Thieves’ Cant: The Secret Language Used By Criminals For Centuries
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- Опубліковано 14 чер 2024
- What if a secret society of rogues operated in plain sight, using code words to plot elaborate felonies and hoaxes? From the 16th to 19th centuries, Europeans believed exactly that. According to multiple authors, rogues spoke a secret dialect called thieves' cant, which even the police couldn't crack. Honest folks needed to learn the language quickly so they could avoid "priggers" and "badgers" - known in standard English as thieves and villains.
#Slang #ThievesCant #WeirdHistory - Розваги
Thank you. Now I need to grab "The Rogue's Lexicon" for my D&D campaign.
"The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic"
- G.K. Chesterton
Great quote!
I agree great quote however the modern day word for criminal in America is "republican aka republiCONS"
@@supportyourtroopsathletes6460 A nation divided is a nation distracted and the distracted are the easiest targets to steal from.
-The Media & Congress probably
@@supportyourtroopsathletes6460 why bring politics into this, and why fuel division
Meet stupid, stupid is a sad man who pushes politics during a philosophical discussion, stupid is an unfortunate man, not understanding the basic concept of crime
I would like to hear about trade talk such as “butcher’s talk” that used to be quite prevalent in butcher shops in Australia. They would talk backwards in order to speak freely in front of customers.
Like diner waitress talk/ kitchen talk in America I in the early and middle 20th century
@@grahamparks1645 sort of, from what I’m lead to believe about diner waitress talk is it’s more mnemonics for short order cooks and staff to communicate where’s butcher talk is a dialect of it’s own which evolved from convict Thieve’s cant of criminals sent to the Australian colonies. No doubt that Diner talk is a fascinating jargon and is unique but rehctub klat si tahwemos tnereffid sa yeht kaeps eritne secnetnes dna snoitrevnoc sdrawkcab.
I've heard of butchers' talk in France too which takes slang words and uses them backwards.
@@EclecticDD apparently it’s called Louchébem and was used in Parisian and Lyonnaise butchers up until the 1950’s or so. Interestingly it was used by members of the French resistance in order to not be discovered by the Nazis. I learnt Rehcter klat as a boy as my grandfather was a butcher here in Sydney. A mate of mine learnt it as an apprentice butcher in the 90’s but I think it’s dying out. Very few butchers understand if you ask for steluc or sgans these days. It was funny back in the day hearing a weary butcher calling an annoying customer a dratsab or a t-nuc with a straight face and seeing it occasionally backfire when said customer had a family member in the trade.
Wait until you discover "Cleaners talk". Used by cleaners to describe dirty arse people who always need cleaning up behind them... Yes also an Australian thing. I'll give just one taste of it. If you ever hear a cleaner describe someone as "a tidy person or a neat person" that actually means they are a dirty lazy shit who always leaves a mess because they're too fucking lazy to clean up after themself!
In Michael Creighton's 1975 novel, "The Great Train Robbery," (set in 1885, it is a fictionalized account of the theft of a gold shipment in transit,) the main characters used plenty of "Thieves' Cant" throughout the dialogue, adding an extra touch of period realism. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who found this video interesting.
Thanks for posting this!
It was a true story. It was made into a movie staring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. I'm pretty sure it was 1855 when the robbery occurred.
@@edmondt848 intelligent people
Marriage music is slang for children crying is the funniest thing I've heard all week.
Mug: A wealthy or fancy looking person walking about, being an ideal target for a stick-up. Whence came the term "mugger".
And a “Tomtug” meant a wealthy merchant who fell victim to street-scammers
Mug is still used to describe someone who is gullible!
Idk if you've done this already but I'd love to hear about folk medicine ingredient names and how they may have inspired some of our ideas about witches. For example in Macbeth.
Good video thanks
Great suggestion...... I'm super interested, if that counts for anything 🙂
Milk of human kindness
You know what the broomstick was for? LOL
The homeless have a secret language as well that are written on walls in different cities telling themselves which areas are good to setup camp and such etc
Ahhh so _this_ is where the Shadowmarks in Skyrim come from
I wonder how much of the "Thieve's Cant" was just made up by the authors of the pamphlets or books....
99.7%?
@@Me-qp8vz Brooklynites of the late 19th/early 20th century denied that the slang O Henry put in their mouths was in any way legitimate. O Henry apologised later (sort of), but the original voice of Bugs Bunny, Mel Blanc, said Bugs' slang was a combination of the Manhattan and Brooklyn street slang of his childhood. Which is the truth?
I'm guessing almost all, since all that Satanist stuff was positively ludicrous.
The homeless have a secret language as well that are written on walls in different cities telling themselves which areas are good to setup camp and such etc
The language still exist today. Politicians use it all the time.
Good one 👏🏻
@@isatoro77 If only he was joking.
@@isatoro77 it wasn’t a joke
Especially naming bills like the inflation reduction act HA
😂😂😂
Welp, you had me at the Assassins Creed screenshot at the beginning
So we’re just gonna ignore the writer named Richard Head?
lil dickhea
I'd rather have the name Richard Head than Richard Ryder...
Dick is shorthand for Richard so his name was Dick Head lol
😂😂😂
Seems plausible. Many of these make sense and are similar to how slang is used today. The urban dictionary is a fine resource on modern slang language.
Every time the narrator said "Thieves' cant," I thought of The Wizard of Oz.
Tin Man: "Oil can."
Scarecrow: "Oil can what?"
Literally my favorite cinematic joke of all time!
Did other countries have a hobo code like in the US? That could be an interesting Depression era topic.
Ya The homeless have a secret language as well that are written on walls in different cities telling themselves which areas are good to setup camp and such etc
There even warchalking where it tell you where is open WiFi location and it access point how to access it.
I was a carnie for many years and we had our own cant we spoke in.
I heard professional wrestlers were considered to be Carney's at 1st and they would use their own slang like sandbagging when you go limp and make yourself much heavier to pick you up
So many professions and even work places have the own languages or at least slang and acronyms. A retail store employee might say things like: go backs, racetrack, front end, soft side, and shrinkage.
How about the Windtalker Navajo language of world war II.
"LullyPriggers” is my favorite!! And you're right... that would be an awesome name for a punk band!!!
I love this channel!!! I learn so much and the guy telling the story is so funny!! I adore his humor!!🤣🤣❤❤❤❤
Btw those signs still used among the thieves in Spain, the leave those marks next to the apartment door to indicate who lives there , how many ppl, what time they’re at home etc
"Graisser la patte" grease the paw, is still used in France to design bribing someone.
In English it's to grease the palm, la paume, but the expression is a little old fashioned.
Also S(ch)windel is a normal German word for either trick/lie but also vertigo.
Calling eggs 'cackling farts' made me chuckle.
My Mom: "Hey son, what would you like for breakfast?"
Me: "Bacon and cackling farts!"
My Mom: "You and that damn Weird History UA-cam channel."
My favorite channel on UA-cam 💙 P.S. this narrator is awesome!!
Weird History is my favorite channel! Thank you
I'm not sure if it is connected but the more I think of it the more it makes sense.
Now I understand why Eddie from ed edd 'n Eddie would constantly call the kids of the cull de sac pigeons!
It was basically truck driver CB slang for the Middle Ages.
Lol
Martin Luther: theologian, composer, cataloger of thieves vocabulary. Is there anything this guy can't do.
Have a successful bowel movement?
Have a nightmare?
This terminology is still used in Britain today. I can’t understand it for the life of me lol but I remember learning about “bees and honey” and “dead horse”
Same here, we use it here in Australia also. Much of Australian English evolved from the thieves cant used by convicts from Britain.
Cockney slang
@@Jack-bp3ns Yes we do have elements of cockney slang but also much of how we speak is derived from the thieve’s cant that was used in order to communicate freely without the authorities understanding what they were saying. It’s why we speak in such a unique way when using slang. Cockney slang didn’t appear until 50 years after convicts arrived in Australia anyway.
@@Dan_Ben_Michael yeah man I'm just saying to the lady those phrases came from that certain group
@@Jack-bp3ns oh no worries, my bad. It came up as you replied to me, my mistake.
I’m calling potatoes “Irish Apricots” from now on.
A companion piece to this could be one on the cant named Polari which incorporates some of the thieves' cant. Most people use words from this lexicon every day without being aware of that fact but the cant has a history reaching back to the 16th century according to some writers. Used with Punch and Judy, it reached its zenith with the BBC radio program Julian and Sandy which ran from 1965 to 1968. Since then there have been scattered sightings of Polari the most recent I know of being the 2020 British made-for-TV film "Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse."
You spoke for me! Even though it was a bit before my time, I've heard every episode of Beyond Our Ken and Around the Horn. They were brilliant - that's not hyperbole, they seriously were brilliant.
there is a play in polari on youtube on a channel called "Brian and Karl"
GOLUNE!!! I just heard him say that they called drugs in jail 'onik' which comes from my language Shelta (Irish traveller/gypsy language) none of us call it Shelta we say The Gammon but on Wikipedia it says Shelta. Anyway 'Onik' is actually our word 'Inik' which means thing but used as a substitute for any word u wanna hide. Also really The Gammon (Shelta) isn't really a language it's literally the reminents of that old thieves Cant mixed with Irish, in fact some travellers say 'du ye wid de kant/de Gammon' meaning do you speak Shelta/the gammon. Also their word Ken which back then meant a meeting place for thieves actually now means house in our language e..g 'Gratch de keen' look at the house and really that word 'gratch' is just the word Watch with the first letter replaced by 'gr' we have that with nearly every English word in our language. Gloke:look just a mutated version of look with g added to the beginning of the word. The word Nick we turned to nawck, fuck we turned to feeck, rag which means car is gar backwards just car with g at the beginning again. Our word for girl Lackeen is the Irish word Cailín with C and L switched over - Laicín:Cailín, Lackeen:Caleen
Our word gop means kiss and is Irish póg backwards our word Kam meaning son is Irish Mac backwards, our words for hands is Molya which is just a mispronunciation of Mawler as in to mawl food (to touch food) stall means stop in our language stall gratching stop looking and that's just reusing it in a different way to standard English if u stall a car youve technically stopped it right? I could go on on on but yk wat I'm proud to be a traveller and 'a loves te wid de Gammon' ( I love speaking the Cant, the Gammon, Shelta)
Why u telling all that
This was fascinating to read. I'm no linguist but I still find it interesting. A language that might have an affinity for cryptology is what came to mind. Imagine if your language actually gears your mind to process puzzles and such better than others. Where does one go to meet up with travelers and to be granted an educational tour?
🙏 please reply when you see this. A person can Google all he wants but he'll not be able to get more considerate and relevant advice than from a real traveler.
@@A.I-GUY unfortunately my friend I'm possibly the only traveler that's ever studied the etymology of the words of our language and it's very fascinating knowing the history of this secret language that no one other than us knows. As you can see from the reply above that me telling people about our language and it's origins is really not a good thing to do in the eyes of my people. Also from his name Corey Lee I'd say he's an English traveller who don't even speak the same language as us but speak a language called Anglo-Romani, Cory Lee Kaka rokka chavy, dickie the old video mush, it's kushti ain't it my chavvy? Anyway I'm probably one of the only travellers currently enrolled in the University College London in the UK and definetly what you call Countryfied or what the English travellers would call Gorjafied which mean I've become like a non traveller, BUT I'm still a traveller to the bone, you can't forget or deny where you were reared! Anyway thanks for taking what looks like a positive and no biased interest into our language and culture, yer a tome feen (a good man).
I kinda dont want you to tell either and lm not Traveller Born but did live the life for years.....
Yes!!! Weird history Wednesday.
I agree Brushy Bill was a fascinating historical figure, but he was not Billy the Kid. I was born and raised in Ft Summer New Mexico, I am 75 years old so I am not new to the debate about William H. Bonney and Brushy Bill. Billy the kid was killed by Pat Garrett and buried in Ft. Sumner. But another expose on this would be interesting.
Ian Walker well, about the only thing I seriously know about Jesse James is we have the same first name. Sorry I can not give a serious opinion on this subject.
I learned something new, thanks wierd history
My favorite is, "cackling farts". That one is hilarious!
worked in a prison, everything had a name. Paper. Chin Cheek, Cowboy, Bacon-head.
What's the difference between a literalist and a thief?
A literalist takes things literally and a thief takes things, literally.
Great joke XD
Haha! This made me chuckle.
I love this joke
😂😂😂
The music this video had was wonderfull and really deepened the video, i loved it and please use it more often. It painted such a great scene
Oh that reminds me, I haven’t been down to the ragged flagon for a while
You should do a video on Brushy Bill Roberts! He was this old dude that claimed to be Billy the Kid and died right after coming to the Governor and asking for the pardon that was promised to Billy the kid! It’s super fascinating and honestly I bet he could be him after everything I’ve read🤔
This sounds pretty interesting, gotta go do some research now 😬👍
I wish it was true but brushy bill was almost certainly not billy the kid. He was 3 when billy was killed
He was Billy the Kid
@@baronvonsvengoonie1767 Yeah and next you'll tell us you as Butch Sundance?
love the D&D and MTG pictures!
You should do the history of slang words from then and now.
Could you do some more food histories?
Clicked with the quickness
I love your channel this was very interesting cause I learn things I didn't know before keep up the good work
Can you do a video on the different kinds of con artist tricks there are? That would be fascinating.
How in the Hell did I miss this? This is the kind of content I subscribed for, love it!
Oooh, I'd love to get my hands on a copy of most of those books mentioned here, for further research purposes. I wish the titles were in the desc for easy searching, but I'll make do without.
I've briefly browsed some digital online copies of the earliest New England dictionaries, easily available. Some terminology is easily recognizable, but there are plenty words no longer in use which are damn interesting. I imagine there are, likewise, copies of the old Cant texts around somewhere.
“I promise if elected…” means “I will probably not do this….”
@OneHairyGuy lol biden said that in the debate
Cons today have a varied lexicon with many terms going back further than they have any idea of.
A+ video!
LOVE IT! What a fascinating and cool topic!
some of them are understandable
marriage music- you have kids when married so noisy marriage= noisy kids around
rhino= money- the rhinoceros trade was and still is big money for those who partake in eastern medicine (they think rhino horns have medicinal properties, or prey on those who do)
eggs- cackling farts- farts and boiled eggs can smell rank and sulfurous, and chickens (which lay eggs) cackle
Much of what passes for cant in the UK is a mish mash of greek, pig latin, gaelic and common English words repurposed. You'll hear them mostly in Seaports and high density cities where trade was brisk and hence the borrowing from the continental languages. More recently we see/hear in group cant in rap/drill mixing ebonics with onomatopoeia to diguise criminal acts. However you slice it these languages live and die in a few generations as thier use waxes and wanes like fashions, with only the most useful or poignient surviving the errosion of time.
Weird history would be good if you did, Empires and civilisations that existed at the same time as one another but either had little to no contact or knew nothing about one another?
Thanks for sharing.
That was fabulous! You had me laughing while learning again!
Have you ever done any uploads regarding Jamaican, Reggae, Rastafari; phrases, slang, phrases of speech?
Great uploads. Thanks for the knowledge.
@Ryan you are nobody, You don't care.
Another word for thief is lawyer or insurance salesperson
If other professions throughout history created their own parlance, Thieves Can as well.
No, they can't.
Can Do Cant
Marriage music = children. Makes sense. In many cases, it's the "song" you hear after you marry.
Cackling farts = eggs. Makes sense. Chickens cackle and eggs come out their "butt."
I could be a GREAT rogue.
Rhino also makes sense for money or "wealth" in general,considering how expensive rhino horns were (still probably are on the black market)
Eggs smell like farts too
Heard them referred to a cackle berries.
I do believe they call that Wall Street.
This one is simply fascinating!
Well, if the thieves can't, they might wanna try a different career path.
those who can't, teach
This was a great subject for YT content, really original nvr seen another video abt this
Nice choice on the notion thief art work at 5:48
Chris cearly has really nice pieces.
Fantastic video
Thanks to everyone behind-the-scenes at *Weird* *History* for this video! 🙊
Ever been a conversation with a group of RNs, NPs, and Doctors? It's a whole language. Ever been in the Navy? We will talk over your head. I was an RN in the Navy.
"Ye brosch, you flip a dip?"
"Aw, schwerd."
Banger video idea
I think modern vagabond pictograms (I’ve heard them called Hobo Hieroglyphics before) are the modern continuation.
I wonder if literature spawned Cant out of fiction, but in turn led to them being used in real life, all the way up to modern hobo ones. Life truly imitates art eh?
"Thieves' can't"? Well, I'm sure they could if they tried.
Isn't cockney slang descendant from all this?
Thieves definitely still have certain words for certain crimes. I have one for ya, a "lick" means to rob someone.
Meh. More like make money off a "sucker" or situation. i.e. hit a few licks later on in the evening. i.e. they have some licks already set up.
LOL I was playing assassins creed rogue when I saw this! That’s the first picture
These are great videos to watch when you're bored.. Dang I'm binge watching so many of them
ESCOFFIER AND THE KITCHEN BRIGADE... AND BEFORE HE ORGANIZED IT (CHEF, SOUS CHEF, ETC)
You rabble-rousing, cackling, pigeon plucker! How dare you break the solemn oath of our lost cant’! This isn’t the last you’ve heard of me, Weird History!
My days gone past in the NE of England, we did use a language only a few of us understood.
A sworn society of thieves? Hmm, sounds like the Russian “vor v zakone” (thief in law). They also had their own “fenya” (thieves’ cant)
I love this channel
I wonder is there a real theives guild out there.
Yes.. it’s called the bankers association
Of course there is. Pretty much anything you can think of exists somewhere
definitely
they're called....
politicians.
Look up the PINK PANTHERS group. They’re still around
Every trade, and every subculture has its own jargon.
I wasn't ready for the massive hit of nostalgia the images of Garret brought.
Skyrim in a nutshell
Thanks learned allot
Not knowing what you were referring to, I immediately thought of the book You Can't Win by Jack Black (not todays actor). I said how thieves had their own way of speaking and how it sometimes made its way into common language without many understanding its origin. He used the example of "having someone pegged" and how that was not a reference to the game cribbage. It was a term that came from thieves that were casing a potential place to rob. They want to know as much about thier potential victims as possible. He explains it better and writes an amazing book but the thief, while learning the victims (possibly multiple) behaviors, they would put something (a peg) in the door so they would be able to know if activity has take place while the thief was away from the house. If he comes back, and the peg has moved, he knows that he needs to return and find out what is taking place during that time period. William S Burroughs explains a lot of things that are likely only known to junkies and old beatniks in the book Junky. Another highly recommended book that takes your hand and leads you through the subterranean.
DnD nerds will love this video
Martin Luther's last writings which he nailed to the church specifies who he was talking about. Charles Dickens and Shakespeare wrote plays describing these people activities. They now fill the ranks of secret societies
You got it
mark - A suitable victim (Collins Dictionary)
I remember the character Philippe LaRoche (Vincent Cassel) using that word in the film Derailed (2005).
Skyrim taught me much about thieves.
"Cackling farts" has now found its way into my vocabulary.
Very interesting.
8:08 I can't tell if that's a form of sign language from a different country (I only know ASL and PSE) or if it's just two people flailing their hands around
Hmm “Badger”, must be where joss Whedon got the idea for Badger in firefly
Facinating never knew
To be able to study further their secret language is to be one of them
Good Night WH Team, I like your new Video. Make me more know about Language of Thieves, Thanks bring me a good History. I have 3 video Request to WH Team, Can you Guys make video about:
(1.) What Happen to General Public after the Great Kantō earthquake (関東大地震, Kantō dai-jishin; Kantō ō-jishin)
(2.) What happen during Tensho earthquake (天正地 Tenshojishin) aftermath by the Earthquake?
(3.) What is Shinsengumi & What Shinsengumi real job in Edo Era? (新選組, "New Select Brigade")
Thankyou WH Team :)
The model of the Airbus A380 at the intro needs a Weird History livery.
The drawing of a cat means nice lady lives here😂
Listening to the opening statements, the 1st thoughs that came to mind was that you were referring to the government and pieces of legislation.......
Scandalous