Cab, subs. 1. (University and school boys’).—An adventitious aid to
study; a ‘crib’; a pony (q.v. for synonyms). [From cabbage (q.v.) =
pilferings.]
1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’). Adventures of Verdant
Green. Those who can’t afford a coach get a cab, alias a crib,
alias a translation.
1876. Academy, 4 Nov., p. 448, col. 2. The use or translations,
‘cribs,’ or ‘cabs’ as boys call them, must at some time or other
engage the serious attention of schoolmasters. [m.]
2. (old).—A brothel: in use during the early part of the present
century; now obsolete. [Probably a contracted form of ‘cabin,’ some of
the older senses of which (e.g., a small room, bedroom, or boudoir) are
in correspondence. Parallels exist in other languages, and comparison
may be made with the Fr. cabane, and Sp. cabaña; also with the Latin
taberna = cabin, hut, and brothel. The It. bordello (Eng. bordel) was
originally precisely equivalent to taberna and cabaña, being a
diminutive of borda = cottage, cabin, shed, house of boards. All these
words, and many similar (e.g., Latin cella, cellula, the petite maison
of the French) came to be applied in the specifically esoteric sense
under discussion, by an obvious euphuism or familiarism, which left the
nature of the hut, booth, cell, or cabin to be supplied by those who
understood. Further, ‘cabin’ = an Eng. rendering of the Latin cella,
cellula = brothel. Also Cab-Moll (q.v.), a prostitute, originally the
moll or molly of a cabin, cabane, or brothel, the present meaning being
a popular misuse founded on a mistaken analysis.] For all synonyms, see
Nanny-shop.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Mother, hew many tails have you in your
cab? i.e., how many girls have you in your bawdy house?
Verb (colloquial).—1. To proceed from one place to another by means of
a cab; Cf., ‘to foot or hoof it,’ ‘to tram it,’ ‘to train it,’ or ‘to
’bus it.’
1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers. He’s a cabbing it, I suppose.
1882. Blackwood’s Magazine, Feb., p. 238, col. 1. He ... cabs off
to take advice.
2. (schoolboys’).—To pilfer; to use a crib. Cf., Cabbage, verb, of
which it is an abbreviation.
Cabbage, subs. (old).—1. Generally applied to pieces purloined by
tailors; attributively to any small profits in the shape of material.
Quoted by Johnson as ‘a canting term,’ but now recognised. There is
little chance of cabbage nowadays, save amongst those who ‘make up
gentlemen’s own material’; but the expression is well understood by
low-class dressmakers. In America a corresponding term is ‘cold-slaw’
(q.v.) which consists of finely-cut cabbage, and represents the small
remnants known in other quarters as ‘carpet-rags’ or cabbage. Cf.,
Pigeon skewings. The derivation is obscure. Murray traces it back to
1663 (Hudibras [spurious]), but points out that Herrick [1648]
apparently uses garbage and carbage for ‘shreds and patches used as
padding.’ He then goes on to say that ‘if this was a genuine use at the
time, carbage may easily have been corrupted to cabbage.’ This
difficulty can, I think, be removed. In the seventeenth century, a
style of feminine headdress, then in vogue, very similar to the modern
chignon, was called a cabbage. Thus in Mundus Muliebris [1690]:
Behind the noddle every baggage, Wears bundle ‘choux,’ in English
cabbage.
Now, if this usage (omitted from the N.E.D.) be compared with the three
quotations first following, it would appear (1) that the word cabbage
was in use prior to carbage or garbage for ‘shreds and patches’; (2)
that carbage and garbage contain a sarcastic reference to the materials
with which a woman’s cabbage, or chignon, was stuffed; and (3) that in
every quotation the play upon words appears to confirm these
contentions. Hence, if cabbage as a mode of dressing the hair was
current during the seventeenth century (I have come across no earlier
instance), it is possible that the stages of transition were as
follows:—