As specimens of those words which have altered their original cant signification, I may instance “CHETE,” now written CHEAT. CHETE was in ancient cant what _chop_ is in the Canton-Chinese,—an almost inseparable adjunct. Everything was termed a CHETE, and qualified by a substantive-adjective, which showed what kind of a CHETE was meant; for instance, “CRASHING CHETES” were teeth; a “MOFFLING CHETE,” a napkin; a “GRUNTING CHETE,” a pig, &c. &c. CHEAT now-a-days means to defraud or swindle, and lexicographers have tortured etymology for an original—but without success. _Escheats_ and _escheatours_ have been named, but with great doubts; indeed, Stevens, the learned commentator on Shakespere, acknowledged that he “did not recollect to have met with the word _cheat_ in our ancient writers.”[14] CHEAT, to defraud, then, is no other than an old Cant term, somewhat altered in its meaning,[15] and as such it should be described in the next Etymological Dictionary. Another instance of a change in the meaning of the old Cant, but the retention of the word is seen in “CLY,” formerly to take or steal, now a pocket;—remembering a certain class of low characters, a curious connection between the two meanings will be discovered. “MAKE” was a halfpenny, we now say MAG,—MAKE being modern Cant for appropriating,—“convey the wise it call.” “MILLING” stood for stealing, it is now a pugilistic term for fighting or beating. “NAB” was a head,—low people now say NOB, the former meaning, in modern Cant, to steal or seize. “PEK” was meat,—we still say PECKISH, when hungry. “PRYGGES, _dronken Tinkers or beastly people_,” as old Harman wrote, would scarcely be understood now; a PRIG, in the 19th century, is a pickpocket or thief. “QUIER,” or QUEER, like _cheat_, was a very common prefix, and meant bad or wicked,—it now means odd, curious, or strange; but to the ancient cant we are indebted for the word, which etymologists should remember.[16] “ROME,” or RUM, formerly meant good, or of the first quality, and was extensively used like _cheat_ and _queer_,—indeed as an adjective it was the opposite of the latter. RUM now means curious, and is synonymous with queer, thus,—a “RUMMY old fellow,” or a “QUEER old man.” Here again we see the origin of an every day word, scouted by lexicographers and snubbed by respectable persons, but still a word of frequent and popular use. “YANNAM” meant bread, PANNUM is the word now. Other instances could be pointed out, but they will be observed in the dictionary.