subs. (thieves’).—Old cant for cheese. Also CASS, CASSON, CASSAM, CASSOM, and CASEY. The oldest form is CASSAN, which is found in Harman’s A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors, the first known dictionary of English cant [1567]. CASS, chiefly American thieves, is a latter corruption probably influenced by the Dutch kaas, or the M. Dutch kâse, Lat. caseus. [For suggested derivation, which corresponds to that given in the N.E.D., see second quot.]
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Caz; sweaty-toe; choke-dog.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Le renâché (thieves’ term); une côtelette de menuisier, de perruquier, or de vâche (popular terms for a portion of Brie; literally a cabinet-maker’s, hair-dresser’s, or cow-cutlet); le dûreme (thieves); une boussole de réfroidi or de singe (popular = a Dutch Cheese).
GERMAN SYNONYMS. Fendrich (old cant appearing in the Liber Vagatorum [1529] as Wenderich or Wendrich; subsequently modified into Fähndrich. The derivation is referable, perhaps, to an old practice, prevalent in North Germany, of using as a board sign [Fahne, a flag, standard, banner] with three cheeses pictured); Gewine (from the Hebrew gewino); Karnet or Kornet; Kawine (a variant of Gewine); Stinkefix (from the O.H.G. Stinchan, to smell, to stink; this is especially applied to old cheese).
ITALIAN SYNONYMS. Tenerosa (cream cheese); mascherpo; stifello (literally a kind of flute, in allusion to the holes in some kinds of cheese, notably Gruyère).
SPANISH SYNONYM. Formage (evidently a corruption of the French fromage).
1567. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1869), p. 86. She hath a Cacking chete, a grunting chete, ruff Pecke, CASSAN, and popplarr of yarum.
1609. DEKKER, Lanthorne and Candlelight, in wks. (GROSART) III., 195. CASSAN is cheese, and is a worde barbarously coynd out of the substantive caseus, which also signifies a cheese.
1656. R. BROME, A Joviall Crew, Act ii.
| Here’s ruffpeck and CASSAN, and all of the best, | |
| And scraps of the dainties of gentry cofe’s feast. |
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. CASUM: cheese.
1881. New York Slang Dictionary. CASS: cheese.
