familiar term of chic. Etymologists, a race not wanting in effrontery, have hardly ever surpassed this circumstantial canard; the word chic dates at anyrate from the seventeenth century.[1] Another word with which similar liberty has been taken, is cant. Steele, in the 'Spectator,' says that some people derive it from the name of one Andrew Cant, a Scotch minister, who had the gift of preaching in such a dialect that he was understood by none but his own congregation, and not by all of them. This is, perhaps, not a very accurate delineation of the real Andrew Cant, who is mentioned in 'Whitelock's Memorials,' and seems to have known how to speak out in very plain terms indeed. But at any rate he flourished about 1650, whereas the verb to cant was then already an old word. To cante, meaning to speak, is mentioned in Harman's 'List of Rogues' Words,' in 1566, and in 1587 Harrison says of the beggars and gypsies that they have devised a language among themselves, which they name canting, but others 'Pedlars' Frenche.'[2] Of all etymologies ascribed to personal names, one of the most curious is that of the Danse Macabre, or Dance of Death, so well known from Holbein's pictures. Its supposed author is thus mentioned in the 'Biographie Universelle:' 'Macaber, poëte allemand, serait tout-à-fait inconnu sans l'ouvrage qu'on a sous son nom.' This, it may be added, is true enough, for there never was such a person at all, the Danse Macabre being really Chorea Machabæorum, the Dance of the Maccabees,
- ↑ Charnock, 'Verba Nominalia,' s.v. 'chic;' see Francisque-Michel, 'Argot,' s.v.
- ↑ 'Spectator,' No. 147; Brand, 'Pop. Ant.' vol. iii. p. 93; Hotten, 'Slang Dictionary,' p. 3; Charnock, s.v. 'cant.' As to the real etymology, that from the beggar's whining chaunt is defective, for the beggar drops this tone exactly when he cants, i.e., talks jargon with his fellows. If cant is directly from Latin cantare, it will correspond with Italian cantare and French chanter, both used as slang words for to speak (Francisque-Michel, 'Argot'). A Keltic origin is more probable, Gaelic and Irish cainnt, caint = talk, language, dialect (see Wedgwood 'Etymological Dictionary'). The Gaelic equivalents for pedlars' French or tramps' slang, are 'Laidionn nan ceard,' 'cainnt cheard,' i.e., tinkers' Latin or jargon, or exactly 'cairds' cant.' A deeper connexion between cainnt and cantare does not affect this.
