kinchin

English

Alternative forms

• kinchen

Etymology

From German Kindchen, diminutive of Kind, from Middle High German kint, from Old High German kind, from Proto-Germanic *kindą, *kinþą, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to give birth”).

Noun

kinchin (plural kinchins)

1. (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A child.
   • 1567, Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors:

     A kynchen co is a young boye, traden vp to suche peuishe purposes as you haue harde of other young ympes before, that when he growth vnto yeres, he is better to hang then to drawe.

   • 1608, Thomas Dekker, The Bel-Man of London‎^[1], published in The Guls Hornbook and The Belman of London in Two Parts, J. M. Dent & Sons, published 1905, page 103:

     These Kinchins, the first thing they doe is to learne how to Cant, and the onely thing they practise is to creepe in at windowes, or Celler doores.

   • 1815, Walter Scott, chapter V, in Guy Mannering:

     Me let him escape! the bastard kinchin should have walked the plank ere I troubled myself about him.

   • 1838, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist:

     "The kinchins, my dear," said the Jew, "is the young children that's sent on errands by their mothers, with sixpences and shillings; and the lay is just to take their money away — they've always got it ready in their hands […]

Derived terms

• kinchin cove, kinchin lay, kinchin mort