Thieves' cant
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Thieves' cant (also known as thieves' argot, rogues' cant, or peddler's French) is a
cant Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to: Language * Cant (language), a secret language * Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers * Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers * Shelta or the Cant, a lan ...
, cryptolect, or argot which was formerly used by thieves, beggars, and hustlers of various kinds in
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
and to a lesser extent in other
English-speaking Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...
countries. It is now mostly obsolete and used in literature and fantasy role-playing, although individual terms continue to be used in the criminal subcultures of Britain and the United States.


History

It was claimed by Samuel Rid that thieves' cant was devised around 1530 "to the end that their cozenings, knaveries and villainies might not so easily be perceived and known", by
Cock Lorel The title King of the Gypsies has been claimed or given over the centuries to many different people. It is both culturally and geographically specific. It may be inherited, acquired by acclamation or action, or simply claimed. The extent of the p ...
and the
King of the Gypsies The title King of the Gypsies has been claimed or given over the centuries to many different people. It is both culturally and geographically specific. It may be inherited, acquired by acclamation or action, or simply claimed. The extent of the p ...
at The Devil's Arse, a cave in
Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
. It seems to have originated in this period, but the story is almost certainly a myth.
Cant Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to: Language * Cant (language), a secret language * Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers * Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers * Shelta or the Cant, a lan ...
is a common feature of
rogue literature Rogue literature is a literary genre that tells stories from the world of thieves and other criminals that was popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries. The stories were mostly in a confessional form and full of vivid descriptions. Rogue ...
of the
Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
period in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, in both
pamphlets A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...
and
Elizabethan theatre English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. ...
.
Thomas Harman Thomas Harman ( ''fl.'' 1567) was an English writer best known for his seminal work on beggars, '' A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors''. Life He was the grandson of Henry Harman, clerk of the crown under Henry VII, who obtained about 1480 ...
, a
justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
, included examples in his ''Caveat for Common Cursitors'' (1566). He collected his information from
vagabonds Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...
he interrogated at his home in
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
. He also called it "pedlars' French" or "pelting speech", and was told that it had been invented as a secret language some 30 years earlier. The earliest records of canting words are included in ''The Highway to the Spitalfields'' by
Robert Copland Robert Copland ( fl. 1508–1547), English printer and author, is said to have been a servant of William Caxton, and certainly worked for Wynkyn de Worde. The first book to which his name is affixed as a printer is ''The Boke of Justices of Peace' ...
. Copland and Harman were used as sources by later writers. A spate of rogue literature started in 1591 with Robert Greene's series of five pamphlets on cozenage and
coney-catching ''Coney-catching'' is Elizabethan slang for theft through trickery. It comes from the word "coney" (sometimes spelled ''conny''), meaning a rabbit raised for the table and thus tame. A coney-catcher was a thief or con man. It was a practice in me ...
. These were continued by other writers, including
Thomas Middleton Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...
, in ''The Black Book'' and Thomas Dekker, in ''The Bellman of London'' (1608), ''Lantern and Candlelight'' (1608), and ''O per se O'' (1612). Cant was included together with descriptions of the social structure of beggars, the techniques of thieves including coney-catching, gull-groping, and
gaming Gaming may refer to: Games and sports The act of playing games, as in: * Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming" * Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles * Playing ...
tricks, and the descriptions of
low-life A low-life (or lowlife) is a term for a person who is considered morally unacceptable by their community. Examples of people society often labels low-lives include aggressive panhandlers, bullies, criminals, drug dealers, freeloaders, hobos, ga ...
s of the kind which have always been popular in literature. Harman included a canting
dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...
which was copied by Thomas Dekker and other writers. That such words were known to a wide audience is evidenced by the use of cant words in Jacobean theatre. Middleton and Dekker included it in ''The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cut-Purse'' (1611). It was used extensively in ''The
Beggars' Bush ''Beggars' Bush'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that is a focus of dispute among scholars and critics. Authorship The authorship and the date of the play have long been debated by ...
'', a play by
Francis Beaumont Francis Beaumont ( ; 1584 – 6 March 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. Beaumont's life Beaumont was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, near Thrin ...
, John Fletcher and
Philip Massinger Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including ''A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', ''The City Madam'', and '' The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their politi ...
, first performed in 1622, but possibly written c. 1614. The play remained popular for two centuries, and the canting section was extracted as ''The Beggars Commonwealth'' by
Francis Kirkman Francis Kirkman (1632 – c. 1680) appears in many roles in the English literary world of the second half of the seventeenth century, as a publisher, bookseller, librarian, author and bibliographer. In each he is an enthusiast for popular litera ...
as one of the
droll A droll is a short comical sketch of a type that originated during the Puritan Interregnum in England. With the closure of the theatres, actors were left without any way of plying their art. Borrowing scenes from well-known plays of the Elizab ...
s he published for performance at markets, fairs and camps. The influence of this work can be seen from the independent life taken on by the "Beggar King Clause", who appears as a real character in later literature. The ceremony for anointing the new king was taken from Thomas Harman and described as being used by
Romani people The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sig ...
in the nineteenth century.
Bampfylde Moore Carew Bampfylde Moore Carew (1690-1758) was an English rogue, vagabond and impostor, who claimed to be King of the Beggars. Life Baptized at Bickleigh, Devon, on 23 September 1690, Bampfylde Moore Carew was the son of Reverend Theodore Carew, recto ...
, who published his
picaresque The picaresque novel (Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for " rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrup ...
''Life'' in 1745, claimed to have been chosen to succeed "Clause Patch" as King of the Beggars, and many editions of his work included a canting dictionary. Such dictionaries, often based on Harman's, remained popular, including '' The Canting Academy, or Devils Cabinet opened'', by
Richard Head Richard Head ( 1637 – before June 1686) was an Irish author, playwright and bookselling, bookseller. He became famous with his satirical novel ''The English Rogue'' (1665), one of the earliest novels in English that found a continental transl ...
(1673), and BE's '' Dictionary of the Canting Crew'' (1699).


Sources

It was commonly believed that cant developed from Romany. Etymological research now suggests a substantial correlation between Romany words and cant, and equivalents, in many European languages. However, in England, Scotland, and Wales this does not apply. The ''Egyptians'', as they were known, were a separate group from the standard vagabonds, and cant was fully developed within 50 years of their first arrival in England. Comparison of Romany words in the
Winchester Confessions Winchester is a cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, at the western end of the South Downs National Park, on the River Itchen. It is south-west of Londo ...
taken in 1616 with modern Welsh Romany show high commonality. This record also distinguished between Romany and Cant words and again the attributions of the words to the different categories is consistent with later records. There is doubt as to the extent to which the words in canting literature were taken from street usage, or were adopted by those wishing to show that they were part of a real or imagined criminal underworld. The transmission has almost certainly been in both directions. The Winchester Confessions indicate that Roma engaged in criminal activities, or those associated with them and with a good knowledge of their language, were using cant, but as a separate vocabulary - Angloromani was used for day to day matters, while cant was used for criminal activities. A thief in 1839 claimed that the cant he had seen in print was nothing like the cant then used by Roma, thieves and beggars. He also said that each of these used distinct vocabularies, which overlapped; the Roma having a cant word for everything, and the beggars using a lower style than the thieves.


Examples

*''ken'' – house *''bob ken'' - a house that can easily be robbed *''boozing ken'' – alehouse *''stauling ken'' - a house that will receive stolen goods *''lag'' – water; as a verb, penal transportation *''bene'' – good *''patrico'' – priest *''autem'' – church *''darkmans'' – night *' – fire *''mort'' – woman *''cove'' – man *''cully'' - a victim *''bung'' - a purse * ''fence'' - a person who buys stolen goods *''fencing cully'' - a person who will receive stolen goods *''fambles'' - hands; also goods that are probably stolen *''bite'' - to cheat or cozen *''prog'' - meat *''scowre'' - to run away *''cuttle-bung'' - a knife with a curved blade *''foin'' - a pickpocketing technique in which conversation and deception are used to steal a purse from a victim; also someone who uses this technique *''nip'' - pickpocketing by slashing and palming a purse; also a person who uses this technique *''knuckle'' - a young pickpocket *''stall'' - a person who identifies and maneuvers a victim so that their purse can be stolen *''bulk the cull to the right!'' - an instruction by a pickpocket to a ''stall'' to distract a ''cully'' by striking them on their right breast, so that their purse may be stolen


Equivalent of thieves' cant in other languages

*
Bargoens ''Bargoens'' is a form of Dutch slang. More specifically, it is a cant language that arose in the 17th century, and was used by criminals, tramps and travelling salesmen as a secret code, like Spain's ''Germanía'' or French ''Argot''. It is spe ...
, Netherlands *
Fenya Fenya ( rus, феня, p=ˈfʲenʲə) or fen'ka ( rus, фенька, p=ˈfʲenʲkə) is a Russian cant language used among criminals. In modern Russian language it is also referred to as blatnoy language (), where "blatnoy" is a slang expression f ...
, Russia *
Germanía Germanía () is the Spanish term for the argot used by criminals or in jails in Spain during 16th and 17th centuries. Its purpose is to keep outsiders out of the conversation. The ultimate origin of the word is the Latin word , through Catalan ( ...
, Spain *
Grypsera Grypsera (: from Low German ''Grips'' meaning "intelligence", "cleverness"; also ''drugie życie'', literally "second life" in Polish) is a distinct nonstandard dialect or prison slang of the Polish language, used traditionally by recidivist priso ...
, Poland *
Rotwelsch Rotwelsch (, ''" beggar's foreign (language)"'') or Gaunersprache ( ''" crook's language"'') also Kochemer Loshn (from Yiddish "", "tongue of the wise") is a secret language, a cant or thieves' argot, spoken by groups (primarily marginalized gr ...
, Germany * Coa,
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...


See also

*''
A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew ''A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew'' is a dictionary of English cant and slang by a compiler known only by the initials B. E., first published in London c. 1698. With over 4,000 entries, it was the most exte ...
'' * * * * * *


References


Bibliography

*Judges, A.V., (1930, reprinted 1974) ''The Elizabethan Underworld,'' includes the main works of
rogue literature Rogue literature is a literary genre that tells stories from the world of thieves and other criminals that was popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries. The stories were mostly in a confessional form and full of vivid descriptions. Rogue ...
*Aydelotte, F., (1913, reprinted 1967) ''Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds'', provided analysis of the literature. *Coleman, J., (2004) ''A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries'', Volume 1: 1567-1784 *Green, J.
''Romany Rise''
''Critical Quarterly'', Volume 41 Page 118 - October 1999 (commenting on Becker-Ho, A., ''Les Princes du Jargon'' (1990 & 1993)
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence
1811 edition of a dictionary compiled by Captain Grose in 1785.

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080624185330/http://php.iupui.edu/~asimmon/thief.html The Lexicon of Thieves Cant


Further reading

* George W. Matsell (1859),
Vocabulum, or, The rogue's lexicon: compiled from the most authentic sources
',See also
Vocabulum, or, The rogue's lexicon: compiled from the most authentic sources
' at Google Books
a dictionary of American thieves' cant.


External links


18th and 19th Century Thieves' Cant
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thieves' Cant Cant languages English-based argots