Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/20

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demi-aune = the arm); cameloter (popular: meaning also to sell, cheapen, or tramp); faire le coup de manche, or faire la manche (to call at people's houses); mendigoter (popular).

German Synonyms. Abgeilen (to get by begging. From the O.H.G. gil); abschnurren (to beg through a lane, town, or province; also = to take to one's heels; M.H.G. snurren, schnurren (q.v., infra) and Schnurrant, a beggar musician); bimmeln (Bimmler, Bummler, a beggar or vagrant); benschen (a corruption of the Latin benedicere = to say grace after meat; from praying to begging is but a step); paternellen (perhaps, like the foregoing, a formation, from the Latin pater noster, signifying to say much pater); noppeln (vagrants'); Schnurren, schnorren snurren, (from the O.H.G. snurren, to grind, to grind out music on a hurdy-gurdy [q.v.], or to grind out prayers. A beggar or vagrant is termed Schnurrer, Schnorrer, or Snurrer = a grinder. Auf die Pille schnurren = to beg by feigning epileptic fits; auf Serffleppe schnurren = to beg on the pretence of having been 'burnt out'; Schnurrpilsel, Schnurrscheye, Scenurrschicksel, Schurrkeibelche, and Schnurrmädchen, are epithets for very young girls who are beggars or strumpets as occasion fits; the dual occupation being known as Kommistarchenen and Hemdenschnurren); tarchenen, targenen, dörgen, dorchen ('to beg' or 'to hawk.' The derivation is obscure, but it is possibly to be found in the Hebrew tirgel, 'to teach to walk' or 'to guide the foot.' Others trace it to the O.H.G. Turg, 'uncertain' or to storgen from Störger, 'a wandering quack.' The Fiesellange, or Viennese thieves' lingo, has Tarchener as equivalent to Kegler, a kitchen thief); linkstappeln (to beg or collect money under false pretences; see Linkstappler under cadger); prachern (probably from the Hebrew berocha, a blessing: wandering beggars generally introducing themselves with some sort of a benediction); Schnallendrücken gehen, or auf Schnallen, drücken gehen (these terms also signify to walk the streets as a prostitute. Schnalle = untruth, cheating, deception, and the female pudendum); stabeln, stappeln, and stapeln (the first of these forms is peculiar to Vienna, and all are traceable to Stiban or Stap, the Anglo-Saxon staff. The meaning is to go with a begging staff, generally with a pretence of having seen better days); dalfen and dalfern (the corresponding noun Dalfon = a poor fellow, is supposed to be derived from Dalfon, the only one of the ten sons of Haman, whose name had not the letter aleph either at the beginning or end of it [Esther ix. 7-9]. The story goes that because of this he was not only hanged, but mocked into the bargain: the feast in commemoration of Haman's fall being essentially a merrymaking. Thenceforth, a poor man became a Dalfon); deufen gehen = to go begging with the intention of committing a robbery. Cf., O.H.G. Diufa, Deube = theft); fechten, Viennese thieves' lingo).

Italian Synonyms. Truccare (identical with the French truquer q.v.); Santocchiare (also = 'to