Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/16

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2. (colloquial).—A noisy talker; a 'blab.'—See Cackle, verb.

1400. Cov. Myst., 131. Kytt CAKELERE and Colett Crane. [m.]

1598. Florio, Gracchione a chatter, a cackler. [m.]

1730-6. Bailey, Cackler: a Prater, a Tell-tale, a noisy Person.

1878. Browning, Poets of Croisic, 92. If they dared Count you a cackler.

3. (circus and showmen's).—An actor or showman who has a speaking part.

1854. Dickens, Hard Times, bk. I., ch. vi., p. 14 (H. ed.). 'He has his points as a Cackler still a speaker, if the gentleman likes it better.

Cackler's-Ken, subs. (old).—A hen-roost; a fowl-house. [From cackler (q.v., subs., sense 1), a fowl, + ken (q.v.), a place or house.] A French thieves' equivalent is une ornière (from ornie, a hen).

Cackle-Tub, subs. (old).—A pulpit. [From cackle (q.v.) + tub, in allusion to the shape of old-fashioned pulpits.] For synonyms, see Hum-box.

1888. Musgrave, Savage London. I sorter think if yer'll borrow Lucy's chair to wheel me, I'll go and sit under the cackle-tub in Little Bethel next Sunday.

Cackling-Cheat or Chete, subs. (old).—A fowl. [From cackling, that cackles, + cheat, From A.S. ceat, a thing.]—See Cheat.

English Synonyms. Beaker; cackler; margery prater; galeny; partlet; chickabiddy; rooster; chuck-chuck; chuckie.

French Synonyms. Un becquant (a thieves' term); un ornichon (also a thieves' term for a chicken); un pique-en-terre (literally 'a peck-the-ground'); une estable or une estaphle (thieves'); bruantez (Breton slang).

German Synonyms. Kachni (from the Gypsy); mistkratzer.

Italian Synonyms. Ruspante or raspante (properly 'scratching' or 'scraping').

Spanish Synonyms. Capiscol (this, and indeed all the terms here given from the Germania, refer to the cock-bird. Capiscol = Fr. caporal); obispo (properly a bishop); rey (literally king).

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 86. She has a cackling-chete, a grunting-chete, ruff pecke, cassan, and poplarr of yarum.

1622. Fletcher, Beggar's Bush, v. 1. Or surprising a boor's ken for grunting-cheats? Or cackling-cheats?

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Cackling-cheats (cant): fowls.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Cackling cheats: Fowls (cant).

Cackling-Cove, subs. (theatrical and common).—An actor. [From cackling (see Cackle, subs., sense 1) + cove, an old canting term for a man. ]

English Synonyms. Mummery-cove; mug-faker; mummer; mugger (properly an actor who makes free play with his face); tragedy or comedy merchant; pro; stroller; cackle-faker; barn-stormer; surf.

French Synonyms. Un prètre (thieves': literally 'a priest': a curious sidelight on the views concerning religious orders of the criminal classes); un raze or razi pour l'af (thieves' : raze or razi = priest; and affe in old French cant signified 'life' or 'the soul,' but latterly eau d'affe =