Chantey or Shanty, subs. (nautical).—A song sung by sailors at their
work.—See Chantey-man. [Obviously a diminutive of chant, a song.]
1869. Chambers’ Journal, 11 Dec., pp. 794–6. [Article on ‘Sailors’
Shanties and Sea-Songs.’]
1883. W. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, preface, xi. But the
lack of variety is no obstruction to the sailor’s poetical
inspiration when he wants the ‘old man’ to know his private
opinions without expressing them to his face, and so the same
chantey, as the windlass or halliard chorus is called, furnishes
the music to as many various indignant remonstrances as Jack can
find injuries to sing about.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. iii. ‘Then give us one
of the old chanteys,’ exclaimed my uncle. ‘Haul the Bowline,’ or
‘Whiskey, Johnny.’
Chantey-Man, subs. (nautical).—A singer of Chanteys (q.v.).
1887. Saturday Review, 27 August. A shanty, or, as pedants call it,
‘chanty,’ is a song sung by sailors at their work. The music is ‘to
a certain extent traditional,’ the words—which are commonly unfit
for ears polite—are traditional likewise. The words and music are
divided into two parts—the ‘shanty’ proper, which is delivered by a
single voice, with or without a fiddle obligato, and the refrain
and chorus, which are sung with much straining and tugging, and
with peculiar breaks and strange and melancholy stresses, by a
number of men engaged in the actual performance of some piece of
bodily labour. The manner is this. We will suppose for instance,
that what is wanted is an anchor song. The fugleman takes his
stand, fiddle in hand, and strikes up the melody of ‘Away Down
Rio.’ Then, everything being ready, he pipes out a single line of
the song, and the working party, with a strong pull at the
capstan-bars, answers with a long-drawn Away Down Rio. He sings a
second verse, and this is followed by the full strength of the
chorus.... And so on, through stave after stave, till the anchor’s
weighed, and, the work being done, the need for song is gone by.
1890. W. E. Henley, Views and Reviews, p. 153. He goes down to the
docks and loiters among the galiots and brigantines; he hears the
melancholy song of the chantey-man.
Chantie, subs. (Scots).—A chamber-pot. For synonyms, see It.
Chanting (more commonly Horse-Chanting), verbal subs. (common).—1.
Tricking into the purchase of unsound or vicious horses.
1825. English Spy, vol. I., pp. 199, 200. The servant was a
confederate, and the whole affair nothing more than a true orthodox
farce of horse-chaunting got up for the express purpose of raising
a temporary supply.
1870–2. Gallery of Comicalities. If I have got an ’orse to sell,
You’ll never find that Dick is wanting; There’s few that try it on
so well, Or beat me at a bit of chaunting.