Cant, subs. and verb.—[As regards derivation (whether noun or verb), to
signify the speech, phraseology, or whine peculiar to thieves, beggars,
and vagrants, authorities differ among and with themselves: the word
occurs as early as 1540, and has long since achieved respectability.
Grose was probably wrong in thinking it a corruption of chaunting, and
it was certainly in use long prior to the two Scotch clergymen, Oliver
and Andrew Cant, who are said to have preached with such a voice and
such a manner as to give their name to all speaking of the same kind. A
correspondent of Notes and Queries (2 S., vii., 158) suggests as a
possible source the ordinary word mendicant (fr. Lat. mendico), but
this is historically improbable, and the weight of evidence is in
favour of the Latin cantus, singing or song, though it must be observed
that neither the ancient nor the modern usage implies a mere sing-song,
but rather the whine of one bent on deceit. There is a consciousness of
hypocrisy by the canting in connection with religion, politics,
begging, or anything else; and this principle is recognized in the
attempt on the part of The Scots Observer to substitute Bleat (subs.
and verb) for the cant of æstheticism, the cant which deals with art in
the language of sentiment and emotion. It has been further suggested
that if the word meant singing, the A.S. cantere is a much more
probable source of origin than the Latin canto or cantus; but there is
an argument which seems to lend additional weight to the claim of the
latter language: the French chanter, to sing, is sometimes used in the
sense of cant. In answer to a whining, lying tale (in reply indeed to
anything incredible whether whining or brazen), a Frenchman would say,
‘Qu’est-ce que vous chantez là.’ Whatever the derivation, however,
there is little doubt that Andrew Cant has little to do with it;
indeed, Pennant in his Tour in Scotland, vol. I., p. 122, says that
‘Andrew canted no more than the rest of his brethren, for he lived in a
whining age.’]
Subs.—1. The secret speech or jargon of the vagrant classes—gipsies,
thieves, beggars, etc.; hence, contemptuously, the peculiar phraseology
of a particular class or subject. Identical with Thieves’ Latin, St.
Giles’ Greek, Peddlar’s French, etc. (q.v.); but for synonyms, see
Flash.