l known,
and I have no doubt as to its having come from the Gipsy. In Rommany,
all the world over, _cova_ means "a thing," but it is almost indefinite
in its applicability. "It is," says Pott, "a general helper on all
occasions; is used as substantive and adjective, and has a far wider
scope than the Latin _res_." Thus _covo_ may mean "that man;" _covi_,
"that woman;" and _covo_ or _cuvvo_, as it very often does in English,
"that, there." It sometimes appears in the word _acovat_, or _this_.
There is no expression more frequent in a Gipsy's mouth, and it is
precisely the one which would be probably overheard by "Gorgios" and
applied to persons. I believe that it first made its appearance in
English slang as _covey_, and was then pronounced _cuvvy_, being
subsequently abbreviated into cove.

Quite a little family of words has come into English from the Rommany,
_Hocben_, _huckaben_, _hokkeny_, or _hooker_, all meaning a lie, or to
lie, deception and _humbug_. Mr Borrow shows us that _hocus_, to
"bewitch" liquor with an opiate, and _hoax_, are probably Rommany from
this root, and I have no doubt that the expression, "Yes, with a _hook_,"
meaning "it is false," comes from the same. The well-known "Hookey" who
corresponds so closely with his untruthful and disreputable pal "Walker,"
is decidedly of the streets--gipsy. In German Gipsy we find _chochavav_
and _hochewawa_, and in Roumanian Gipsy _kokao_--a lie. Hanky-panky and
Hocus-pocus are each one half almost pure Hindustani. {81}

A SHINDY approaches so nearly in sound to the Gipsy word _chingaree_,
which means precisely the same thing, that the suggestion is at least
worth consideration. And it also greatly resembles _chindi_, which may
be translated as "cutting up," and also quarrel. "To cut up shindies"
was the first form in which this extraordinary word reached the public.
In the original Gipsy tongue the word to quarrel is _chinger-av_, meaning
also (Pott, _Zigeuner_, p. 209) to cut, hew, and fight, while to cut is
_chinav_. "Cutting up" is, if the reader reflects, a very unmeaning word
as applied to outrageous or noisy pranks; but in Gipsy, whether English,
German, or Oriental, it is perfectly sensible and logical, involving the
idea of quarrelling, separating, dividing, cutting, and stabbing. What,
indeed, could be more absurd than the expression "cutting up shines,"
unless we attribute to _shine_ its legitimate Gipsy meaning of _a piece
cut off_, and