English and American. Beak or beaker-hunter (a poultry thief);
bug-hunter (speciality—breast pins, studs, etc.); buz-faker (a
pickpocket); buttock and file (a shoplifter); bouncer (one who steals
while bargaining with a tradesman; a shoplifter); bridle-cull (a
highwayman); cracksman (a burglar); crossman (an old term. Literally a
man ‘on the cross,’ or who gets his living surreptitiously); cross-cove
(see foregoing); conveyancer (a pickpocket); dancer (a thief who gains
entrance to houses from the roof); flash-cove (a sharper); flashman (a
prostitute’s bully who pretends to catch the victim in flagrante
delicto with his wife, and thus makes an excuse for robbery and
extortion); finder (a thief who confines his depredations to
meat-markets and butchers’ shops); gun (a contraction of gonnof, which
see); gleaner, hooker, or angler (these are petty thieves, who work
with hooks and rods); lob-sneak; lully-prigger (one who steals clothes
when they are hanging out to dry); snakesman or sneaksman (a
shoplifter; a petty thief); sneeze-lurker (this kind work by first
blinding victims with pepper, etc.); moucher (a prowling thief);
mill-ben (an old cant term, which see); prig; prop-nailer (a ‘prop’ is
a scarf pin); palmer (a thief who ‘rings the changes’; but see under
Palmer); pudding-snammer (an eating-house thief); drummer or drammer
(these gentry stupify their victims prior to robbing them);
stook-hauler (speciality—pocket-handkerchiefs); tooler (a pickpocket);
toy-getter (a watch thief).
French Synonyms. Un droguiste (corresponds to the English ‘hawk’ or
‘rook’); un chêne affranchi (a ‘flash cove’); un careur, or voleur à la
care (thief who robs money-changers while pretending to offer old coins
for sale); un enfant de la matte (‘a child of folly.’—See Family man);
un tiretaine (a country thief); un garçon de cambrouse (a highwayman);
un garçon de campagne (same as example last quoted); un frère de la
manicle; un philantrope (a peddlar’s term); un bonjourier or voleur au
bonjour (an early morning thief, but see under Thieves); un philibert
(of the sharper stamp); un philosophe (lit. ‘a philosopher’); un enfant
de minuit (formerly, says Cotgrave, enfants de la messe de minuit,
i.e., companions of the midnight mass, not for devotion, but for
robbery and abuse); ramastiqueur (one who swindles by means of
pocket-book dropping, etc.—a variety of the confidence trick); un
jardinier, un Americain (‘confidence trick’ men); un tirebogue (a watch
thief; in English slang a ‘toy-getter’); un friauche; un grinchisseur
de bogues (a watch thief); un mion de boule (equivalent to the English
‘prig’); un fil de soie; un doubleur (= English ‘prig’; un doubleur de
sorgue, ‘a night thief’); un voleur à la tire (a pickpocket); un tireur
(a pickpocket; literally ‘one who draws out’); etc.
German Synonyms. Broschem-blatter; cochem (a thieves’ accomplice; from
Hebrew chochem, wise, instructed); erntemackener (thieves who steal
from houses while the owners are away harvesting. From erndte, harvest
+ machen, to make); anstiebler (one who plans robberies; an instigator
to theft. A corrupted form of anstifter, an instigator); achbrosch
(also achberosch, achperosch, achprosch, approsch, an infamous thief or
robber, a rogue, a sharper. Not so much from the Chaldean achbero, a
mouse + rosch, head, as from the passage Jer. Baba. Mez. 8., achberi
reschii, i.e., ‘the mice are vile.’ Hence applied primarily to a
notorious thief. Thiele says the expressions have not been so much in
use since the suppression of the famous Rhenish robber gang; the words,
however, particularly achbrosch, are not by any means obsolete, being
very much in use by cattle and horsedealers, and sharpers generally);
ganof (Hebrew, ‘a thief’; from gonaw, ‘to steal’); achelpeter (an
inactive lazy old thief who sponges upon his confederates. From Hebrew
ochal, to eat + putzen, from O.H.G., bizan, pizzan, ‘food’); golehopser
(a thief who jumps on a loaded cart or other vehicle whilst in motion
to steal boxes or small packages. In English slang this kind of thief
is called a ‘dragsman’); goleschàchter (the same as preceding, but
instead of making off bodily with the booty, the packages are cut open,
and the contents thrown down for an accomplice to secure); bihengst (a
thief who steals bees); baldower (a principal, or leader of a gang of
thieves; one who advises and plans robberies. Balhoche is also a man
who has an opportunity for theft; balspiess, the host of an inn,
frequented by thieves and rogues); brenner (a thief who preys upon
others of his kind, by demanding, under threats of exposure, a share of
a successful robbery, without having taken part in it. From brennen,
‘to claim’; literally ‘to burn’; or it may be from berennen, ‘to run
against or blockade’); chalfan (also chalfen, chalfener, chilfer,
legitimately ‘a money changer,’ but amongst German thieves the name of
the rogue who, in changing money, commits theft. Cf., English, ‘ringing
the changes’); chawer (Hebrew: literally an associate; chaweress
[fem.], a thief’s confederate; a comrade. Chawrusse, kabruse, a gang or
confederation of thieves; chawrusse melochenen, to form a gang of
thieves; chenneter, a thief who knows how to conduct himself with tact
and address in good society. From the Hebrew chono, gentle, kind,
affable); chessenspiess, fem., chessenspiesse (the landlord or mistress
of an inn frequented by thieves—a place where they may find refuge
without fear of discovery. From the Hebrew); chechom (also chochem,
chochemer,—more frequently spelled with ‘K’—from the Hebrew, the wise
one. A prudent, cunning thief. Chochem lehorre, a dangerous thief, one
prepared for the worst; of a similar meaning is chochem mechutten, a
dangerous companion, a rogue of the worst type); bahnherr (also
bohnherr and Herr by itself: literally ‘a road-master’; a burglar—one
who prepares a robbery); diffler (a thoroughly dexterous thief; from
tupfel, ‘a point’); drängler (a thief, who, to divert the attention of
people from his intention, causes a crowd to assemble); paddendrücker
(a pickpocket—one whose speciality is purses: drücker is a corrupted
form of trecken, ‘to draw’ or ‘steal’ quickly and adroitly. Drücker,
like drücken, ‘to steal’ is never used by itself, but always with the
object of the theft; hence paddendrücker, a purse thief; luppendrücker,
a watch thief; torfdrücker, a generic name for a pickpocket);
eintreiber (a confederate who entices a victim to play so that his
comrade may swindle him); erefschieber (a thief who goes out at evening
time to commit robberies. Also erefhalchener, erefgänger, erefhändler.
Eref = evening); fichtegänger (a night thief or burglar); fiesel
(supposed to be derived from faser, ‘a birch,’ ‘rod,’ or ‘fibre.’ In
Vienna, the scum of society is meant by fiesel—the commonest thief,
professional vagabond, a protector of brothels and whores of the most
repulsive kind. These thieves are of great daring, utterly
unscrupulous, and are consequently much dreaded. Some feign to carry on
the business of a rag and bone-picker, what in the fiesellange or
Viennese thieves’ lingo is termed, ‘going out for profit.’ In the sense
of ‘a rod,’ fiesel is applied to the membrum genitale masculi; hence
fiesel as synonymous with strength, i.e., pertaining to the stronger
sex. It was formerly used in connection with many other words; e.g.,
mädchenfiesel, ‘one who habitually runs after women,’ ‘a molrower,’ a
‘loose fish.’ Fiesel-language means the language of the strong, of
those belonging to the fellowship of thieves, burglars, and rowdies);
freikäufer (a thief whose speciality it is to steal at fairs and
markets); freischupper (a card sharper; a gambling cheat who carries on
his business in crowded places of public resort); gacheler (also
gachler, gackler, kachler, kakler, kegler: a pantry thief; one who
steals eatables and plate from kitchens whilst servants are attending
at table); gannew (from Hebrew gonaw, ‘to steal’); gaslan (from Hebrew
gosal, ‘to rob’); glitscher (gypsy: glitschin, ‘the key’: a thief who
works by means of skeleton keys); godler chochem (from Hebrew godol,
great, strong, celebrated + Hebrew chochem, the wise one; hence, a
clever rogue, a thief who thoroughly understands his business); goi
gomur (an utterly unreliable confederate. Goi, plural gojim is applied
to those not Jews, to Christians; in the plural, especially, in the
sense of ignorant people, suspicious or two-faced characters; also used
as a synonym for Philistine—a man of whom one has to be careful. Goje
[fem.] is almost always used contemptuously for a female); götte (also
götti, göde, göttling [O.H.G., gataling] a confederate, a
relative—especially used to denote one who has been doing good
business); gutenmorgenwünscher (literally ‘good morning wisher’:
thieves who break into rooms early in the morning for purposes of
robbery. The French have an analogous expression in bonjourier, or
voleur au bon jour). For other synonyms, see Thieves.
Italian Synonyms (Fourbesque). Quadro (a cut-purse. In the Germania or
Spanish argot, quadro is used in the sense of ‘a poignard,’ and
quadrata in that of ‘purse.’ Possibly the Fourbesque quadro is derived
from one of these words. In Italian it is literally ‘a square’ or ‘a
rule’); granchetto (also ‘one who speaks gibberish’); lavorante di
scarpe (a pickpocket or cut-purse: lit. ‘working shoes’); camuffo;
fiadetto (also ‘a dolt,’ ‘a duffer’); carpione; truccante (also ‘a
beggar’).
Spanish Synonyms (Germania). Aquila (a sharper: lit. ‘an eagle’);
bolador (thought to be derived from the French voleur); comendadores de
bola (thieves who work principally at fairs and markets); gerifalte
(lit. ‘a gerfalcon’—one of the ‘hawk’ species); lince (lit. ‘a lynx.’
This class of thief varies robbery with begging); piloto (a thief who
directs others to the place of rendezvous, i.e., where a robbery has
been planned; lit. ‘a pilot’); trabajar (lit. ‘a traveller’).—See
Thieves.
Portuguese Synonyms (Calão). Pai (a captain of thieves—an Aaron or
arch-cove); maguino (a highwayman).
For exhaustive and comparative description of all classes of thieves,
both English and foreign, see Thieves—their names and methods.
Arf, adj. (vulgarism).—Half; e.g., ‘’arf an ’our,’ i.e., half an hour.
’Arf and ’arf.—See Four-half.
Argal.—See Argol-bargol.
Argol-Bargol, subs. and verb. (old).—Argol, sometimes argal, is a
corrupt pronunciation of Latin ergo, therefore; hence, from that word
being frequently used in conversation, a clumsy, unsound piece of
reasoning or cavilling; and verbally, to bandy words. Hotten says
argol-bargol is Scotch, but argal is found in Hamlet, v. i., and the
fuller form is probably onomatopoetic like ‘shilly-shally,’
‘hocus-pocus,’ etc., unless it comes from the Hebrew through the
Yiddish bar-len ‘to talk or speak’ [anyhow].
1596. Shakspear, Hamlet v. i., 21., 1st Clown. Here lies the water;
good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water, it
is, will he, nil he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come
to him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his
own death, shortens not his own life.
1823. J. Galt, The Entail, i., 53. ‘Weel, weel,’ said the laird,
‘dinna let us argol-bargol about it; entail your own property as ye
will, mine shall be on the second son.’
1861. Times, 23 Aug. Mr. Buckle’s argument [is] as absurd an argal
as ever was invented by philosopher or gravedigger. [M.]
Argol-Bargolous, adj. (old).—Quarrelsome.—See Argol-bargol.
1822. J. Galt, The Provost, p. 194. No doubt his argol-bargolous
disposition was an inheritance accumulated with his other conquest
of wealth from the mannerless Yankees.
Argufy, verb. (vulgar).—A corrupted form of ‘to argue,’ usually
associated with cavilling or a bandying of words; also, ‘to signify’;
e.g., ‘It doesn’t much argufy.’
1758. A. Murphy, The Upholsterer, Act i. Well, it does not signify
argifying.
1837. Lytton, Ernest Maltravers, bk. IV., ch. vii. ‘Lord! how I
should like to have you on the roadside instead of within these
four gimcrack walls. Ha! ha! the argufying would be all in my
favour then.’
Aristippus, subs. (old).—1. A diet drink or decoction of sarsaparilla
and other drugs, sold at the coffee-houses, and drank as tea.—Grose.