Part 7 (2/2)

CHAPTER VI GIPSY WORDS WHICH HAVE PassED INTO ENGLISH SLANG

Jockey--Tool--Cove or Covey--Hook, Hookey, and Walker, Hocus, Hanky- Panky, and Hocus-Pocus--shi+ndy--Row--Chivvy--Bunged Eye--Shavers-- Clichy--Caliban--A Ruer--Cad--Bosh--Bats-- Chee-chee--The Cheese--Chiv Fencer--Cooter--Gorger--dick--Dook-- Tanner--Drum--Gibberish--Ken--Lil--Loure--Loafer--Maunder--Moke-- Parny--Posh--Queer Raclan--Bivvy--Rigs--Moll--Distarabin--Tiny-- Toffer--Tool--Punch--Wardo--Voker (one of Mr Hotten's Gipsy words)-- Welcher--Yack--Lushy--A Mull--Pross--Toshers--Up to Trap--Barney-- Beebee--Cull, Culley--Jo, and Bite--Rules to be observed in detere of the Gipsies has been kept a great secret for centuries, still a feords have in England oozed out here and there froue There is, itlike accuracy, the real origin or identity of such expressions So that ties have taken place in Rommany At least one-third of the words now used by Scottish Gipsies are unintelligible to their English brothers To satisfy lish Gipsy on the Scottish Gipsy vocabularies in Mr Simpson's work, and found it was as I anticipated; a statement which will not appear incredible when it is remembered, that even the Rommany of Yetholm have a dialect marked and distinct froland, numbers of the words collected by Williaht in 1817, and by Harriott in 1830, are not known at the present day to any Gipsies whoain, it should be remembered that the pronunciation of Romiven as _cumbo_, a hill, by Bryant, I have heard very distinctly pronounced _choomure_

I believe that to Mr Borrow is due the discovery that the word JOCKEY is of Gipsy origin, and derived fro is more clearly established than that the jockey-as the original term in which this word first made its appearance on the turf, and that the _chuckni_ was a peculiar for and heavy, first used by the Gipsies ”Jockeyisement of a whip_, and the word jockey is neither htly nate the formidable whips which they usually carry, and which are at present in general use a horse-traffickers, under the title of jockey-whips” In Hungary and Germany the word occurs as _tschuckini_ or _chookni_, and _tschupni_

Many of my readers are doubtless faing the reins and driving horses 'To tool the horses down the road,' is indeed rather a fine word of its class, being as much used in certain clubs as in stables, and often denotes stylish and gentlehtest , directly and simply Gipsy, and is used by Gipsies in the sa--to hold, or to take Thus I have heard of a feeble old fellow that ”he could not tool hietherus”--for which last word, by the way, _kettenus_ ht have been ant, though a very old, word, but it is well known, and I have no doubt as to its having come from the Gipsy In Ro,” but it is aleneral helper on all occasions; is used as substantive and adjective, and has a far wider scope than the Latin _res_” Thus _covo_ may mean ”that man;” _covi_, ”that wolish, ”that, there” It sometimes appears in the word _acovat_, or _this_

There is no expression more frequent in a Gipsy's mouth, and it is precisely the one which would be probably overheard by ”Gorgios” and applied to persons I believe that it firstas _covey_, and was then pronounced _cuvvy_, being subsequently abbreviated into cove

Quite a little falish from the Rommany, _Hocben_, _huckaben_, _hokkeny_, or _hooker_, all _ Mr Borros us that _hocus_, to ”bewitch” liquor with an opiate, and _hoax_, are probably Rommany from this root, and I have no doubt that the expression, ”Yes, with a _hook_,”

”it is false,” comes from the same The well-known ”Hookey” who corresponds so closely with his untruthful and disreputable pal ”Walker,”

is decidedly of the streets--gipsy In German Gipsy we find _chochavav_ and _hochea_, and in Roumanian Gipsy _kokao_--a lie Hanky-panky and Hocus-pocus are each one half almost pure Hindustani {81}

A shi+NDY approaches so nearly in sound to the Gipsy word _chingaree_, which estion is at least worth consideration And it also greatly rese up,” and also quarrel ”To cut up shi+ndies”

was the first form in which this extraordinary word reached the public

In the original Gipsy tongue the word to quarrel is _chinger-av_, ht, while to cut is _chinav_ ”Cutting up” is, if the reader reflects, a very uneous or noisy pranks; but in Gipsy, whether English, Gerical, involving the idea of quarrelling, separating, dividing, cutting, and stabbing What, indeed, could beup shi+nes,”

unless we attribute to _shi+ne_ its legitinatethat a man _cut away_ or that he _shi+nned_ it, for run away, unless we have recourse to Gipsy, though I only offer this as a estion

”Applico” to shi+ndy we have the word ROW,and as nearly Gipsy in every respect as can be It is in Gipsy at the present day in England, correctly, _rov_, or _roven_--to cry--but _v_ and _w_ are so frequently transposed that we may consider them as the same letter _Raw_ or _iven by Pott as equivalent to the Latin _ululatus_, which constituted a very respectable _row_ as regards ood Gipsy in their origin In Hindustani _Rao ar word, oad, drive, vex, hunt, or throw as it were here and there It is purely Gipsy, and seems to have more than one root _Chiv_, _chib_, or _chipe_, in Ro sharp-pointed, as for instance a dagger, or goad or knife But the old Gipsy word _chiv-av_ a, throwing, pitching, and driving To _chiv_ in English Gipsy means as much and more than to _fix_ in America, in fact, it is applied to almost any kind of action

It may be remarked in this connection, that in Gerreat ralish have becoue, and _tschia_ (or _chiv_-ava), to lay, place, lean, sow, sink, set upright, land into _chiv_, which e anything, to covering it up, to lifting it, to setting it, to pushi+ng it, to circulating, and in fact to a very great number of similar verbs

There is, I think, no rational connection between the BUNG of a barrel and an eye which has been closed by a blow One et the simile from a knot in a tree or a cork in a flask But e reflect on the constant hters, it is alin of it A _bongo yakko_ or _yak_, ed eye

It also ure of speech, _Bongo Tem_ or the Crooked Land is the name for hell {83}

SHAVERS, as a quaint nick-name for children, is possibly inexplicable, unless we resort to Gipsy, where we find it used as directly as possible

_Chavo_ is the Rolish term _chavies_, in Scottish Gipsy _shavies_, or shavers, leaves us but little room for doubt I am not aware to what extent the terland, but in America it is as coin of the French word CLICHY, as applied to the noted prison of that na the comment that in Continental Gipsy it means a key and a bolt

I have been struck with the fact that CALIBAN, the monster in ”The Tenifies blackness in Gipsy In fact, this very word, or Cauliban, is given in one of the Gipsy vocabularies for ”black” Kaulopen or Kauloben would, however, be ular RUM 'un” was the fore, difficult, or distinguished, was first introduced to the British public This, I honestly believe (as Mr Borrow indicates), came from _Rum_ or _Rom_, a Gipsy It is a peculiar word, and all of its peculiaritiesGipsy, who is always, in his way, a character, gifted with an indescribable self-confidence, as are all ”horsey” men characters, ”sports” and boxers, which enables them to keep to perfection the German eleventh commandment, ”Thou shall not let thyself be _bluffed_!”--_ie_, abashed