Reading the Dictionary of the Canting Crew is one of my secret pleasures, since it demonstrates beautifully just how many aspects of the English language are almost unchanged from the 16th and 17th centuries. Cant, for anyone unfamiliar with the term, is a form of slang which developed in the late 16th Century between rogues, beggars and thieves. These snippets (published in 1699) reveal that quite a few of the everyday phrases we employ in 2011 were also commonplace in Shakespeare's England.
Bacon, as he sav'd his Bacon - he has escaped with a whole Skin
Bandy-legg'd - crooked
Banter - a pleasant way of pratling which seems in earnest but is in jest, a sort of ridicule
Bay windows - embowed, as of old, standing out from the rest of the Building
Beside himself - distracted
Birds of a feather - Rogues of the same gang, also those of the same Profession, Trade or Employment
To kill two birds with one stone - to dispatch two Businesses at one Stroke
Bite the biter - to Rob the Rogue or Cheat the Cheater
Black and white - in writing
Blind-mans-buff - a play us'd by Children blind-folded.
Blow hot and cold - play fast and loose
Bode-ill - to presage or betoken ill
Brow-beat - to Cow, to Daunt, to awe with Big looks, or snub
Busy-bodies - Pryers into other Folks Concerns, such as thrust their Sickle in another's Harvest
He knows which side his Bread is butter'd - in his own interest
Carrots - Red Haired people
A Man of character - of Mark or Note
Chare-woman - Underdrudges or Taskers, assistants to Servantmaids
How cheap you make yourself - how Contemptible you render your self or undervalue your self
Cheer up - be of good courage, keep up the spirits
Chip off the old block - a Son that is his Father's likeness, more particularly the Son of a Cooper
Close-confident - a trusty Bosom friend
Coals to Newcastle - when the Drawer carries away any Wine in the Pot or Bottle
In cold blood - when the heat of war or Passion is over
Cross-patch - a Peevish forward Person
Not cut out for it - not turned for it
Every dog will have his day - none so wretched as has his good Planet
Egg one on - to prick him on, or to provoke or stir him up
Eves-dropper - one that skulks, lurks or lies under his Neighbor's Window or Door
Gad up and down - to Fidle and Fisk, to run a gossiping
A gust of wind - a short sudden furious blast
Higgledy-piggledy - all together, as Hoggs and Piggs lie Nose in Arse
Hold his nose to the grindstone - to keep him Under
To nip in the bud - to crush anything at the beginning
Out-at-heels - in a declining condition
Pay through the nose - Excessively or with Extortion
From pillar to post - from Constable to Constable
To smell a rat - to suspect a Trick
Give him enough rope and he'll Hang himself - he'll Decoy himself within his own Destiny
Troll-about - saunter, loiter, wander about
Wet your whistle - to Liquor your Throat
Stan said
ReplyDeleteIt's remarkable that so many of these phrases have persisted for such a long time. Testament, I suppose, to their usefulness and vigour.
I love old cant dictionaries. Recently I learned (from David Crystal's Evolving English) that George Andrewes wrote his 1809 Dictionary of the Slang and Cant Languages not principally for reasons of linguistic scholarship but "to expose the Cant Terms of [Thieves'] Language, in order to the more easy detection of their crimes".
Cant is wonderful, though I would question whether many of the examples given are "cant" rather than "slang".
ReplyDeleteApologies also for being sceptical but I think there are serious questions about whether cant was originated by thieves and vagabonds. A glossary was included in Thomas Harman's 'Caveat for Common Cursitors' (1566) but the balance of opinion seems to be swinging away from Harman being a reliable reporter. Harman was drawn upon (plagiarised) by the authors of the rogue literature of the late sixteenth century, and cant used in plays such as Fletcher & Massinger's 'Beggars Bush' (1622) and Bampfylde Moore Carew's picaresque 'Life and Adventures' (1745). It is not clear whether these recorded language used functionally by the "underworld", whether those who wished to present themselves as being part of the "underworld" used such language because it would be recognised through literay associations, or whether the authors were simply adding colour.
Andrewes claim is very similar to those made by Harman, Greene, Dekker etc, but with most of these earlier writers it was clearly a marketing ploy.
Fascinating comments, thanks both. Dekker clearly drew on earlier sources in an effort to make some money, a habit he was very fond of.
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