A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words / Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James.

by John Camden Hotten

CLY-FAKER, a pickpocket.

COACH, a Cambridge term for a private tutor.

COACH WHEEL, or TUSHEROON, a crown piece, or five shillings.

COALS, “to call (or pull) over the COALS,” to take to task, to scold.

COCK, or more frequently now a days, COCK-E-E, a vulgar street salutation—corruption of COCK-EYE. The latter is frequently heard as a shout or street cry after a man or boy.

COCK AND A BULL STORY, a long, rambling anecdote.—See Notes and Queries, vol. iv., p. 313.

COCKCHAFER, the treadmill.

COCK-EYE, one that squints.

COCKLES, “to rejoice the COCKLES of one’s heart,” a vulgar phrase implying great pleasure.—See [PLUCK].

COCKNEY, a native of London. Originally, a spoilt or effeminate boy, derived from COCKERING, or foolishly petting a person, rendering them of soft or luxurious manners. Halliwell states, in his admirable essay upon the word, that “some writers trace the word with much probability to the imaginary land of COCKAYGNE, the lubber land of the olden times.” Grose gives Minsheu’s absurd but comical derivation:—A citizen of London being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, “Lord! how that horse laughs.” A bystander informed him that that noise was called neighing. The next morning, when the cock crowed, the citizen, to show that he had not forgotten what was told him, cried out, “do you hear how the COCK NEIGHS?”