Comments on: Smithfield Slang

By: steve

steve — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:04:57 +0000

Re Cank. Thank you Jonathon. Really good to know the origin.

By: Jonathon Green

Jonathon Green — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 19:49:03 +0000

Steve: ‘cank’ was (is?) simply a dialect term for gossip (both noun and verb), and used, according to the English Dialect Dictionary (1907), throughout the Midlands and North-West. Thus the ‘canking- or conking-pleck’ (i.e. place), somewhere that gossips gather. A cheeky child may also be told off by its mother: ‘Don’t you cank at me’. It seems to be onomatopoeic, and most likely developed from another, earlier sense of ‘cank,’ used of geese or ducks, and meaning to cackle, honk or quack.

By: steve

steve — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 10:21:33 +0000

Hi. Very interesting. In Leicester we have a street called ‘Cank Street’. This is named after the ‘Cank’ well where, during the middle ages, woman would gather to collect water and chat and gossip. The local slang then for gossiping was to ‘Cank’. I wonder now if this could be a corruption of ‘Cant’ or vice versa?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:10:01 +0000

Thank-you kindly, Ros- of course- that makes perfect sense! I love words and languages- just fascinating!

By: Ros

Ros — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 23:09:38 +0000

Sarah – the word spital is the same as we use in the word hospital. In medieval times such places were run by religious orders and Spitalfields takes its name from the fields surrounding St Mary’s Priory, which was situated just outside the City of London’s boundaries. I hope my facts are correct and that if they’re not the Gentle Author will put us right.

By: mlleparadis

mlleparadis — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 16:55:53 +0000

Brilliant post – love the descriptions of the villains and frauds. The more things change….

Also enjoyed the last post. Of course we have a T-shirt for that in the states:

“Dogs have masters, Cats have staff! ”

I know! I’m indentured too.

By: Achim

Achim — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 09:54:17 +0000

Linguistic research — a very interesting area of expertise. Thanks for the research!

Yours
ACHIM

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 07:46:32 +0000

Hello Gentle Author~

May I ask, not being English myself, if the name of Spitalfields derives from the same root as “Spytell” as in the Spytell House referred to in this post? If not, where does Spitalfields get its name from?

Many thanks!
-Sarah

By: Gillian Bagwell

Gillian Bagwell — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 07:21:39 +0000

What a great post! How have I missed Copland before now? I’ve been tweeting Tudor/Stuart words and phrases of the day for some time, and have heard and used some of those in this article, but haven’t heard others. And I have your books, Mr. Green!

By: Caroline Bottomley

Caroline Bottomley — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 06:14:07 +0000

Ooh fascinating stuff, as good as pictures