1871. Figaro, 3 June. ‘Notes on Change.’ Everything again brisk,
and the market, what is expressly termed cocky.
Cocoa-Nut, subs. (general).—The head. Fr. le coco. For synonyms, see
Crumpet.
1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 176 (ed. 1864). ‘A thousand
pities that so fine a fellow should have a sconce like a
cocoa-nut!’
1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. iii. ‘The Major a-pokin’
along with his cocoa-nut down, a-studyin’ over somethin’ or another
quite deep.’
c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘Waltzing Round the Water-butt.’ Gaily
the troubadour will waltz round the water-butt, Blissful the happy
thoughts that float round my cocoa-nut, Moonlight and spooning
’neath the old hazel tree!
That accounts for the milk in the cocoa-nut, phr. (common).—A rejoinder
upon having a thing explained for the first time.
To have no milk in the cocoa-nut, phr.—To be insane; silly;
‘cracked.’—See Apartments.
Cocum, Kocum, subs. (common).—1. Shrewdness; ability; luck; cleverness.
[From the Hebrew chochum, chochem, or cochem, crafty; learned, wise, or
a wise man. The term is found passim in early Hebrew literature,
especially in the Book of Proverbs: ‘A cochem will hear and increase
learning’ (Prov. i. 5). The slang sense has been introduced by the
Whitechapel Jews. In Yiddish cochemer or cochem, the pronunciation of
which is not dissimilar to cocum, means wisdom; cochumwirth = a
thieves’ landlord. (Cf., paragraph on German analogues.) Cocma is
another Hebraism used by London Jews in a similar sense, but it has not
made its way into slang.
English Analogues. Real jam (this in the sense of anything
exceptionally good or lucky); all beer and skittles (extremely
pleasant); rattling (extremely jolly, pleasant, or well appointed); to
be in clover (happiness and luck); to stand on velvet (a variant of the
last mentioned); to be cracking a tidy crust (to be doing very well);
to be having a good swim (thieves’ for a good run of luck, i.e., being
a long time out of the policeman’s clutches); well ballasted; on the
spot; up to Dick; on it; right; and so forth.
French Analogues. Etre de la bonne (popular: to be lucky); décrocher la
timballe (popular); être de la fête (popular and thieves’); avoir des
as dans son jeu (popular: to have an advantage, ‘to be in luck’s way’);
avoir l’assiette au beurre (popular: to be fortunate in life); bidard
(m. lucky); être de la bate (popular).
German Analogues. Chochom, Chochem, Chochemer (which Hebraism is the
root of the English cocum. Among German thieves who more frequently
spell the word Kochem, Kochemer, the meaning is almost identical with
that given it by their English brethren, except that the wisdom,
profit, or luck, applies almost solely to the results of crooked ways
and dealings. Chochom and its variants signify, therefore, the cunning,
prudent, and successful vagabond; Chochem lehorre = a dangerous
vagabond, one who is prepared for the worst; Chochem mechutten = a bad
patron, a dangerous companion, a rogue of the worst type; Chochme =
wisdom, cunning, circumspection, or the practice of swindling).
Italian Analogues. Cavazzonare (literally ‘to place well or be well
placed’); aver primavera (this applies to cocum as represented by
pleasure; literally ‘to have spring’).
Spanish Analogues. Cucarachera (f; a vulgarism for luck or good
fortune); harlarse buena cucarachera (to be lucky or fortunate);
potroso (a colloquialism signifying lucky; literally ‘afflicted with a
rupture’); charanguero (m; a lucky fellow, one with cocum); hijo de la
gallina blanca (a lucky bird).
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 279.
‘It’s decent and comfortable too, and it’s about 6d. a night to me
for singing and patter in the tap-room. That’s my cokum
(advantage).’
1861. Earl, Ups and Downs of Australian Life, p. 224. ‘No one was
to get drunk, the governor said as how it wasn’t cokum, and he
wouldn’t have it,—and so we were all fit for work the next day.’
1864. Hotten, Slang Dict., s.v. ‘Jack’s got cocum, he’s safe to get
on, he is,’ viz., he starts under favourable circumstances.
c. 1886. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Flippity Flop Young Man.’ I once
was a Member-for-Slocum young man, And for Parliament had a strong
fancy, A know-pretty-well-what-is-kocum young man When addressing a
constituency.
2. (publishers’).—A sliding scale of profit. [Publishers sometimes
issue books without fixing the published price. These they sell to the
retail trade at a fixed sum, leaving the bookseller to make what he
can.
To fight or play cocum, verbal phr. (common). To play double; to be
wary, cunning, or ‘artful.’
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3 ed.), p. 445, s.v. To be cunning,
wary, or sly.
1885. Referee, April 26, p. 1, col. 2. The best show in the
Crawfurd Plate—that is, unless a lot of the pulling-up division
were playing cokum—was that of Ptolemy.
Cod, subs. (common).—1. A fool. [Cf., Cod’s head, of which it is
possibly an abbreviation.] For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.