subs. (old).—1. The gallows. (Also CHATTES and CHATS.) [Doubtful as to derivation, see quot. 1610.] For synonyms, see NUBBING-CHEAT.
1567. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1814), p. 66. CHATTES: the gallowes.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. CHATES, the Gallowes: here he [Harman, author of A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors—date, c. 1570, reprinted as The Belman of London, containing list of cant words] mistakes both the simple word, because he so found it printed, not knowing the true originall thereof, and also in the compound; as for CHATES it should be Cheates, which word is vsed generally for things, as Tip me that Cheate, Give me that thing: so that if you will make a word for the Gallous, you must put thereto this word, Treyning, which signifies hanging; and so Treyning Cheate is as much to say, hanging things, or the Gallous, and not CHATES.
1671. R. HEAD, The English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). CHATS: the gallows.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1706. E. COLES, English Dictionary, s.v.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1881. New York Slang Dictionary, s.v.
2. (old).—Lice. (Also CHATS and CHATTS.) [Grose suggests that CHATTS is an abbreviation of chattels in the sense of cattle—lice being the chief live-stock of beggars, gipsies, and the rest of the canting crew; the history of the word ‘chattel’ appears to bear out his contention. The Norman catel passed later into cattell, and these forms were in the sixteenth century restricted to live-stock, chattell passing from legal French into general use for the wider sense—article of property.]
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.
1819. J. H. VAUX, A Vocabulary of the Flash Language, s.v.
1864. HOTTEN, The Slang Dictionary, s.v.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Active citizens; crabs; crumbs; friends in need; back friends; grey backs; black cattle; Scots Greys; gentleman’s companions; creepers; gold-backed ’uns; German ducks; dicky-birds; familiars; saddle-backs; Yorkshire Greys.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Les espagnols (popular: formerly lice were called ‘Spanish bugs,’ poux espagnols, to distinguish them from the cimex lectuarius, or common bed bug); un coquillon (popular: also ‘a pilgrim’); les goux (thieves’); le garnison (pop. = garrison); un loupate (= poux, disguised); un habitant (= a householder or ‘citizen’); un grenadier (popular); un got (thieves’); un mousquetaire gris (pop. = a grey musketeer).
GERMAN SYNONYMS. Huttererg’ sell’n (perhaps the nearest German equivalent to the English ‘gentleman’s companion,’ the German word signifying ‘skin-society’); Jokel, or Jokelche, Jokelcher, Juckel, Juckeler (sing.: also = a postillion, ‘one who rides,’ the latter, however, being more commonly rendered Post-Juckel. Ave-Lallement derives it from Jäckel or Jockel, diminutives of Jacob, but there are the German words, Jucken, ‘to itch,’ and Juckler, ‘one who itches.’ It is quite possible that the two last are later, historically. In connection, see next example); Hans Walter (in Luther’s Liber Vagatorum [1529]. Hanz literally means Jack, or John [Cf., preceding Jokel], the old word Hansa refers to a multitude; old German Hanse, a society; Hans, a companion); Kinne, pl. Kinnim (of purely Hebrew origin; Kinnimachler = a ‘dirty, filthy fellow,’ or ‘an avaricious man,’ literally ‘a lice-eater’; Kinnimer, a man full of lice. The Fieselsprache has Kineh and Kinehbruder to signify ‘an intimate companion,’ or ‘chum’; Marschirer or die stillen Marschirer (Viennese thieves’ for lice; literally ‘the silent walkers’); Sand (used for vermin in general and lice in particular; sandig sein, to be lousy).
ITALIAN SYNONYMS. Grisaldi; grisanti; guallino.
SPANISH SYNONYM. Cancano (m.; a low term).
