1854. Dickens, Hard Times, bk. I., ch. vi., p. 14 (H. ed.). ‘He has
his points as a Cackler still ... a speaker, if the gentleman likes
it better.’
Cackler’s-Ken, subs. (old).—A hen-roost; a fowl-house. [From cackler
(q.v., subs., sense 1), a fowl, + ken (q.v.), a place or house.] A
French thieves’ equivalent is une ornière (from ornie, a hen).
Cackle-Tub, subs. (old).—A pulpit. [From cackle (q.v.) + tub, in
allusion to the shape of old-fashioned pulpits.] For synonyms, see
Hum-box.
1888. Musgrave, Savage London. I sorter think if yer’ll borrow
Lucy’s chair to wheel me, I’ll go and sit under the cackle-tub in
Little Bethel next Sunday.
Cackling-Cheat or Chete, subs. (old).—A fowl. [From cackling, that
cackles, + cheat, From A.S. ceat, a thing.]—See Cheat.
English Synonyms. Beaker; cackler; margery prater; galeny; partlet;
chickabiddy; rooster; chuck-chuck; chuckie.
French Synonyms. Un becquant (a thieves’ term); un ornichon (also a
thieves’ term for a chicken); un pique-en-terre (literally ‘a
peck-the-ground’); une estable or une estaphle (thieves’); bruantez
(Breton slang).
German Synonyms. Kachni (from the Gypsy); mistkratzer.
Italian Synonyms. Ruspante or raspante (properly ‘scratching’ or
‘scraping’).
Spanish Synonyms. Capiscol (this, and indeed all the terms here given
from the Germania, refer to the cock-bird. Capiscol = Fr. caporal);
obispo (properly a bishop); rey (literally king).
1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 86. She has a cackling-chete, a
grunting-chete, ruff pecke, cassan, and poplarr of yarum.
1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1. Or surprising a boor’s ken for
grunting-cheats? Or cackling-cheats?
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Cackling-cheats
(cant): fowls.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Cackling cheats: Fowls (cant).
Cackling-Cove, subs. (theatrical and common).—An actor. [From cackling
(see Cackle, subs., sense 1) + cove, an old canting term for a man.]
English Synonyms. Mummery-cove; mug-faker; mummer; mugger (properly an
actor who makes free play with his face); tragedy or comedy merchant;
pro; stroller; cackle-faker; barn-stormer; surf.
French Synonyms. Un prètre (thieves’: literally ‘a priest’: a curious
sidelight on the views concerning religious orders of the criminal
classes); un raze or razi pour l’af (thieves’: raze or razi = priest;
and affe in old French cant signified ‘life’ or ‘the soul,’ but
latterly eau d’affe = ‘brandy.’ There seems, however, little connection
between either of these readings and the example under consideration);
un Egyptien (theatrical: a term applied to a bad or inferior actor); un
acteur-guitare (a term specially applied to one who elicits applause in
lacrymose scenes only—an actor with only one string to his bow); un
enleveur (theatrical: one who plays in such a way as to enlever la
salle, i.e., ‘to bring down the house’); une doublure (an understudy);
un cab, cabot, or cabotin, (used mainly in contempt, much in the same
way as ‘mummer.’ Cabotinage is the life of hardship led by strolling
players, and thence, by derivation, the life of the ‘profession’
generally); un brûleur de planches (theatrical: a spirited or restless
actor); un acteur brûlé (popular: one that has had his day); un bouch
trou (theatrical: an understudy or stop-gap); un bouleur or une
bouleuse (a substitute, or understudy); un misloquier or une
misloquière (thieves’); un nom (theatrical: ‘a star’).
Cackling-Fart, subs. (old).—An egg. [From cackling (see Cackle) + fart
(q.v.) a discharge of wind through the anus.] A variant in English is
hen-fruit; Fr. un avergot (thieves’); the Breton cant has bruant,
whilst in the German Gaunersprache is found Dickmann (also = the penis
and testes); the Fourbesque has arbifi and alberto (the latter from the
Italian albo, white).
Cad, subs. (popular).—A term of contempt now generally applied to an
offensively ill-bred person, irrespective of social position. Formerly
used of underlings and others performing menial offices. [Murray
favours its origin in cadet and the popular forms cadee and caddie.
See, however, Cadator, the quotations under which appear to suggest a
collateral, if an independent origin. Some regard the word as a
contraction of ‘cadger’; whilst others trace it to the Scotch ‘cadie’
or ‘caddie,’ an errand boy—now an attendant at golf; or to the slang
University sense of the word, a non-member]. The vocable has passed
through a variety of meanings.