Heading
Chuff It! intj. (common).—Be off! Take it away! For synonyms, see Hookey Walker!
Chul or Chull, verb (Anglo-Indian).—See
quot.
1886. G. A. Sala, in Ill. L. News, June 19, p. 644. In Calcutta chul is a word that you hear fifty times a day. A lady tells you that her new Ayah will not chul at all; the proprietor of that popular weekly journal, the Hooghly Dacoit . . . tells you that he is going home for six months; but that he has an able editor, and that the paper will chul very well during his absence. The chul, I apprehend, means to go on; to proceed, to do.
Chum, subs. (colloquial).—A close
companion; a bosom friend; an
intimate. Formerly a chamber-fellow
or mate. [Johnson calls
it a term used in the Universities,
and the earliest quot. seems
to bear him out. The derivation
is uncertain, and Dr. Murray
says 'no historical proof connecting
it with "chamber-fellow" or
"chamber-mate" has been
found.']
1684. Creech, Theocritus, Idyll XII. Ded. to my chum, Mr. Hody of Wadham College. [m.]
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Chum: a Chamber-fellow, or constant Companion.
1714. Spectator, No. 617. Letter written by University man to a friend begins 'Dear Chum.'
c. 1750. Humours of the Fleet, quot. in Ashton's Eighteenth Century Waifs, p. 249. When you have a chum, you pay but fitteen pence per week each.
1828-45. T. Hood, Poems, vol. II., p. 201 (ed. 1846). The very chum that shared my cake Holds out so cold a hand to shake It makes me shrink and sigh.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. v., The Colonel, as has been stated, had an Indian chum or companion, with whom he shared his lodgings.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Nov. 21, p. 6, col. 2. His [Allingham's] own chosen friend was Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his chums the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.
English Synonyms. Gossip; pal; pard (American); marrow (north-country); cully (theatrical); cummer; ben cull; butty; bo' (nautical); mate or matey; ribstone; bloater.
French Synonyms. Une branche (literally a branch or bough); un amar or amarre (thieves', Cf., amarre, a cable, rope, hawser); un aminche, aminchemar, or aminchemince (thieves': aminche d'af = an accomplice or stallsman); amis comme cochons (popular, m. pl.: literally 'as thick as pigs;' Cf., as thick as thieves); un matelot; une coterie (popular); un bon attelage (cavalry = a couple of good friends; literally 'a good team'); un artiste (popular); un camerluche or camarluche (popular); vieux frère la côte (sailors'); un camaro; une faridole (prostitutes' = a female pal); un fanande, or fanandel (thieves').
German Synonyms: Gleicher (also 'a brother'); Kineh or Kinehbruaer (Viennese thieves': German thieves use Kinne; from the Hebrew Kinnim, 'a louse'; Kinnemachler, literally 'lice eater' = a dirty, filthy fellow; also = a miser. Kinimer = a man full of lice).
Italian Synonyms. Furbo = 'an imposter, rogue, or sharper'); foneo; calcagno; guido, or guidone (literally a 'guide.' Also a 'dog' or 'beggar').
Spanish Synonyms. Cirinco (m); compinche (m).
Portuguese Synonym. Filhos do Golpe (literally 'children of the crowd').
