History Main / ThievesCant

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/LegendOfBaldursGate https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thieves_cant.jpg]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In one episode, Homer teaches Bart hobo signs (which were a real thing), such as one that advertises people willing to feed and put them up for the night... along with a house that has a ''mass hobo graveyard'' in the back.

* Literature/{{Discworld}}:

--> '''Harry''': Any bird-dogger knows him. He runs paper and cubes, mainly in the crib, sometimes up against the wall. Puts on a straight-up-guy front, and then grinds away slow with coolers and hop toads, real rip and tear kind of stuff.\\

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', Thieves' Cant is a language spoken by members of the Thief class that is limited to discussion of thievery-related activities (burglary, fencing loot, confidence games etc.). It can be used by someone to identify themselves as a thief to other thieves.
** The ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' setting used actual words from Victorian-era cant as part of planewalker slang. Unfortunately, [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch they didn't always do a good job of checking their meaning]].

* In ''Webcomic/RustyAndCo'', Stabs and her brothers use it. [[http://rustyandco.com/comic/level-8-6/ With thoughtful closed captioning.]]

* In ''[[Film/OceansEleven Ocean's Twelve]]'', Danny and Rusty engage in this with their contact Matsui. A confused Linus decides to get in by [[WaxingLyrical quoting the lyrics to]] Music/LedZeppelin's "Kashmir". The others inform him that he just [[YourHovercraftIsFullOfEels called Matsui's niece a whore]], but later admit that the whole thing was just an elaborate prank.

* Many real-life cants drew much of their vocabulary from UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}, the language of the Roma people (commonly called gypsies in North America, though this is considered offensive in (western) Europe). The Roma were ostracized for centuries in European cities and towns and were forced to live on the outskirts of society, which generally entailed making a living off of crime, hence the stereotype of "gypsy thieves." Because Roma were so prevalent on the societal fringe in Europe, cants took many words, even sometimes the bulk of them, from Romani.

** In ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Vetinari attempts some cant and gets it wrong, warning Moist that he could be "dancing the sisal two-step". He is discreetly informed that he meant "the hemp fandango".
** When Vimes is thrown back in time in ''Discworld/NightWatch'', he has to remember all the thieves' cant from thirty years ago. When he meets young Nobby Nobbs, he lists off a string of offenses that includes "running rumbles, snitching tinklers," and "pulling wobblers", which trips him up because the last is from the present day. Nobby quizzes him on several other phrases, like oil of angels[[note]]a bribe[[/note]] a dimber[[note]]a beggar or a handsome man[[/note]] and fleaguing a jade[[note]]shoving ginger up the arse of an old worn-out horse so it'll look frisky in front of buyers[[/note]]. The whole scene is likely yet another allusion to ''Literature/LesMiserables'', seen below.

* In ''Literature/ProvostsDog'', residents of the Lower City, where the line between legal and illegal is very thin, have an extensive slang vocabulary, most of which is cobbled together from historical slang ("foist/pickpocket" and "doxy/prostitute", for example). People from [[Music/SkidRow the Cesspool]] neighborhood have their own subset of slang that is considered to be particularly disgraceful.

* In ''[[Film/OceansEleven Ocean's Twelve]]'', Danny and Rusty engage in this with their contact Matsui. A confused Linus decides to get in by [[WaxingLyrical quoting the lyrics to]] Music/LedZeppelin's "Kashmir". The others inform him that he just [[YorHovercraftIsFullOfEels called Matsui's niece a whore]], but later admit that the whole thing was just an elaborate prank.

* In ''[[Film/OceansEleven Ocean's Twelve]]'', Danny and Rusty engage in this with their contact Matsui. A confused Linus decides to get in by [[WaxingLyrical quoting the lyrics to]] Music/LedZeppelin's "Kashmir". The others inform him that he just called Matsui's niece a whore, but later admit that the whole thing was just an elaborate prank.

* Present in the ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'' book series, which also includes an intricate sign language disguised as innocuous hand movements so not only do outsiders not know what is being communicated, they don't even know communication is taking place.
* In ''Literature/VattasWar'' the pirates conquering the galaxy have their own secret language. In the last book [[spoiler: one of the younger Vattas realizes the enemy language is quite similar to the "family code" used by one of his classmates, her father turned out to be a spy but she didn't know and actually helped translate for the coalition.]]
* In the ''Literature/TalesOfKolmar'' trilogy, there is a mercenary's cant. Jaime, a former merc/assassin, is able to speak it.
* In ''Literature/ProvostsDog'', residents of the Lower City, where the line between legal and illegal is very thin, have an extensive slang vocabulary, most of which is cobbled together from historical slang ("foist/pickpocket" and "doxy/prostitute", for example). People from [[Music/SkidRow the Cesspool]] neighborhood have their own subset of slang that is considered to be particularly disgraceful.

* Briar peppers his dialogue thief slang in ''Literature/CircleOfMagic''. He confuses the others by calling themselves kids, which [[DeliberateValuesDissonance they take to mean baby goat]] since the word isn't widespread, and persistently calls their [[TheDandy well-dressed]] teacher Niko a "Bag" (i.e. moneybags, a good target for thievery).
* Fenya (Russian thieves' cant; see below) crops up every now and then in the Literature/ErastFandorin series, such as when Xavery Grushin (a police inspector in disguise) manages to defuse a conflict with a Moscow gang in ''Literature/TheDeathOfAchilles'' by speaking fluent Fenya, which convinces them he is a friend, [[spoiler:though not quite]].

* The Secret Drasnian Language in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is a variation, both in that it was developed for spies (though still largely used by thieves, simply because many of them are the same people), and because it's a sign language. As Drasnians are a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Italians (in part), they are known to [[ItaliansTalkWithHands gesticulate greatly while talking]], so the language is designed to allow its users to have a secret conversation with their hands while simultaneously holding a more mundane one with their voices.
* The Victorian criminal slang used by the crooks in ''Literature/TheGreatTrainRobbery'' is so impenetrable that their trial often has to be stopped so that the upper-class courtroom lawyers and judges can spend several minutes trying to extract from them what they actually mean. The thieves are so used to speaking this way that they often don't actually know any other way of saying something, and it can take quite a while for both parties to be able to understand each other, even when they are legitimately trying to speak clearly.

* ''Series/CrossingLines'': Tommy and his brother talk in Travellers' Cant while held in an interrogation room together so that watching police can't understand. London, however, knows it too.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', Gutterspeak was originally the thieves' cant of Lordaeron before the kingdom fell to the Undead Scourge. After the undead regained their free will and founded the Undercity in the catacombs of the ruined capital Lordaeron, they designated Gutterspeak as their official language.[[note]]Even after being freed from the Scourge, the Forsaken were rejected not only by mortals at large, but by their own families in life as well. As such, Gutterspeak, the language of the outcasts, seemed appropriate to them.[[/note]]

* The premise of ''Film/GentlemenOfFortune'' is that a nice-hearted kindergarten teacher has to infiltrate the criminal underworld, posing as his criminal doppelganger. He prepares for that, in particular, by studying Fenya. Other criminals he interacts with also mix a lot of Fenya words into their speech.

* The Secret Drasnian Language in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is a variation, both in that it was developed for spies (though still largely used by thieves, simply because many of them are the same people), and because it's a sign language. As Drasnians are a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Italians, they are known to [[ItaliansTalkWithHands gesticulate greatly while talking]], so the language is designed to allow its users to have a secret conversation with their hands while simultaneously holding a more mundane one with their voices.

* Fenya (Russian thieves' cant; see below) crops up every now and then in the Literature/ErastFandorin series, such as when Xavery Grushin (a police inspector in disguise) manages to diffuse a conflict with a Moscow gang in ''Literature/TheDeathOfAchilles'' by speaking fluent Fenya, which convinces them he is a friend, [[spoiler:though not quite]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thieves_cant.jpg]]

--> -- '''Series/HorribleHistories''', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9akhuIQNlc "News in Tudor Criminal Slang"]]

!!Examples

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]

[[folder:{{Theater}}]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]

--> 201. My thief is prohibited from speaking solely in Cant.
--> 2229. It's Thieves Cant. Not Illegalize.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

[[folder:RealLife]]

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grypsera Grypsera]], a secret language of Polish prison inmates. It evolved in the 19th century in the areas of the Russian partition.
** Another secret language, ''kmina'', was used by Polish thieves.

* In [[Film/OceansEleven Ocean's Twelve]], Danny and Rusty engage in this with their contact Matsui. A confused Linus decides to get in by [[WaxingLyrical quoting the lyrics to]] Music/LedZeppelin's "Kashmir". The others inform him that he just called Matsui's niece a whore, but later admit that the whole thing was just an elaborate prank.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In one episode, Homer teaches Bart hobo sings (which were a real thing), such as one that advertises people willing to feed and put them up for the night... along with a house that has a ''mass hobo graveyard'' in the back.

* Many real-life cants drew much of their vocabulary from UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}, the language of the Roma people (commonly called gypsies in North America, though this is considered offensive in Europe). The Roma were ostracized for centuries in European cities and towns and were forced to live on the outskirts of society, which generally entailed making a living off of crime, hence the stereotype of "gypsy thieves." Because Roma were so prevalent on the societal fringe in Europe, cants took many words, even sometimes the bulk of them, from Romani.

** When Vimes is thrown back in time in ''Discworld/NightWatch'', he has to remember all the thieves' cant from thirty years ago. When he meets young Nobby Nobbs, he lists off a string of offenses that includes "running rumbles, snitching tinklers," and "pulling wobblers", which trips him up because the last is from the present day. Nobby quizzes him on several other phrases, like oil of angels[[note]]a bribe[[/note]] a dimber[[note]]a beggar or a handsome man[[/note]] and fleaguing a jade[[note]]shoving ginger up the arse of an old worn-out horse so it'll look frisky in front of buyers[[/note]].

* The French cant of Argot features heavily in Creator/{{Victor Hugo}}'s ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame.''

* Fenya (феня) or Fenka (фенка) is the dialect of Russian used by UsefulNotes/TheMafiya. Its use is declining, but it was prevalent in the 1990's, when criminal organizations operated largely unchecked.

[[folder:Live-Action Film]]
* In [[Film/OceansEleven Ocean's Twelve]], Danny and Rusty engage in this with their contact Matsui. A confused Linus decides to get in by [[WaxingLyrical quoting the lyrics to]] Music/LedZeppelin's "Kashmir". The others inform him that he just called Matsui's niece a whore, but later admit that the whole thing was just an elaborate prank.
[[/folder]]

* During UsefulNotes/TheGreatDepression, traveling vagrants developed a ''written'' cant called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo#Hobo_signs_.28symbols.29 hobo signs]] to alert other vagrants of certain services, conditions, and warnings. For example, they'd write a symbol on a surface or wall to indicate that a local was willing to provide a place to sleep for the night.