View source for Thieves' cant

{{Short description|Cant used by various peoples in English-speaking countries}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
[[File:Villon19.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|"{{lang|fr|Le Grant Testament [[François Villon|Maistre Françoys Villon]] et le Petit. Son Codicille avec le [[Jargon]] et ses [[Ballad|Ballades]].}}" ({{circa|1500}}) It is one of the earliest examples of the use of thieves' cant in [[Modern history|modern times]].]]

'''Thieves' cant''' (also known as '''thieves' argot''', '''rogues' cant''', or '''peddler's French''')<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/12/daniel_heller_roazen_s_dark_tongues_reviewed.html|title=The Tongues of Rogues: How secret languages develop in closed societies|first=Jacob|last=Mikanowski|website=Slate|date=5 December 2013}}</ref> is a [[cant (language)|cant]], cryptolect, or argot which was formerly used by thieves, beggars, and hustlers of various kinds in [[Great Britain]] and to a lesser extent in other [[English-speaking]] 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==
[[Cant (language)|Cant]] is a common feature of [[rogue literature]] of the [[Elizabethan era]] in [[England]], in both [[pamphlets]] and [[theatre]]. It was claimed by [[Samuel Rid]] to have been devised around 1530 by two vagabond leaders – Giles Hather, of the [[gypsies|"Egyptians"]], and Cock Lorell, of the "Quartern of Knaves" – at [[Peak Cavern|The Devil's Arse]], a cave in [[Derbyshire]], "to the end that their [[wiktionary:cozening|cozenings]], [[wiktionary:knavery|knaveries]] and [[wiktionary:villainy|villainies]] might not so easily be perceived and known".<ref>Rid, Samuel (1610). ''Martin Markall, the Beadle of Bridewell'', as quoted in {{cite book|title=Becoming Criminal: Transversal Performance and Cultural Dissidence in Early Modern England|first=Bryan|last=Reynolds|page=33|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|date=2002|isbn=978-0-8018-7675-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2BiO3wlUTAC}}</ref> 
[[Thomas Harman]], a [[justice of the peace]], included examples in his account ''[[A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors]]'', first published in 1566. He collected his information from [[Vagabond (person)|vagabonds]] he interrogated at his home in [[Essex]]. 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]] {{circa|1536}}. Copland and Harman were used as sources by later writers. A spate of rogue literature started in 1591 with [[Robert Greene (16th century)|Robert Greene]]'s series of five pamphlets on [[wiktionary:cozen|cozenage]] and [[coney-catching]]. These were continued by other writers, including [[Thomas Middleton]], in ''The Black Book'' and [[Thomas Dekker (poet)|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, [[confidence trick|gull-groping]], and [[gambling|gaming]] tricks, and the descriptions of [[low-life]]s of the kind which have always been popular in literature.

Harman included a canting [[dictionary]] 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 [[Literature in English#Jacobean period (1603–1625)|Jacobean]] theatre. Middleton and Dekker included it in ''The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cut-Purse'' (1611). It was used extensively in ''The [[Beggars' Bush]]'', a play by [[Francis Beaumont]], [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]] and [[Philip Massinger]], 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]] as one of the [[droll]]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|Gypies]]<ref>https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-trouble-with-gypsies</ref> in the nineteenth century. [[Bampfylde Moore Carew]], who published his [[picaresque]] ''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]] (1673), and BE's ''[[A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew|Dictionary of the Canting Crew]]'' (1699).{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}}

==Sources==
It was commonly believed that cant developed from [[Angloromani language|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]] taken in 1616 with modern [[Welsh Romani]] 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.<ref name=bakker>{{cite journal |url=http://www.marston.co.uk/RSPP/LUPRSV012P02A00075.pdf |title=An early vocabulary of British Romany (1616): A linguistic analysis |first=Peter |last=Bakker |journal=[[Romani Studies (journal)|Romani Studies]] |series=Series 5 |volume=12 |number=2 |year=2002 |issn=1528-0748 |pages=75–101 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004125822/http://www.marston.co.uk/RSPP/LUPRSV012P02A00075.pdf |archivedate=4 October 2011 |df=dmy-all |doi=10.3828/rs.2002.4}}</ref>

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 who were engaged in criminal activities, or those who were associated with them and had 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.<ref name=bakker/> A thief in 1839 claimed that the cant he had seen in print was nothing like the cant then used by gypsies, thieves and beggars. He also said that each of these used distinct vocabularies, which overlapped; the gypsies having a cant word for everything, and the vagrants using a lower style than the thieves.<ref>Ribton-Turner, C. J. 1887 Vagrants and Vagrancy and Beggars and Begging, London, 1887, p. 245, quoting an examination taken at [[Salford, Greater Manchester|Salford]] Gaol</ref>

==Examples==
*''ken'' – house
*''bob ken'' – a house that can easily be robbed{{sfn|But|2017}}
*''boozing ken'' – alehouse
*''stauling ken'' – a house that will receive stolen goods<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sorensen|first=Janet|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/985451914|title=Strange vernaculars : how eighteenth-century slang, cant, provincial languages, and nautical jargon became English|date=2017|isbn=978-1-4008-8516-9|location=Princeton, New Jersey|pages=28|oclc=985451914}}</ref>
*''lag'' – water; as a verb, penal transportation
*''bene'' – good
*''patrico'' – priest
*''autem'' – church
*''darkmans'' – night
*''{{not a typo|glymmer}}'' – fire
*''mort'' – woman
*''cove'' – man<ref>Harman, Thomas. ''A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursetors'' (1814, [1566]), p. 65.</ref>
*''cully'' – a victim{{sfn|McMullan|1984|p=100}}
*''bung'' – a purse{{sfn|McMullan|1984|p=100}}
*[[Fence (criminal)|''fence'']] – a person who buys stolen goods<ref>{{Cite journal|last=But|first=Roxanne|date=2017|title="He said he was going on the scamp": Thieves' cant, enregisterment and the representation of the social margins in the Old Bailey Sessions Papers|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jhsl-2017-1001/html|journal=Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics|volume=3|issue=2|pages=151–171|doi=10.1515/jhsl-2017-1001|s2cid=64940066 |issn=2199-2894|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
*''fencing cully'' – a person who will receive stolen goods{{sfn|Sorensen|2017|p=28}}
*''fambles'' – hands; also goods that are probably stolen{{sfn|Sorensen|2017|pp=28,50}}
*''bite'' – to cheat or cozen{{sfn|Sorensen|2017|p=28}}
*''prog'' – meat{{sfn|Sorensen|2017|p=48}}
*''scowre'' – to run away{{sfn|Sorensen|2017|p=48}}
*''cuttle-bung'' – a knife with a curved blade{{sfn|McMullan|1984|p=101}}
*''foin'' – a pickpocketing technique in which conversation and deception are used to steal a purse from a victim; also someone who uses this technique<ref>{{Cite book|last=McMullan|first=John L.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/9619815|title=The canting crew : London's criminal underworld, 1550–1700|date=1984|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=0-8135-1022-8|location=New Brunswick, N.J.|pages=100|oclc=9619815}}</ref>
*''nip'' – pickpocketing by slashing and palming a purse; also a person who uses this technique{{sfn|McMullan|1984|p=100}}
*''knuckle'' – a young pickpocket{{sfn|McMullan|1984|p=100}}
*''stall'' – a person who identifies and manoeuvres a victim so that their purse can be stolen{{sfn|McMullan|1984|p=100}}
*''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{{sfn|McMullan|1984|p=100}}
*''budge'' – a person who breaks into houses to allow entry for their gang.

==Equivalent of thieves' cant in other languages==
* [[Bargoens]], Netherlands
* [[Fenya]], Russia
* [[Germanía]], Spain
* [[Grypsera]], Poland
* [[Rotwelsch]], Germany
* [[Coa (argot)|Coa]], [[Chile]]

==See also==
*''[[A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew]]''
*{{annotated link|Rhyming slang}}
*{{annotated link|Lunfardo}}
*{{annotated link|Nihali language|Nihali}}
*{{annotated link|Polari}}
*{{annotated link|Tsotsitaal and Camtho}}
*{{annotated link|Šatrovački}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
===Bibliography===
*Judges, A.V., (1930, reprinted 1974) ''The Elizabethan Underworld,'' includes the main works of [[rogue literature]]
*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., [https://web.archive.org/web/20051123151840/http://www.wordwizard.com/critq3.htm ''Romany Rise''], ''Critical Quarterly'', Volume 41 Page 118 – October 1999 (commenting on Becker-Ho, A., ''Les Princes du Jargon'' (1990 & 1993)
*Harman, T. (1814) ''[[iarchive:acaveatorwarnin00harmgoog/mode/2up|A caveat or warning for common cursetors, vulgarly called vagabonds.]]''
*[http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/ 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.
*[http://www.fromoldbooks.org/NathanBailey-CantingDictionary/transcription.html Transcription of canting terms from 1736 and published then by Nathan Bailey]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080624185330/http://php.iupui.edu/~asimmon/thief.html The Lexicon of Thieves Cant]

==Further reading==
* [[George W. Matsell]] (1859), ''[https://archive.org/details/cu31924073798740 Vocabulum, or, The rogue's lexicon: compiled from the most authentic sources]'',<ref>See also ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=euWXIdL12dEC Vocabulum, or, The rogue's lexicon: compiled from the most authentic sources]'' at Google Books</ref> a dictionary of American thieves' cant.

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|Category:Thieves' cant}}
* [http://www.pascalbonenfant.com/18c/cant/ 18th and 19th Century Thieves' Cant]

{{philosophy of language}}
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{{Language phonologies}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thieves' Cant}}
[[Category:Cant languages]]<!--This is technically redundant, but many will look for it here.-->
[[Category:English-based argots]]