Cocum

or kocum, subs. (common).—1.  Shrewdness; ability; luck; cleverness. [From the Hebrew chochum, chochem, or cochem, crafty; learned, wise, or a wise man. The term is found passim in early Hebrew literature, especially in the BOOK OF PROVERBS: ‘A COCHEM will hear and increase learning’ (Prov. i. 5). The slang sense has been introduced by the Whitechapel Jews. In Yiddish cochemer or cochem, the pronunciation of which is not dissimilar to COCUM, means wisdom; cochum-wirth = a thieves’ landlord. (Cf., paragraph on German analogues.) Cocma is another Hebraism used by London Jews in a similar sense, but it has not made its way into slang.

  ENGLISH ANALOGUES.  Real jam (this in the sense of anything exceptionally good or lucky); all beer and skittles (extremely pleasant); rattling (extremely jolly, pleasant, or well appointed); to be in clover (happiness and luck); to stand on velvet (a variant of the last mentioned); to be cracking a tidy crust (to be doing very well); to be having a good swim (thieves’ for a good run of luck, i.e., being a long time out of the policeman’s clutches); well ballasted; on the spot; up to Dick; on it; right; and so forth.

  FRENCH ANALOGUES.  Etre de la bonne (popular: to be lucky); décrocher la timballe (popular); être de la fête (popular and thieves’); avoir des as dans son jeu (popular: to have an advantage, ‘to be in luck’s way’); avoir l’assiette au beurre (popular: to be fortunate in life); bidard (m. lucky); être de la bate (popular).

  GERMAN ANALOGUES.  Chochom, Chochem, Chochemer (which Hebraism is the root of the English COCUM. Among German thieves who more frequently spell the word Kochem, Kochemer, the meaning is almost identical with that given it by their English brethren, except that the wisdom, profit, or luck, applies almost solely to the results of crooked ways and dealings. Chochom and its variants signify, therefore, the cunning, prudent, and successful vagabond; Chochem lehorre = a dangerous vagabond, one who is prepared for the worst; Chochem mechutten = bad patron, a dangerous companion, a rogue of the worst type; Chochme—wisdom, cunning, circumspection, or the practice of swindling).

  ITALIAN ANALOGUES.  Cavazzonare (literally ‘to place well or be well placed’); aver primavera (this applies to COCUM as represented by pleasure; literally ‘to have spring’).

  SPANISH ANALOGUES.  Cucarachera (f; a vulgarism for luck or good fortune); harlarse buena cucarachera (to be lucky or fortunate); potroso (a colloquialism signifying lucky; literally ‘afflicted with a rupture’); charanguero (m; a lucky fellow, one with COCUM); hijo de la gallina blanca (a lucky bird).

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. I., p. 279. ‘It’s decent and comfortable too, and it’s about 6d. a night to me for singing and patter in the tap-room. That’s my COKUM (advantage).’

  1861.  H. EARLE, Ups and Downs … of Australian Life, p. 224. ‘No one was to get drunk, the governor said as how it wasn’t COKUM, and he wouldn’t have it,—and so we were all fit for work the next day.’

  1864.  HOTTEN, The Slang Dictionary, s.v. ‘Jack’s got COCUM, he’s safe to get on, he is,’ viz., he starts under favourable circumstances.

  c. 1886.  Broadside Ballad, ‘The Flippity Flop Young Man.’

  2.  (publishers’).—A sliding scale of profit. [Publishers sometimes issue books without fixing the published price. These they sell to the retail trade at a fixed sum, leaving the bookseller to make what he can.]

  TO FIGHT or PLAY COCUM, verbal phr. (common).—To play double; to be wary, cunning, or ‘artful.’

  1857.  SNOWDEN, Magistrates Assistant (3 ed.), p. 445, s.v. To be cunning, wary, or sly.

  1885.  Referee, 26 April, p. 1, col. 2. The best show in the Crawfurd Plate—that is, unless a lot of the pulling-up division were PLAYING COKUM—was that of Ptolemy.