Heading
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:
