subs. (common).—Primarily a carrier, pedlar, or itinerant dealer; now mainly applied to a whining beggar; also, occasionally, a ‘sponger,’ SNIDE (q.v.), or ‘mean man’ (see quots.). [From CADGE (q.v.) + ER.]
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Abram man; croaker; Abraham cove; Tom of Bedlam; Bedlam beggar; maunderer; moucher; pikey; traveller; turnpike, or dry land sailor; scoldrum; shyster; Shivering James; silver beggar; skipper-bird; mumper; paper-worker; goose-shearer; master of the black art; durrynacker.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Un trucheur, or un trucheux (old cant, from truc, which see under CADGE); un marcandier or une marcandière (thieves’; a variety of the mendicant tribe which is described in le Jargon de l’Argot as ‘those who journey with a great purse by their side, with a pretty good coat, and a cloak on their shoulders, pretending they have met with robbers who have stolen all their money); les millards (old cant); un bêcheur; une comète (popular: ‘a comet’—one here and there); les callots; un enfant de la loupe (thieves’); un loupiat (popular); un mendigot (thieves’); un lartin (old cant).
GERMAN SYNONYMS. Dalfon (see CADGE); Techtbrud (Viennese thieves’); Gomol (from the Hebrew, and used only as a nickname); Hochstappler (a beggar cheat who has seen better days. Cf., Stappler and Linkstappler); Linkstappler (a beggar by means of false papers; a dealer in sham lottery tickets; or a ‘snide’ collector for purposes of charity); Pracher (possibly from the Hebrew berocha, ‘a blessing,’ in allusion to the mumper’s benediction; Schnallendrücker (from Schnalle = ‘an untruth,’ ‘cheating,’ or ‘deception,’ + Trecker, one who pulls); Schnurrer (see under CADGE); Stabeler (see under CADGE); Standjunge (a beggar frequenting markets, fairs, and public processions).
ITALIAN SYNONYMS. Campagno di calca (campagno = companion or comrade, calca = ‘crowd’); calco (see preceding); corteggiano or cortigiano (literally ‘a courtier’); cavorante di scarpe (literally ‘working shoes’; specially applied to a beggar who is also a pickpocket); granchetto (especially one who PATTERS IN FLASH (q.v.); truccante (also = a thief); guido or guidone (literally ‘a guide’; also = a ‘dog’ or a ‘companion’); incatenato an old and decrepit beggar’s boy-leader (literally one put up or hung up in chains).
SPANISH SYNONYM. Chita (a nickname for a deformed vagrant or beggar).
1821. W. T. MONCRIEFF, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 6.
| CADGERS make holiday, | |
| Hey, for the maunder’s joys, | |
| Let pious ones fast and pray, | |
| They save us the trouble, my boys. |
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I., 339. A street seller nowadays is looked upon as a ‘CADGER,’ and treated as one.
1882. Daily Telegraph, 5 Oct., p. 3., col. 1. See on a Saturday night, in Whitechapel, the rank hypocritical CADGER, whose coarse disguise of cleanness and respectability would scarcely deceive the most foolish persons at the West-end.
1884. GREENWOOD, The True History of a Little Ragamuffin, xxiv. I may here remark, that amongst people of my born grade no one is so contemptuously regarded as he who is known as a ‘CADGER.’ The meaning they set on the word is not the dictionary meaning. The ‘CADGER’ with them is the whining beggar—the cowardly impostor, who, being driven, or finding it convenient to subsist on charity, goes about his business with an affectation of profoundest humility, and a consciousness of his own unworthiness; a sneaking, abject wretch, aiming to crop a meal out of the despising and disgust he excites in his fellow-creatures.
