Canack, Canuck, Kanuck, K’nuck, subs. (American).—A Canadian, usually a
K’nuck. [Obscure, and limited in its application within the Canadian
frontier. There, a Canuck is understood to be a French Canadian, just
as within the limits of the Union only New Englanders are termed
Yankees; whereas elsewhere that appellation is given indiscriminately
to natives of all the States. It is by some supposed that Canuck is a
corruption of Connaught, the name applied by French-Canadians to the
Irish, from which it would follow that, by a process of inversion, a
nickname given by one section of a nation to another has, in course of
time, been applied to the whole. Others, however, think the first
syllable of ‘Canada’ has been joined to the Algonkin Indian substantive
termination uc or uq.]
Canary or Canary-Bird, subs. (thieves’).—1. A prisoner; a very old cant
term for habitual offenders; or, as Grose says [1785], ‘a person used
to be kept in a cage’ (q.v.). The same idea occurs in some foreign
equivalents, e.g., the French, oiseau de cage, and the German,
Kastener, from Kasten, a chest or case. For synonyms, see Wrong ’un.
1673.—Head, Canting Academy, p. 157. Newgate is a cage of
canary-birds.
1725.—New Canting Dictionary. Canary-bird, a little, arch, or
knavish boy; a rogue or whore taken and clapped into the cage or
roundhouse.
1839.—Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 55. Now for the
cage, my pretty canary-bird. Before we start I’ll accommodate you
with a pair of ruffles.
2. (general).—A mistress. [See preceding quot. (1725): the term is
still in use.] For synonyms, see Tart.
3. (common).—Formerly a guinea, but now applied to a sovereign [From
similarity of colour.]
English Synonyms. Yellow boy; goldfinch; yellow hammer; shiner;
gingleboy; monarch; couter; bean foont; James (from Jacobus); poona;
portrait; quid; thick ’un; skin; skiv; dragon; goblin. A guinea was
also called a ‘ned.’
French Synonyms for the equivalent twenty franc piece are, un jaunet
(popular: literally ‘butter-cup’ or ‘yellow-boy’); une sigue, sigle,
sigolle or cig (thieves’); un bonnet jaune (popular: literally
‘yellow-cap’ or ‘bonnet’); un bouton (i.e., ‘a master-key’); une
maltaise (old cant; according to Victor Hugo this gold coin was used on
board the convict galleys at Malta); un moule à boutons (popular); une
médaille d’or (popular: = a gold medal).
German Synonyms. Gelbling (gelb = yellow); Fuchs (a gold piece;
literally ‘a fox’).
For synonyms of money generally, see Actual and Gilt.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Canary-Birds in a
canting sense, guineas.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvi. Fifty as fair yellow
canary-birds as e’er chirped in the bottom of a green silk purse.
1842. Punch, p. 168. ‘Prolusiones etymologicæ,’ 13.
Goldfinches—Canaries.—Singing birds; the which whose possesseth
needeth never to pine for lack of notes.
4. (thieves’).—A female watcher or stall; a mollisher (q.v.). Cf. Crow
= a male watcher. Fr. une marque franche.
1862. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lond. Poor, IV., 337. Sometimes a
woman, called a ‘canary,’ carries the tools [of burglars], and
watches outside.
5. (Salvation Army).—A written promise of a donation or subscription.
At some of the meetings of the ‘Army’ instead of sending round the
plate, the ‘officers’ distribute slips of paper on which those present
are invited to record their benevolent intentions. The original colour
of the slips was yellow—hence the nickname.
Cancer. To catch or capture a cancer, phr. (common).—See Crab.
1857. Hood, Pen and Pencil Pictures p. 141. He had another way of
capturing cancers, namely, by never putting his oar into the water
at all.
Candle-Keepers, subs. (Winchester College).—The eight seniors in
college by election who are not præfects. They enjoy most of the
privileges of præfects without their powers.
1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 30. The
Seven Candle-keepers (why so-called, I have no idea, nor have I
ever heard any interpretation of the appellation). These were the
seven inferiors who had been longest in the school, quite
independently of their position in it; they were generally old and
tough. Of these, the senior had almost as much power as a præfect;
he had a ‘valet’ in chambers, one or two ‘breakfast fags,’ and the
power of fagging the twenty juniors when in school, or in meads.
The junior candle keeper was called ‘the Deputy,’ and had also some
slight privileges besides that of having a valet and breakfast fag,
which was common to all of them.
1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 278. Presided over by a candle-keeper.
Candlestick, subs. 1. (Winchester College).—A humorous corruption of
the word ‘candidate.’
1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 175. Each of
these [the Electors] had in turn the privilege of nominating a boy
for admission into Winchester till all vacancies were filled, of
which there were generally about twelve, but always many more
‘Candidates’ (or Candlesticks, as they were often called).
1878. H. C. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 418. Candlestick, merely a
facetious version of ‘candidate.’