subs. (vulgar).—The profession of cadging or begging.—See verbal sense.
1819. J. H. VAUX, A Vocabulary of the Flash Language. The CADGE is the game or profession of begging.
1832–53. Whistle-Binkie (Scottish Songs), Ser. II., 68. He could ‘lay on the CADGE’ better than ony walleteer that e’er coost a pock o’er his shouther.
Verb tr. and intr.—To obtain by begging; to beg. Now applied to vagrants and others who solicit in an artful wheedling manner. [A comparatively modern derivative. CADGER (Scots’), a pedlar or carrier, i.e., one who strolls the country with his stock-in-trade in a CADGE, i.e., a panier or basket for the carriage of small wares. Cf., ‘to beg,’ from ‘bag.’] Hence said of anyone who lives by sponging on another, or who gets a livelihood without giving a proper quid pro quo. For example, a waiter when hanging about for ‘a tip’ is said to be CADGING or ‘on the CADGE.’ Among intimates TO CADGE A DINNER or SUPPER is now often used without implied reproach.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum. CADGE the swells; beg of the gentlemen.
1846. BULWER-LYTTON, Lucretia, II., xii. ‘I be’s good for nothin’ now, but to CADGE about the streets and steal and filch. [M.]
1848. E. FARMER, Scrap Book (ed. 6), 115. Let each CADGE a trifle.
1866. G. A. SALA, A Trip to Barbary, ch. xiv. Thumping the tom-tom, and CADGING for coppers.
1833. Daily Telegraph, Feb. 8, p. 3, col. 1. ‘It’s as bad a most as drawing peoples’ teeth to CADGE a trifle off them in such winter months as we’ve had since the Autumn broke.’
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. To mump; to pike; to mouch; to stand the pad; to maund; to tramp; to mike.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Bettander (thieves’); aller à la chasse avec un fusil de toile (popular: literally ‘to go hunting with a canvas gun,’ an allusion to the necessary wallet or bag); bellander (tramps’; Cf., bettander; possibly some confusion has arisen between these two terms); balauder (tramps’); truquer de la pogne (tramps’); trucher (old cant, from truc, any kind of open air small trade or artifice. The word appears in various French, Italian and Spanish dialects, whilst MÉRIL in his Dictionnaire du pâtois Normand allies it with the English ‘trick’); tendre la demi-aune (popular: 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); Jechten, Viennese thieves’ lingo).
ITALIAN SYNONYMS. Truccare (identical with the French truquer q.v.); Santocchiare (also = ‘to say one’s prayers’); calcheggiare (also = to steal).
