In 2013 I received an email from Paul Pope in Canada, a descendent of Scottish Travellers who had emigrated in nineteenth century. Paul sent me a list of ‘Cant’ (his description) words still known to him and his extended family. In Paul’s list were a few words that had clearly modified their meanings during the intervening years; some are compounds or phrases of other Traveller words, some I cannot trace. These forms may not be related to Travellers’ language, and I have therefore listed them in the following Appendix.
I have compiled a list of these words, marking the unknown ones *.
| ablaw | ‘from all over the place’ [with influence from Scots] |
| *askew | a cup [unknown] |
| *a troachtan | abroad |
| avah | at all [Scots] |
| barld test | bald head [English bald + test ‘the head’] |
| belly chaet | apron [English belly + chaet ‘a thing, anything] |
| bene patteran’s chaet | a bell [bene ‘good’ patteran ‘minister’ chaet ‘thing’] |
| *blanchin | clean out [possibly from English blanch ‘to bleach’] |
| blurt | cry, weep [Scots] |
| *booget | basket specifically that belonging to a travelling Tinker |
| cackling yerras | chickens’ eggs [onomatopoeic + Romany yarras ‘eggs’] |
| cackling cheat | chicken thing, eggs |
| [onomatopoeic + chaet ‘a thing, anything’] | |
| cannikin | plague, sick [Obsolete in OED with the last example being from the New Dictionary of the Canting Crew 1699] |
| castie | a tree [castie ‘a stick, firewood’] |
| *fack | drink [unclear if this is a noun or verb] |
| feek | to make |
| femmel chaets | gloves [femmel ‘hand’ + chaet ‘a thing, anything’] |
| flicker | glass [onmatopoeic] |
| foist | a pickpocket [obsolete in OED and defined as ‘a thief, a rogue, pickpocket’ with the last example from the New Dictionary of the Canting Crew 1699] |
| *frummagem | choked |
| *gad | a branch used as whip [posssibly from English goad] |
| *gairt | ‘done away with’ |
| *harnchaets | berries [possibly a development from han chaet ‘an apple’] |
| gan | the mouth [OED attests this as ‘slang’ with the last example from Grose 1785] |
| gentry cove | ‘gentle or noble man’ [English gentry + cove ‘a man’] |
| gentry ken | a nobleman’s house [English gentry + ken (kane) ‘house’] |
| *kallee | a girl [unknown] |
| kinchin cove | a little man [kinchin ‘a child’ + cove ‘a man’] |
| *lochkulkin | bent (the plant) |
| mollisher | a woman or wife [a Romany word for ‘a girl, woman, prostitute’; possibly the same word as manishie] |
| monteclear | diarrhoea [a development from monticlear ‘an ocean’] |
| mowdment | death [Compare mowded] |
| *nabgirder | a bridle |
| percherie | a fish farm, a fish pond [from the type of fish kept there; no evidence of this in Scots Travellers’ language, English or Scots] |
| *prokhans | shoes [possibly derived from Scots brogue or frochan ‘part of a brogue show’] |
| *pruskies | broken biscuits [unknown; perhaps onomatopoeic] |
| *pud | bed down |
| *quarrin | a body [unknown] |
| ruffie’s pigeon | devil’s bird or bird of the devil [ruffie ‘the devil’ + English pigeon; devil’s bird is Scots for the magpie] |
| *scabed | crowned [unclear if this means ‘to hit on the head; or crowned as in a coronation’] |
| *toure | see |
| trine | to hang [OED has the following following obsolete meanings “trine ‘to march’; trine to the chaets ‘go to the gallows’”] |
| whuddin kain | church, chapel [whuddin ‘talking’ + kain ‘a house’] |
| witcher | silver [unknown] |