Communicator. Agitate the communicator, verbal phr. (common).—To ring
the bell.
Comp, subs. (printers’).—A compositor. [An abbreviated form of
‘companion’ now peculiar to compositors, but originally applied to
pressmen who work in couples, as well as to compositors who work in a
‘companionship,’ or ship (q.v.).] Galley-slave (q.v.) is a variant; so
are ass (q.v.) and donkey (q.v.). Cf., Pig.
1870. Sportsman, 17 Dec. ‘A Chapel Meeting.’ I stood before the
world a journeyman comp.
1886. Tit-Bits, 31 July, p. 252. At provincial newspaper offices
and other establishments applications for work from travelling
comps are frequent.
1888. W. Blades, in Notes and Queries, 7 S., vi., 365. The printers
who work together in one room are to this day called comps.
Company. To see company, verbal phr. (prostitutes’).—To live by
prostitution; to take in fancy work (q.v.).
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Competition Wallah, subs. phr. (Anglo-Indian).—One who enters the
Indian Civil Service by examination. [From competition + Hindustani
wallah, ‘a man’ or ‘person.’]
1863. G. O. Trevelyan, Title, The Competition Wallah.
1886. Ill. Lon. News, 9 Jan., p. 31, col. 3. It is quite certain
that, if justice is ever to be done to India, our competition
wallahs must not be encouraged to look upon it as a mere Tom
Tidler’s ground, where they are to remain just so long as they
require for picking up gold and silver (in the form of pension and
savings).
Compo, subs. (nautical).—A sailor’s term for his monthly advance of
wages.
Compy-Shop, subs. (workmen’s).—A truck-shop. [Probably a corruption of
‘company-shop’: workmen before the passing of certain Truck Acts,
having been frequently compelled to make their weekly purchases at
shops either kept by, or worked to the profit of, their employer.]
1870. Globe, 24 Sept. The Acts of Parliament which have been passed
from time to time in reference to truck are easily evaded, for as a
rule no workman is told that he must buy at the compy-shop, but the
workmen well know that if they did not resort thither they would
soon be dismissed their employment.
Con, subs. (Winchester College).—A rap on the head with the knuckles,
or with anything hard, such as a cricket ball. [For suggested
derivations, see verbal sense.]
Verb.—To rap with the knuckles. [The derivation formerly accepted at
Winchester was from κονδυλον = a knuckle, but the editors of the
Wykehamist suggest its origin in the North Country con, ‘to fillip,’
with which the French se cogner exactly corresponds.]
Concaves and Convexes, subs. phr. (cardsharpers’). Cards prepared for
cheating. All from the eight to the king are cut convex, and all from
the deuce to the seven concave; so that by cutting the pack broadwise
you cut convex, and by cutting them lengthwise you cut concave.
Sometimes they are shaped the reverse way, so that, if suspicion arise,
a pack so treated may be substituted for the other to the same effect.
In this trick the sharper has less in his favour than in others,
because the intended victim may cut in the usual way, and so cut a low
card to the dealer. But the certainty of being able to cut or deal a
high or low card at pleasure, gives him an advantage against which
skill is of none avail. Other modes of sharping are by means of
reflectors (q.v.); longs and shorts (q.v.); pricked cards (q.v.); the
bridge (q.v.); skinning (q.v.); weaving (q.v.); the gradus or step
(q.v.); palming (q.v.); and the telegraph (q.v.). A French term for
prepared cards is les aiguilles à tricoter les côtes (Anglicé = old
gentlemen, q.v.); also une cartouchière à portées (a pack of prepared
cards); and les harnais = stocked broads (q.v.).—See also stock broads.
Concern, subs. (general).—The pudenda, male or female.—See Creamstick
and Monosyllable respectively for synonyms.
Concerned, ppl. adj. (old).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Screwed.
1686. Magdalen College and King James II. (Oxford Hist. Soc.),
quoted in Athenæum, 8 Jan., 1887, p. 56. When Mr. Anthony Farmer
came to the Lobster about eleven at night, he came much concerned
in drink.
17(?). Swift. [Quoted in Davies’ Supp. Lex.] (Mary, the cook-maid to
Dr. Sheridan.) Which, and I am sure I have been his servant four years
since October, And never call’d me worse than sweetheart, drunk or
sober; Not that I know his Reverence was ever concern’d to my
knowledge; Tho’ you and your come-rogues keep him out so late in your
wicked college.
1834. Taylor, Ph. van Art., pt. II., iii., 3. Oh, she’s a light
skirts! yea, and at this present A little, as you see, concern’d
with liquor.
Conchers, subs. (Australian).—Tame or quiet cattle.
Condiddle, verb (old).—To purloin or steal. [From Latin con, a
pleonastic prefix, + diddle, ‘to cheat.’ Condiddled is quoted by Grose
in the Provincial Glossary, 1787, as signifying ‘dispersed.’]
1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. iv. ‘Twig the old connoissœur,’
said the Squire to the Knight, ‘he is condiddling the drawing.’
Condog, verb (common).—To agree with. [A facetious variation of
‘concur’; ‘cur’ = dog.]
Confab, subs. (colloquial).—Familiar talk. [A contraction of
confabulation; Latin confabulatio.]
1778. D’Arblay, Diary, etc. (1876), vol. I., p. 37. We had a very
nice confab about various books.
1789. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Subjects for Painters, in wks. (Dublin,
1795), vol. II., p. 26. For lo, with many a King and many a Queen,
in close confab the gentleman is seen.
1841. Punch, vol. I., 75. Sibthorp, meeting Peel in the House of
Commons after congratulating him on his present enviable position,
finished the confab with the following unrivalled conundrum.
1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, ch. xxv. ‘Mr. Harry ...
called Mr. Archer into his own room, and they had a confab.’
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. viii. This ended our
confab and half an hour afterwards I stood in the hall shaking
hands all round.
Verb.—To talk in a familiar manner; to chat.—See subs., sense.
1778. D’Arblay, Diary, etc. (1876), vol. I. p. 85. Mrs. Thrale and
I were dressing, and, as usual, confabbing.
Confectionery, subs. (American).—A drinking bar. An analogous term is
grocery, but for synonyms, see Lush-crib.
Confidence Trick, Dodge, or Buck, subs. phr. (common).—A process of
swindling, the basis of which consists in obtaining trust with the
deliberate intention of betraying it to your own advantage. A greenhorn
meets (or rather is picked up by) a stranger who invites him to drink.
The stranger admires him openly, protests his confidence in him, and to
prove his sincerity hands him over a large amount of money [snide] or
valuables [bogus], with which to walk off and return. The greenhorn
does both, whereupon the stranger suggests that it is his turn next,
and being favoured with certain proofs of ‘confidence,’ which in this
case are real, decamps and is no more seen. This is the simplest form
of the trick, but the confidence man is inexhaustible in devices. In
many cases the subject’s idiosyncrasy takes the form of an idiotic
desire to overreach his fellows; i.e., he is only a knave, wrong side
out, and it is upon this idiosyncrasy that the operator works. He
offers a sham gold watch at the price of a nickel one; he calls with
presents from nowhere where none are expected; he writes letters
announcing huge legacies to persons absolutely kinless; and as his
appeal is addressed to the sister passions of greed and dishonesty he
seldom fails of his reward. Fr., mener en bateau un pante pour le
refaire = ‘to stick a jay and flap him.’
Conflabberated, ppl. adj. (common).—Bothered; upset; ‘flummoxed.’
Conflabberation, subs. (common).—A confused wrangle; a ‘hullabaloo.’
Confounded, adj. (colloquial).—Excessive; odious; detestable; e.g., a
confounded nuisance, lie, humbug, etc. [Confound is properly ‘to
mistake one for another,’ or ‘to throw into consternation.’ In its
colloquial sense confounded is misused much as are ‘awful,’ ‘beastly,’
and other ‘strumpets of speech.’]
1766. O. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, ch. vii. (ed. 1827), p. 42.
Mr. Thornhill, loq.: ‘For what are tythes and tricks but an
imposition, all confounded imposture.’
Confubuscate, verb (popular).—See quot., and Cf., Confusticate.
1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘You mustn’t tickle me.’ I hope I don’t
confubuscate, I’se Topsy from the Georgia State.
Confusticate, verb (American).—To confuse.
Coniacker, subs. (thieves’).—A counterfeiter; smasher; or ‘queer-bit’
faker. [Obviously a play upon coin, money, and hack, to mutilate.] Fr.,
un mornifleur tarte.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 296. False coins, the makers of
which are curiously called coniackers.
Conish, adj. (old).—See quot.
1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 29 (ed. 1854). ‘Paul, my
ben cull,’ said he with a knowing wink, and nudging the young
gentleman in the left side, ‘vot do you say to a drop o’ blue ruin?
or, as you likes to be conish (genteel), I doesn’t care if I sports
you a glass of port.’
Conk, subs. (popular).—The nose. [Hotten says: possibly from the Latin
concha, a shell. Greek, κόγχη—hence anything hollow. A parallel is
testa = an earthenware pot, a shell, in Latin; and in later Latin = a
skull; whence the French teste or tête = head. Cf., quot., 1838.]
English Synonyms. Boko or boco; proboscis; smeller; bowsprit;
claret-jug; gig; muzzle; cheese-cutter; beak; snuff-box; snorter;
post-horn; paste-horn; handle; snout; nozzle; smelling-cheat; snotter;
candlestick; celestial; snottle-box; snuffler; trumpet; snorer; peak.
French Synonyms. Une bouteille (popular: literally ‘a bottle’); un
Bourbon (popular: an abbreviated form of nez à la Bourbon. In allusion
to the thick, prominent, and almost aquiline Bourbon nose); un blair or
blaire (popular); un caillou (popular: properly ‘a flint.’ In allusion
to a Bardolphian, a light-giving, quality); un tubercule (familiar:
applied to a big nose. In medicine ‘a tumour,’ ‘swelling,’ or
‘protuberance’); un pivase (popular: a nose of large dimensions. Michel
derives the word from pive = ‘a grog-blossom’ or ‘pin-point,’ properly
a fir-apple); un piton (popular: literally a geographical term meaning
‘a peak.’ Un piton passé à l’encaustique, a red or ‘copper-nose’); un
pif or pifre (general); une trompe (literally ‘a horn’ or ‘trumpet’);
une truffe (popular: literally ‘a truffle,’ for which pigs are trained
to search. Hence a Frenchman when he wants to call a man a pig, says il
a un nez à chercher des truffes); une trompette (popular: literally ‘a
trumpet’); un naze (popular and thieves’: a Provençalism); un nazaret
(popular); un chandelier (popular); une tasse (popular); un sabot
(popular); un os à moelle (thieves’: literally ‘a marrow-bone.’ Faire
juter l’os à moelle = to use the fingers as a handkerchief); un
éteignoir (popular: a large nose; literally, ‘an extinguisher’); un
nazonnant (popular); un minois (thieves’: obsolete); un mirliton
(popular); un morviau (popular).
German Synonyms. Muffer or Muffert (from muffen, muffeln, or murfeln =
‘to smell’); Schneitzling or Schnäuzling; Schnut (a North German form
of Schnauze. Schnut is a favourite nickname among thieves, especially
for those who possess long noses; also a pet name for a sweet-heart or
doxy. Schnutenmelech or Schnutenkönig: the nosey king, or nosey one);
Schniffling.
Italian Synonyms. Soffiante (this exactly corresponds to the English
‘snorter’; it signifies literally ‘blowing’ or ‘breathing’); fiauto or
flauto (properly ‘a flute’); maremagno (literally ‘the great sea’).
1838. Comic Almanack, p. 158. I have inserted a small item from my
surgeon’s bill, for repairs of his companions’ noses, damaged by
his passion for Conchology.
1840. H. Cockton, Valentine Vox, ch. xxviii. He fancied it proper
to put on his nose before he alighted from the cab. ‘Oh! oh!
there’s a conk! there’s a smeller! Oh! oh!’ exclaimed about fifty
voices in chorus.
1859. Punch, vol. XXXVII., p. 54. ‘Essence of Parliament.’ July 25,
Monday. Lord Lyndhurst let fly and caught him what (if pugilistic
terms be not out of place when one is alluding to so pacific a
personage) may be designated an extremely neat one on the conk.
1860. Chambers’ Journal, vol. XIII., p. 348. His nose is his conk.
1887. Atkin, House Scraps. His ‘dexter ogle’ has a ‘mouse’; His
conk’s devoid of bark.
1889. Answers, 9 Feb. That portion of his countenance which is
euphemistically described in the language of lower London as a
conk.
Conoodle.—See Canoodle.
Conscience, subs. (theatrical).—Thus explained in Slang, Jargon, and
Cant: A kind of association in a small company for the allotment of
shares in the profits, etc. The man who is lucky enough to have a
concern of his own, generally a very small affair, however badly he may
act, must be the leading man or first low comedian, perhaps both. He
becomes the manager, of course, and thus has one share for ‘fit-up,’
one for scenery, one and a half for management, one for wardrobe, one
and a half as leading man; and the same is given to the wife, who, of
course, will not play anything but the juvenile lead, but who at any
other time would be glad to play first old woman.
Considerable Bend. To go on the Considerable Bend, verb. phr.
(common).—To go in for a bout of dissipation.
Consonant-Choker, subs. (common).—One that clips his G’s and muffles
his R’s.
Constable. To out or over-run the constable, verbal phr. (common).—To
live beyond one’s means and get into debt; also, in a figurative sense,
to escape from a bad argument; ‘to change the subject’; to talk about
what is not understood.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, pt. I., canto iii., l. 1367. Quoth
Hudibras, Friend Ralph, thou hast Out-run the constable at last;
For thou art fallen as a new Dispute, as senseless as untrue, But
to the former opposite, And contrary as black to white.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxiii. He inquired, ‘how far have
you overrun the constable?’ I told him that the debt amounted to
eleven pounds.
1766. Anstey, New Bath Guide, letter vii. And some people think
with such haste he began, That soon he the constable greatly
outran.
1782. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Rights of Kings, ode xi. Got deep in
debt, the constable out-ran.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xli., p. 357. ‘He run a match agin the
constable, and vun it.’ ‘In other words, I suppose,’ said Mr.
Pickwick, ‘he got into debt.’ ‘Just that, sir,’ replied Sam.
Constician, subs. (theatrical).—A member of the orchestra.
Constitutional, subs. (colloquial).—A walk undertaken for the sake of
health and exercise [i.e., for the benefit of the constitution].
Tronchiner, from Doctor Tronchin, is French for the verb, tronchinade
for the act.
1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, ch. xxix. One evening, about
a week before the examinations were to begin, I was taking my usual
constitutional after Hall.
1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, pt. II., p.
41. At one time he was a great friend of Cocky Palmer’s, and used
to go with him to the Cock fights at Wheatley—that Village just on
the other side Shotover Hill—where we did a constitutional the
other day.
1871. City of London Directory. ‘Facts and Anomalies.’ The
valetudinarian has not much choice in the city for a
constitutional, seeing that it possesses but three walks, and ‘Long
Walk’ is the shortest.
Contango, subs. (Stock Exchange).—A fine paid by the buyer to the
seller of stock for carrying over the engagement to another settling
day, and representing a kind of interest for a fourteen days’
extension. [Thought to be a corruption of ‘continuation.’]
1853. Notes and Queries, 17 Dec., p. 586, col. 2. Contango: a
technical term in use among the sharebrokers of Liverpool, and I
presume elsewhere, signifying a sum of money paid for accommodating
either a buyer or seller by carrying the engagement to pay money or
deliver shares over to the next account day.
1871. Daily News, 27 Feb. A large amount of money was offered in
the Stock Exchange, in connection with the fortnightly settlement,
which began this morning, and the contangoes on British railway
securities were light, while the supply of stock was small.
1872. Evening Standard, 11 Dec. ‘City Intelligence.’ Erie Shares
are steady; the contango is 3d. to 9d.
1884. Daily News, Nov. 13, p. 5, col. 1. City shop is not less
baffling, and it is perhaps impossible for laymen to understand
what contango means. Contango, by the way, would be a proud motto
for an ennobled stockbroker, and would look well under a crest.
1887. Atkin, House Scraps. B stands for broker, for bull and for
bear, C’s the contango that’s paid by the bull.
Content, adv. (old).—Dead. For synonyms, see Aloft and Hop the twig.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. The cull’s content: the man is
past complaining (cant), saying of a person murdered for resisting
the robbers.
Continent, adv. (Winchester College).—Ill; on the sick list. [From
continens cameram vel lectum, keeping one’s room or bed.]—See Abroad.
1870. Mansfield, School Life at Winchester College, p. 146. When a
boy felt ill, or inclined to quit school for a period, he had to
get leave continent which was done by sending a boy in the morning
first to get leave from his tutor, and then from the Head Master.
1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 224. We suggested the ‘continent room’;
and on being required to say what was to become of the sick boys?
replied, that it was notorious that there was never anything the
matter with them!
Continental. Not to care or be worth a continental or continental damn,
phr. (American).—To be worthless; not to care in the least degree.
[Continental was the common qualification at the time of the Revolution
of whatever concerned the American Colonies before they were united
into a confederacy; hence continental congress, continental money,
continental troops; while the people themselves were generally spoken
of as continentallers or continentals. Continental damn, a term almost
universally applied to the worthless continental paper money of those
days is, nevertheless held by James Grant White (Words and their Uses)
to be a counterpart, if not a mere modification, of other phrases of
the same kidney—a tinker’s or trooper’s damn, etc.—and as the colonial
troops were called continentallers or continentals during the war, and
for many years afterwards, it is probable that it began as a
continental’s damn. Passing to the general phrase ‘not worth a damn’
Mr. White thinks that the ‘damn’ = A.S. cerse = watercress. Piers
Ploughman (1362) says ‘wisdom and witt nowe is not worth a kerse’ and
transition, by reason of identity of sound and a love of variety, from
‘not worth a curse’ to ‘not worth a damn’ is easy.]—See Care and Curse.
1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), The Innocents at Home, p. 20.
He didn’t give a continental for anybody. Beg your pardon, friend,
for coming so near saying a cuss-word.
1888. Missouri Republican, 16 Feb. I am not worrying about the
nomination, though. I don’t care a continental if I don’t receive
it.
Continuations, subs. (general).—Trousers. [Of analogous derivation to
inexpressibles; unmentionables; musn’t-mention’ems; untalkaboutables,
etc.] For synonyms, see Bags and Kicks.
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 4, col. 1. Like the London dustmen, the
Newmarket jockeys, the peripatetic vendors, or buyers of ‘old
clo’,’ or the Albert continuations at one pound one, they appear to
be made to measure for the same.
1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. xx. To whose
wonderfully-fitting continuations, ‘pants’ he calls them, the
‘Ananyridians’ themselves are but as a Dutchman’s drawers.
Contraptions, subs. (American).—Small articles; tools; and so forth.
1838. J. C. Neal, Charcoal Sketches. For my part, I can’t say as
how I see what’s to be the end of all of them new-fangled
contraptions. [de v.]
Control Fortune, verbal phr. (card-sharpers’).—To cheat at cards.—See
Rook.
Convenience, subs. (common).—A water-closet or chamber-pot.
Convenient, subs. (old).—A mistress. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and
Tart.
1676. Etherege, Man of Mode, III., iii., in wks. (1704), 233.
Dorimant’s convenient, Madam Loveit.
1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, II., in wks. (1720), iv., 47. But
where’s your lady, captain, and the blowing, that is to be my
natural, my convenient, my pure? Ibid, I., iv., p. 22. Shamwell.
Thou art i’ th’ right; but, captain, where’s the convenient, the
Natural? Hackum. Why, at my house; my wife has brought her into a
good humour; she is very pretty.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Convexes.—See Concaves.
Convey, verb (old).—To steal. [In law, to transfer from one person to
another; by which it will be seen that there is a certain humour in the
expression.] For synonyms, see Prig. Cf., Annex.
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i., Sc. 3. Nym. The
good humour is, to steal at a minute’s rest. Pist. Convey, the wise
it call.
1607. Marston, What You Will, II., 260. But, as I am Crack, I will
convey, crossbite, and cheat upon Simplicius.
1883. A. Dobson, Old World Idylls, p. 237. If they hint, O
Musician, the piece that you played Is nought but a copy of Chopin
or Spohr; That the ballad you sing is but merely conveyed From the
stock of the Arnes and the Purcells of yore.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 31 Oct., p. 3. col. 1. Three great works of
research and collaboration have been projected and partially or
wholly executed in England within the lifetime of the present
generation. They are the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Dictionary of
National Biography, and the New English Dictionary. Each of these,
but especially the last (from which the Century crew have conveyed
freely) is as perfect in its way as any human undertaking can be.
1890. Scots Observer, 14 June, p. 98, col. 1. Lest this may seem an
ungenerous suspicion, I hasten to say that it would never have
crossed my mind had not so many of the other characters in this
remarkable production (?) been obviously conveyed (delicious word!)
from well-known novels.