Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/83

 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[**,? P2] 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