Devonshire February March 17
Devon's Countryside, Wildlife, History and Events
Devon's Countryside, Wildlife, History and Events
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DEVONSHIRE magazine’s<br />
Abridged Guide to the Cant Language<br />
PLENTY OF INTEREST FROM READERS since our last issue on the subject<br />
of Bamfylde-Moore Carew, (or see on-line at devonshiremagazine.co.uk) Devon’s<br />
so-called King of the Gypsies and more particularly about the CANT LANGUAGE,<br />
spoken amongst ‘Egyptian’ Gypsies and<br />
other ne’er-do-wells in Georgian England.<br />
Some of these odd code words and phrases<br />
survive in Devon to this day. If you find<br />
yourself watching the carving of the roast<br />
next Sunday to make sure you are getting<br />
your fair whack, you are talking CANT.<br />
Getting all togged up for a night out? You’re<br />
talking CANT again.<br />
And if that panto you took the kids to see<br />
happened to be Babes in the Wood, you<br />
just used the CANT code for any of their<br />
number held fast in the stocks!<br />
Here are a few more, below:<br />
Abram - naked, without clothes<br />
Adam tiler - a pickpocket’s accomplice<br />
Amen curler - a parish clerk<br />
Autumn jet - a parson<br />
Autumn bawler - a preacher<br />
Babes in the wood - criminals in<br />
the stocks<br />
Back’d - dead<br />
Balsam - money<br />
Bandog - a bailiff<br />
Baptised - any spirit cut with water<br />
Barking irons - pistols<br />
Bawbee - a halfpenny<br />
Beater cases - boots<br />
Belly cheat - an apron<br />
Bing - to go<br />
Blackfly - the parson<br />
Blackbox - a lawyer<br />
Black Indies - Newcastle<br />
Bob - a shoplifter’s assistant<br />
(‘Bob’s your uncle!’)<br />
Booby hatch - a one-horse chaise<br />
Bum brusher - a school master<br />
Cank - dumb<br />
Cap - to swear<br />
Case - a shop, house or warehouse<br />
a target for thievery -<br />
‘case’ the joint)<br />
Calfskin fiddle - a drum<br />
Charm - a picklock<br />
Chates - the gallows<br />
Chafe - a knife<br />
<br />
<br />
(Image courtesy Russell-Coates Museum & Art gallery)<br />
Chosen tells - highwaymen<br />
working in pairs<br />
Chuck farthing - parish clerk<br />
Clickman toad - a West Country man<br />
Closes - rogues<br />
Cloy - a rogue, a robber<br />
Coach wheel - half a crown<br />
Collar day - execution<br />
Cooler - a woman<br />
Crew - knot or gang<br />
Crook - sixpence<br />
Cucumbers - tailors<br />
Cussin - a man<br />
Darby ready - money<br />
Dag - a gun<br />
Dancers - stairs<br />
Dash - a tavern drawer<br />
Diddle - gin<br />
Timber dater - the top rogue<br />
Dobing rig - stealing ribbons<br />
Doctors - loaded dice<br />
Dunker - a stealer of cows<br />
Riffs newly - initiated rogues<br />
Eternity box - coffin<br />
Families - rings<br />
Fammes - hands<br />
Fastener - a warrant<br />
Fawnet - a ring<br />
Feeder - a spoon<br />
Ferret - a pawnbroker<br />
Flick - sly<br />
Flyers - shoes or boots<br />
Froglanders - the Dutch<br />
Frummagemmed - choked, strangled,<br />
hanged<br />
Gaberlunsie - a beggar<br />
Gem - a fire<br />
Gibberish - the Cant language<br />
Bigger - a door<br />
Gaoler's coach - a hurdle<br />
Green bag - a lawyer<br />
Gropers - a blind man<br />
Gutter-lane - the throat<br />
Hammer - a great lie<br />
Hams - breeches<br />
Henfright - hen-pecked husbands<br />
Hums - church goers<br />
King’s pictures - money of any kind<br />
Lantern - a bribable court official<br />
Lifter - a crutch<br />
Little Barbary - Wapping<br />
Lushy cover - drunk<br />
Mill clapper - a scolding tongue<br />
Moon-curser - a link-boy<br />
Muck - money<br />
Ne’er a face but his own<br />
Not a penny in his pocket<br />
Nub - a head<br />
Nubbing - cheat the gallows<br />
Nut-crackers - a pillory<br />
Ogles - eyes<br />
Pad-the-hoof - journeying on foot<br />
Pantler - a butler<br />
Peeper - a mirror<br />
Penance boards - a pillory<br />
Porker - a sword<br />
Royster - a rude, roaring fellow<br />
Ruffin - the devil<br />
Rumba - a prison<br />
Sharper - a cheat<br />
Shove the tumbler - whipped at the<br />
cart’s tail<br />
Spanish money - forwards<br />
Spoil pudding - long-winded parson<br />
Swag - a shop<br />
Tip - to give or lend<br />
Toggery - clothes<br />
Twig - to break off<br />
Wattles - ears<br />
Whack - share<br />
Whitewall - silver money<br />
Wooden ruff - the stocks<br />
Yam - to eat heartily<br />
Yarum - milk<br />
Yellow George - a guinea<br />
Yelper - town crier<br />
Znees - frost or frozen<br />
Zneesy - frosty weather<br />
Re-searched (and Spellchecked)<br />
- by John Fisher<br />
<br />
hubcast<br />
.co.u k<br />
97
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