Part 8 (1/2)

PAL is a common cant word for brother or friend, and it is purely Gipsy, having coe On the Continent it is _prala_, or _pral_ In England it sometiwood (Dictionary of English Ety the clipping of trees But in old Gipsy or in the German Gipsy of the present day, as in the Turkish Rommany, it means so directly ”fear, mental weakness and worthlessness,”

that it in Terror in Gipsy is _trash_, while thirst is _trush_, and both are to be found in the Hindustani _Tras_, which means _thirst_ and _alarm_ or _terror_

It should be observed that in no instance can these Gipsy words have been borrowed fro They are all to be found in German Gipsy, which is in its turn identical with the Rohurs, Do Gipsies termed by different writers

I am aware that the word CAD was applied to the conductor of an omnibus, or to a non-student at Universities, before it becaar fellow, yet I believe that it was abbreviated froio, which often means a er in English slang

CODGER, which is coio, contenifying nothing, or in fact ee, but I can see no reason for going to the Turks for what the Gipsies at home already had, in all probability, from the same Persian source, or else from the Sanskrit With the Gipsies, _bosh_ is a fiddle, , and very often an idle sound or nonsense ”Stop your bosherin,” or ”your bosh,” is what they would term _flickin lav_, or current phrase

”BATS,” a low term for a pair of boots, especially bad ones, is, I think, froenerally called, however, by the Roland, Tom Pats ”To pad the hoof,” and ”to stand pad ”--the latter phrase , are probably derived from _pat_ It should be borne in ing certain letters, so that _p_ and _b_, like _l_ and _n_, or _k_ and _g_ hard, arded as identical

”CHEE-CHEE,” ”be silent!” or ”fie,” is ter Dictionary, but we need not go to India of the present day for a term which is faland, and which, as Mr Sie the advances of thientry, at fairs, or in public places

CHEESE, or ”THE CHEESE,”is pre-e,” is supposed by in because Gipsies use it, and it is to be found as ”chiz” in Hindustani, in which language it ard it themselves, as _tacho_ or true Rommanis, despite this testiinated in so's perversion of the French word _chose_

In London, a man who sells cutlery in the streets is called a CHIVE FENCER, a term evidently derived from the Gipsy _chiv_, a sharp-pointed instrument or knife A knife is also called a _chiv_ by the lowest class all over England

COUTER or COOTER is a couinea It was not necessary for the author of the Slang Dictionary to go to the banks of the Danube for the origin of a hich is in the land by their ancestors A sovereign, a pound, in Gipsy, is a _bar_

A GORGER, entleer, is derived by the author of the Slang Dictionary--absurdly enough, it eous,”--a hich it has no io--the two are often confounded--is the common Gipsy word for one who is not Gipsy, and very often entleman, and indeed any man whatever Actors soer_

dick, an English slang word for sight, or seeing, is purely Gipsy in its origin, and in common use by Rommanis over all the world

DOOK, to tell fortunes, and DOOKING, fortune-telling, are derived by the writer last cited, correctly enough, from the Gipsy _dukkerin_,--a fact which I specify, since it is one of the very rare instances in which he has not blundered when co on Rommany words, or other persons'

works

Mr Borrow has told us that a TANNER or sixpence, sometimes called a Downer, owes its pseudony ”little”--the sixpence being the little coin as co

DRUM or DROM, is the co it is applied, not only to highways, but also to houses

If the word GIBBERISH was, as has been asserted, first applied to the language of the Gipsies, it may have been derived either from ”Gip,” the nicknal-_ish_, I- _rish_, or froe

KEN, a low terin The common word in every Rommany dialect for a house is, however, neither ken nor khan, but _Ker_

LIL, a book, a letter, has passed froh it is not a very common word In Rommany it can be _correctly_ applied only to a letter or a piece of paper, which is written on, though English Gipsies call all books by this nari_

LOUR or LOWR, and LOAVER, are all vulgar terms for money, and combine two Gipsy words, the one _lovo_ or _lovey_, and the other _loure_, to steal

The reason for the co Dictionary, in order to explain this word, goes as usual to the Wallachian Gipsies, for what he ht have learned from the first tinker in the streets of London I should reinal identity with _loot_, the Hindustani for plunder or booty

I believe that the A to this Gipsy root, as well as to the Geraleofar_, and for this reason, that when the teran to be popular in 1834 or 1835, I can distinctly remember that it meant to _pilfer_ Such, at least, isschool boys ask one another in jest, of their acquisitions or gifts, ”Where did you loaf that from?” A petty pilferer was a loafer, but in a very short tiers in the sun, and disreputable pickers up of unconsidered trifles, non as bummers, were called loafers On this point my memory is positive, and I call attention to it, since the word in question has been the subject of much conjecture in America