| [THE HISTORY OF CANT, OR THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF VAGABONDS.] | |
|---|---|
| PAGE | |
| Black and Coloured Vagabonds—Vagabonds all over Europe—Vagabonds Universal | [1–5] |
| Etymology of Cant—Cant used in old times—Difference between Cant and Slang | [5–7] |
| The Gipseys—Gipseys taught English Vagabonds—The Gipsey-Vagabond alliance—The Origin of Cant—Vulgar words from the Gipsey—Gipsey element in the English language—The poet Moore on the origin of Cant—Borrow on the Gipsey language—The inventor of Canting not hanged | [7–15] |
| Old Cant words still used—Old Cant words with modern meanings—The words “Rum” and “Queer” explained—Old Cant words entirely obsolete | [16–19] |
| The Oldest “Rogue’s Dictionary” | [20–26] |
| “Jaw-breakers,” or hard words, used as Cant—Were Highwaymen educated men?—Vagabonds used Foreign words as Cant—The Lingua Franca, or Bastard Italian—Cant derived from Jews and Showmen—Classic words used as English Cant—Old English words used as Cant—Old English words not fashionable now—Our old Authors very vulgar persons—Was Shakespere a pugilist?—Old Dramatists used Cant words—Curious systems of Cant | [26–35] |
| [ACCOUNT OF THE HIEROGLYPHICS USED BY VAGABONDS.] | |
| Mendicant Freemasonry—Hieroglyphics of Vagabonds—Maps used by Beggars—Account of a Cadger’s Map—Explanation of the Hieroglyphics—Did the Gipseys invent them?—The Murderer’s Signal on the Gallows | [36–43] |
| [THE HISTORY OF SLANG, OR THE VULGAR LANGUAGE OF FAST LIFE.] | |
| Slang at Babylon and Nineveh—Old English Slang—Slang in the time of Cromwell; and in the Court of Charles II.—Swift and Arbuthnot fond of Slang—The origin of “Cabbage”—“The Real Simon Pure”—Tom Brown and Ned Ward—Did Dr. Johnson compile a Slang Dictionary?—John Bee’s absurd etymology of Slang—The true origin of the term—Derived from the Gipseys—Burns and his fat friend, Grose—Slang used by all classes, High and Low—Slang in Parliament, and amongst our friends—New words not so reprehensible as old words burdened with strange meanings—The poor Foreigner’s perplexity—Long and windy Slang words—Vulgar corruptions | [44–55] |
| Fashionable Slang | [58] |
| Parliamentary Slang | [60] |
| Military and Dandy Slang | [62] |
| University Slang | [64] |
| Religious Slang | [66] |
| Legal Slang, or Slang amongst the Lawyers | [70] |
| Literary Slang, Punch on “Slang and Sanscrit” | [71] |
| Theatrical Slang, or Slang both before and behind the curtain | [75] |
| Civic Slang | [77] |
| Slang Terms for Money—Her Majesty’s coin is insulted by one hundred and thirty distinct Slang terms—Old Slang terms for money—The classical origin of Slang money terms—The terms used by the Ancient Romans vulgarisms in the Nineteenth Century | [78–82] |
| Shopkeepers’ Slang | [82] |
| Workmen’s Slang, or Slang in the workshop—Many Slang terms for money derived from operatives | [83] |
| Slang Apologies for Oaths, or sham exclamations for passion and temper—Slang swearing | [85] |
| Slang Terms for Drunkenness, and the graduated scale of fuddlement and intoxication | [86] |
| [DICTIONARY OF MODERN SLANG, CANT, AND VULGAR WORDS]; many with their etymologies traced, together with illustrations, and references to authorities | [89–249] |
| [Some Account of the Back Slang], the secret language of Costermongers—The principle of the Back Slang—Boys and girls soon acquire it—The Back Slang unknown to the Police—Costermongers’ terms for money—Arithmetic amongst the Costermongers | [251–255] |
| [Glossary of Back Slang] | [257–262] |
| [Some Account of the Rhyming Slang], the secret language of Chaunters and Patterers—The origin of the Rhyming Slang—Spoken principally by Vagabond Poets, Patterers, and Cheap Jacks—Patterers “well up” in Street Slang—Curious Slang Letter from a Chaunter | [263–268] |
| [Glossary of the Rhyming Slang] | [269–273] |
| [The Bibliography of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Language], or a list of the books which have been consulted in the compilation of this work, comprising nearly every known treatise upon the subject | [275–290] |
| [List of Abbreviations] | [291] |
| [Opinions of the Press upon the First Edition of this work—List of New Publications, &c.] | [293–300] |
THE HISTORY OF CANT,
OR, THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF VAGABONDS.
Cant and Slang are universal and world-wide.
Nearly every nation on the face of the globe, polite and barbarous, may be divided into two portions, the stationary and the wandering, the civilised and the uncivilised, the respectable and the scoundrel,—those who have fixed abodes and avail themselves of the refinements of civilisation, and those who go from place to place picking up a precarious livelihood by petty sales, begging, or theft. This peculiarity is to be observed amongst the heathen tribes of the southern hemisphere, as well as the oldest and most refined countries of Europe. As Mayhew very pertinently remarks, “it would appear, that not only are all races divisible into wanderers and settlers, but that each civilised or settled tribe has generally some wandering horde intermingled with, and in a measure preying upon it.” In South Africa, the naked and miserable Hottentots are pestered by the still more abject Sonquas; and it may be some satisfaction for us to know that our old enemies at the Cape, the Kafirs, are troubled with a tribe of rascals called Fingoes,—the former term, we are informed by travellers, signifying beggars, and the latter wanderers and outcasts. In South America, and among the islands of the Pacific, matters are pretty much the same. Sleek and fat rascals, with not much inclination towards honesty, fatten, or rather fasten, like body insects, upon other rascals, who would be equally sleek and fat but for their vagabond dependents. Luckily for respectable persons, however, vagabonds, both at home and abroad, show certain outward peculiarities which distinguish them from the great mass of lawful people off whom they feed and fatten. Personal observation, and a little research into books, enable me to mark these external traits. The wandering races are remarkable for the development of the bones of the face, as the jaws, cheek-bones, &c., high crowned, stubborn-shaped heads, quick restless eyes,[1] and hands nervously itching to be doing;[2] for their love of gambling,—staking their very existence upon a single cast; for sensuality of all kinds; and for their use of a CANT language with which to conceal their designs and plunderings.
The secret jargon, or rude speech, of the vagabonds who hang upon the Hottentots is termed cuze-cat. In Finland, the fellows who steal seal skins, pick the pockets of bear-skin overcoats, and talk Cant, are termed Lappes. In France, the secret language of highwaymen, housebreakers, and pickpockets is named Argot. The brigands and more romantic rascals of Spain, term their private tongue Germania, or Robbers’ Language. Rothwalsch, or Red Italian, is synonymous with Cant and thieves’ talk in Germany. The vulgar dialect of Malta, and the Scala towns of the Levant—imported into this country and incorporated with English cant—is known as the Lingua Franca, or bastard Italian. And the crowds of lazy beggars that infest the streets of Naples and Rome, and the brigands that Albert Smith used to describe near Pompeii—stopping a railway train, and deliberately rifling the pockets and baggage of the passengers—their secret language is termed Gergo. In England, as we all know, it is called Cant—often improperly Slang.
Most nations, then, may boast, or rather lament, a vulgar tongue, formed principally from the national language, the hereditary property of thieves, tramps, and beggars,—the pests of civilised communities. The formation of these secret tongues vary, of course, with the circumstances surrounding the speakers. A writer in Notes and Queries,[3] has well remarked, that “the investigation of the origin and principles of Cant and Slang language opens a curious field of enquiry, replete with considerable interest to the philologist and the philosopher. It affords a remarkable instance of lingual contrivance, which, without the introduction of much arbitrary matter, has developed a system of communicating ideas, having all the advantages of a foreign language.”
An inquiry into the etymology of foreign vulgar secret tongues, and their analogy with that spoken in England, would be curious and interesting in the extreme, but neither present space nor personal acquirements permit of the task, and therefore the writer confines himself to a short account of the origin of English Cant.
The terms CANT and CANTING were doubtless derived from chaunt or chaunting,—the “whining tone, or modulation of voice adopted by beggars, with intent to coax, wheedle, or cajole by pretensions of wretchedness.”[4] For the origin of the other application of the word CANT, pulpit hypocrisy, we are indebted to a pleasant page in the Spectator (No. 147):—“Cant is by some people derived from one Andrew Cant, who, they say, was a Presbyterian minister in some illiterate part of Scotland, who by exercise and use had obtained the faculty, alias gift, of talking in the pulpit in such a dialect that ’tis said he was understood by none but his own congregation,—and not by all of them. Since Master Cant’s time it has been understood in a larger sense, and signifies all exclamations, whinings, unusual tones, and, in fine, all praying and preaching like the unlearned of the Presbyterians.” This anecdote is curious, if it is not correct. It was the custom in Addison’s time to have a fling at the blue Presbyterians, and the mention made by Whitelocke of Andrew Cant, a fanatical Scotch preacher, and the squib upon the same worthy, in Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed, may probably have started the whimsical etymology. As far as we are concerned, however, in the present inquiry, CANT was derived from chaunt, a beggar’s whine; CHAUNTING being the recognised term amongst beggars to this day for begging orations and street whinings; and CHAUNTER, a street talker and tramp, the very term still used by strollers and patterers. The use of the word CANT, amongst beggars, must certainly have commenced at a very early date, for we find “TO CANTE, to speake,” in Harman’s list of Rogues’ Words in the year 1566; and Harrison about the same time,[5] in speaking of beggars and Gipseys, says, “they have devised a language among themselves which they name CANTING, but others Pedlars’ Frenche.”
Now the word CANT in its old sense, and SLANG[6] in its modern application, although used by good writers and persons of education as synonymes, are in reality quite distinct and separate terms. Cant, apart from religious hypocrisy, refers to the old secret language, by allegory or distinct terms, of Gipseys, thieves, tramps, and beggars. Slang represents that evanescent, vulgar language, ever changing with fashion and taste, which has principally come into vogue during the last seventy or eighty years, spoken by persons in every grade of life, rich and poor, honest and dishonest.[7] Cant is old; Slang is always modern and changing. To illustrate the difference: a thief in Cant language would term a horse a PRANCER or a PRAD,—while in slang, a man of fashion would speak of it as a BIT OF BLOOD, or a SPANKER, or a NEAT TIT. A handkerchief, too, would be a BILLY, a FOGLE, or a KENT RAG, in the secret language of low characters,—whilst amongst vulgar persons, or those who aped their speech, it would be called a RAG, a WIPE, or a CLOUT. Cant was formed for purposes of secrecy. Slang is indulged in from a desire to appear familiar with life, gaiety, town-humour, and with the transient nick names and street jokes of the day. Both Cant and Slang, I am aware, are often huddled together as synonymes, but they are distinct terms, and as such should be used.