Thieves' cant (also known asthieves' argot,rogues' cant, orpeddler's French)^[1] is acant, cryptolect, or argot which was formerly used by thieves, beggars, and hustlers of various kinds inGreat Britain and to a lesser extent in otherEnglish-speaking countries. It is now mostly obsolete and used in literature andfantasy role-playing, although individual terms continue to be used in the criminal subcultures of Britain and the United States.

Cant is a common feature ofrogue literature of theElizabethan era inEngland, in bothpamphlets andtheatre. It was claimed bySamuel Rid to have been devised around 1530 by two vagabond leaders – Giles Hather, of the"Egyptians", and Cock Lorell, of the "Quartern of Knaves" – atThe Devil's Arse, a cave inDerbyshire, "to the end that theircozenings,knaveries andvillainies might not so easily be perceived and known".^[2]Thomas Harman, ajustice of the peace, included examples in his accountA Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors, first published in 1566. He collected his information fromvagabonds he interrogated at his home inEssex. He also called it "pedlars' French" or "pelting speech", and was told that it had been invented as a secret language some 30 years earlier. The earliest records of canting words are included inThe Highway to the Spitalfields byRobert Coplandc. 1536. Copland and Harman were used as sources by later writers. A spate of rogue literature started in 1591 withRobert Greene's series of five pamphlets oncozenage andconey-catching. These were continued by other writers, includingThomas Middleton, inThe Black Book andThomas Dekker, inThe Bellman of London (1608),Lantern and Candlelight (1608), andO per se O (1612). Cant was included together with descriptions of the social structure of beggars, the techniques of thieves including coney-catching,gull-groping, andgaming tricks, and the descriptions oflow-lifes of the kind which have always been popular in literature.

Harman included a cantingdictionary which was copied by Thomas Dekker and other writers. That such words were known to a wide audience is evidenced by the use of cant words inJacobean theatre. Middleton and Dekker included it inThe Roaring Girl, or Moll Cut-Purse (1611). It was used extensively inTheBeggars' Bush, a play byFrancis Beaumont,John Fletcher andPhilip Massinger, first performed in 1622, but possibly written c. 1614. The play remained popular for two centuries, and the canting section was extracted asThe Beggars Commonwealth byFrancis Kirkman as one of thedrolls he published for performance at markets, fairs and camps.

The influence of this work can be seen from the independent life taken on by the "Beggar King Clause", who appears as a real character in later literature. The ceremony for anointing the new king was taken from Thomas Harman and described as being used byGypies^[3] in the nineteenth century.Bampfylde Moore Carew, who published hispicaresqueLife in 1745, claimed to have been chosen to succeed "Clause Patch" as King of the Beggars, and many editions of his work included a canting dictionary. Such dictionaries, often based on Harman's, remained popular, includingThe Canting Academy, or Devils Cabinet opened, byRichard Head (1673), and BE'sDictionary of the Canting Crew (1699).^{[citation needed]}

It was commonly believed that cant developed fromRomany. Etymological research now suggests a substantial correlation between Romany words and cant, and equivalents, in many European languages. However, in England, Scotland, and Wales this does not apply. TheEgyptians, as they were known, were a separate group from the standard vagabonds, and cant was fully developed within 50 years of their first arrival in England. Comparison of Romany words in theWinchester Confessions taken in 1616 with modernWelsh Romani show high commonality. This record also distinguished between Romany and Cant words and again the attributions of the words to the different categories is consistent with later records.^[4]

There is doubt as to the extent to which the words in canting literature were taken from street usage, or were adopted by those wishing to show that they were part of a real or imagined criminal underworld. The transmission has almost certainly been in both directions. The Winchester Confessions indicate that Roma who were engaged in criminal activities, or those who were associated with them and had a good knowledge of their language, were using cant, but as a separate vocabulary – Angloromani was used for day to day matters, while cant was used for criminal activities.^[4] A thief in 1839 claimed that the cant he had seen in print was nothing like the cant then used by gypsies, thieves and beggars. He also said that each of these used distinct vocabularies, which overlapped; the gypsies having a cant word for everything, and the vagrants using a lower style than the thieves.^[5]

• ken – house
• bob ken – a house that can easily be robbed^[6]
• boozing ken – alehouse
• stauling ken – a house that will receive stolen goods^[7]
• lag – water; as a verb, penal transportation
• bene – good
• patrico – priest
• autem – church
• darkmans – night
• glymmer – fire
• mort – woman
• cove – man^[8]
• cully – a victim^[9]
• bung – a purse^[9]
• fence – a person who buys stolen goods^[10]
• fencing cully – a person who will receive stolen goods^[11]
• fambles – hands; also goods that are probably stolen^[12]
• bite – to cheat or cozen^[11]
• prog – meat^[13]
• scowre – to run away^[13]
• cuttle-bung – a knife with a curved blade^[14]
• foin – a pickpocketing technique in which conversation and deception are used to steal a purse from a victim; also someone who uses this technique^[15]
• nip – pickpocketing by slashing and palming a purse; also a person who uses this technique^[9]
• knuckle – a young pickpocket^[9]
• stall – a person who identifies and manoeuvres a victim so that their purse can be stolen^[9]
• bulk the cull to the right! – an instruction by a pickpocket to astall to distract acully by striking them on their right breast, so that their purse may be stolen^[9]
• budge – a person who breaks into houses to allow entry for their gang.

• Bargoens, Netherlands
• Fenya, Russia
• Germanía, Spain
• Grypsera, Poland
• Rotwelsch, Germany
• Coa,Chile

• A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew
• Rhyming slang – When words are replaced by their rhymes
• Lunfardo – Argot of the Río de la Plata region
• Nihali – Language isolate spoken in India
• Polari – Form of slang
• Tsotsitaal and Camtho – Variety of mixed languages mainly spoken in the townships of Gauteng province
• Šatrovački – Serbo-Croatian argot

• Judges, A.V., (1930, reprinted 1974)The Elizabethan Underworld, includes the main works ofrogue literature
• Aydelotte, F., (1913, reprinted 1967)Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds, provided analysis of the literature.
• Coleman, J., (2004)A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries, Volume 1: 1567–1784
• Green, J.,Romany Rise,Critical Quarterly, Volume 41 Page 118 – October 1999 (commenting on Becker-Ho, A.,Les Princes du Jargon (1990 & 1993)
• Harman, T. (1814)A caveat or warning for common cursetors, vulgarly called vagabonds.
• Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence. 1811 edition of a dictionary compiled by Captain Grose in 1785.
• Transcription of canting terms from 1736 and published then by Nathan Bailey
• The Lexicon of Thieves Cant

• George W. Matsell (1859),Vocabulum, or, The rogue's lexicon: compiled from the most authentic sources,^[1] a dictionary of American thieves' cant.

• 18th and 19th Century Thieves' Cant