I was sent a copy of a rare book the other day: A Dictionary of Modern 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. Preceded by a History of Cant and Vulgar Language; with Glossaries of the Secret Languages of the Wandering Tribes of London, the Costermongers and the Patterers.
This gem of a book, by a nameless London antiquary, was published in 1859. It contains the first dictionary of cant ever written, the work of one Thomas Harman, an Elizabethan gentleman who became famous for his efforts at suppressing the very people he collected cant words from. They in turn called the stocks the harman. Here are a few of his words, first printed in 1556; you may recognise some of them in their modern garb:
Skew, a cup. (Probably from Old French escuelle, a bowl, from Low Latin scutella, a platter.) Darkemans, the night. Lightmans, the day. Doxes, harlots. Drawers, hose. Fylche, to rob. Fylcheman, a robber. Patricos kinchen, a prygge. (This is a crack at the church, our author says, patrico is a priest and kinchen his little boy or girl).
Rome, excellent. Rome house, (rum booze) wine. Rome mort, good woman, Queen Elizabeth. Rome vylle, (rum ville) London. (Rome was considered to be the greatest of cities but rome, modern rum, is now used for the very opposite qualities.)
This cant came from many sources and, like Sheldru, it was meant to be incomprehensible to the general public. Donna and feeles, a mother and children, sounds like a mixture of Italian and French; frow, a wife, poses no problem; gent, silver and vial, a country town, are, of course, stolen from French, and horrid horn, a fool, is, our author states, from Irish: amadan, no doubt.
Shakespeare used costermonger's cant: pepper, to beat, thrash; other words borrowed by him are prig, to steal (from Old English priccan); clean gone, in the sense of out of sight, completely disappeared; to buckle under, to give in; piece, a contemptuous name for a woman. Ben Jonson has the cant crusty, bad-tempered; two of a kidney, two of a sort; lark, a bit of fun; pickle, a sad plight. More anon.
This is for the ladies of the Wicklow Moorhouse Travelling clan who, thanks to their teacher, Linda McGrane, are by now able to read it.