unreliable confederate. Goi, plural gojim is applied to those not Jews, to Christians; in the plural, especially, in the sense of ignorant people, suspicious or two-faced characters; also used as a synonym for Philistine—a man of whom one has to be careful. Goje [fem.] is almost always used contemptuously for a female); götte (also götti, göde, göttling [O. H. G., gataling] a confederate, a relative—especially used to denote one who has been doing good business); gutenmorgenwünscher (literally 'good morning wisher': thieves who break into rooms early in the morning for purposes of robbery. The French have an analogous expression in bonjourier, or voleur ate bon jour). For other synonyms, see Thieves.
Italian Synonyms (Fourbesque). Quadro (a cut-purse. In the Germania or Spanish argot, quadro is used in the sense of 'a poignard,' and quadrata in that of 'purse.' Possibly the Fourbesque quadro is derived from one of these words. In Italian it is literally 'a square' or 'a rule'); granchetto (also 'one who speaks gibberish'); lavorante di scarpe (a pickpocket or cut-purse: lit. 'working shoes'); camuffo; fiadetto (also 'a dolt,' 'a duffer'); carpione; truccante (also 'a beggar').
Spanish Synonyms (Germania). Aquila (a sharper: lit. 'an eagle'); bolador (thought to be derived from the French voleur); comendadores de bola (thieves who work principally at fairs and markets); gerifalte (lit. 'a gerfalcon'—one of the 'hawk' species); lince (lit. 'a lynx.' This class of thief varies robbery with begging); piloto (a thief who directs others to the place of rendezvous, i.e., where a robbery has been planned; lit. 'a pilot'); trabajar (lit. 'a traveller).—See Thieves.
Portuguese Synonyms (Calaõ). Pai (a captain of thieves—an Aaron or arch-cove); maguino (a highwayman).
For exhaustive and comparative description of all classes of thieves, both English and foreign, see Thieves—their names and methods.
Arf, adj. (vulgarism).—Half; e.g., ''arf an 'our,'[i.e - better as "'arf an 'our,"] i.e., half an hour.
'Arf and 'arf.—See Four-half.
Argal.—See Argol-bargol.
Argol-Bargol, subs, and verb. (old).—Argol, sometimes argal, is a corrupt pronunciation of Latin ergo, therefore; hence, from that word being frequently used in conversation, a clumsy, unsound piece of reasoning or cavilling; and verbally, to bandy words. Hotten says argol-bargol is Scotch, but argal is found in Hamlet, v, i., and the fuller form is probably onamatopoetic like 'shilly-shally,' 'hocus-pocus,' etc., unless it comes from the Hebrew through the Yiddish bar-len 'to talk or speak' [anyhow].
1596. Shakspear. Hamlet v, i., 21., 1st Clown. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water, it is, will he, nil he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life.
