Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/82

 Arch Gonnof.--See Dimber damber.

Ard, adj. (American thieves').--Hot; a corrupted form of 'ardent.' Formerly 'a foot.'--See Creepers.

Area-Sneak, subs. (common).--A thief who lurks about areas for the purposes of theft.

1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. lix., p. 480. 'Why wasn't I a thief, swindler, housebreaker, area-sneak, robber of pence out of the trays of blind man's dogs?'

1869. English Mechanic, 14 May, p. 181, col. 1. [They] would invariably become pickpockets or area-sneaks.

1883. Daily Telegraph, June 13, p. 7, col. 3. The area-sneak, too, may find his occupation partially gone through the strictness of the rules which encompass the trade of the second-hand dealer.

Among other names for thieves may be mentioned:--

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