Heading
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
