt. I., iii., 2. He was no tavern cantabank that made it, But a Squire minstrel of your Highness’ court.

Cantankerous, adj. (colloquial).—Cross-grained; ill-humoured; self-willed; productive of strife. See also quot. 1773. [Thought to be derived from the M. E. contak, conteke, contention or quarrelling.] So also cantankerously and cantankerousness. For synonyms, see Crusty.

1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, II. There’s not a more bitter cantankerous road in all Christendom.

1775. Sheridan, Rivals, Act v., Sc. 3. But I hope Mr. Faulkland, as there are three of us come on purpose for the game, you wont be so cantankerous as to spoil the party by sitting out.

1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard, ch. xvi. And who was to nurse this peevish, cantankerous old man.

Hence the American verb, to cantankerate, and adjective, cantankersome.

1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxiv. You may [by contentious writing] happify your inimies [and] cantankerate your opponents. Ibid. 3 S., ch. xii. Plato Frisk, a jumpin’ Quaker, a terrible cross-grained cantankersome critter.

Cante.—See Canter.

Canteen Medal, subs. phr. (military).—A good conduct stripe for the consumption of liquor.

Canter, subs. (old).—A vagrant or beggar; one who cants (q.v.) or uses the secret language otherwise called Peddlars’ French, St. Giles’ Greek, etc. The form has varied, Greene using cante, whilst many writers speak of the fraternity as the canting crew.—See Appendix. [From cant, verb, sense 1, + er.]

1592. Greene, Quip for Upst. Courtiers, Harl. Misc. V., 396. I fell into a great laughter, to see certain Italianate cantes, humourous cavaliers, youthful gentlemen, etc.

1625. Ben Jonson, Staple of News, Act ii. A rogue, a very canter I, sir, one that maunds upon the pad.