or canary-bird, subs. (thieves’).—1. A prisoner; a very old cant term for habitual offenders; or, as Grose says [1785], ‘a person used to be kept in a CAGE’ (q.v.). The same idea occurs in some foreign equivalents, e.g., the French, oiseau de cage, and the German, Kastener, from Kasten, a chest or case. For synonyms, see WRONG ’UN.
1673. R. HEAD, Canting Academy, p. 157. Newgate is a cage of CANARY-BIRDS.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary. CANARY-BIRD, a little, arch, or knavish boy; a rogue or whore taken and clapped into the cage or roundhouse.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 55. Now for the cage, my pretty CANARY-BIRD. Before we start I’ll accommodate you with a pair of ruffles.
2. (general).—A mistress. [See preceding quot. (1725): the term is still in use.] For synonyms, see TART.
3. (common).—Formerly a guinea, but now applied to a sovereign. [From similarity of colour.]
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Yellow boy; goldfinch; yellow hammer; shiner; gingleboy; monarch; couter; bean foont; James (from Jacobus); poona; portrait; quid; thick ’un; skin; skiv; dragon; goblin. A guinea was also called a ‘ned.’
FRENCH SYNONYMS for the equivalent twenty franc piece are, un jaunet (popular: literally ‘butter-cup’ or ‘yellow-boy’); une sigue, sigle, sigolle or cig (thieves’); un bonnet jaune (popular: literally ‘yellow-cap’ or ‘bonnet’); un bouton (i.e., ‘a master-key’); une maltaise (old cant; according to Victor Hugo this gold coin was used on board the convict galleys at Malta); un moule à boutons (popular); une médaille d’or (popular: = a gold medal).
GERMAN SYNONYMS. Gelbling (gelb = yellow); Fuchs (a gold piece; literally ‘a fox’).
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. CANARY BIRD, … in a canting sense, guineas.
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvi. Fifty as fair yellow CANARY-BIRDS as e’er chirped in the bottom of a green silk purse.
1842. Punch, p. 168. ‘Prolusiones etymologicæ,’ 13. Goldfinches—CANARIES.—Singing birds; the which whose possesseth needeth never to pine for lack of notes.
4. (thieves’).—A female watcher or stall; a MOLLISHER (q.v.). Cf. CROW = a male watcher. Fr. une marque franche.
1862. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, IV., 337. Sometimes a woman, called a ‘CANARY,’ carries the tools [of burglars], and watches outside.
5. (Salvation Army).—A written promise of a donation or subscription. At some of the meetings of the ‘Army’ instead of sending round the plate, the ‘officers’ distribute slips of paper on which those present are invited to record their benevolent intentions. The original colour of the slips was yellow—hence the nickname.
