The Sanas (Irish
Etymology) of Faro, Poker and the Secret Flash Words for the
Brotherhood of American Gamblers
By DANIEL CASSIDY
The Irish... gave American,
indeed, very few new words; perhaps speakeasy, shillelah and
smithereens exhaust the list." H.L. Mencken, 1937.
A Dictionary of Hiberno-English,...corroborates the well-known but
puzzling fact that so few Irish words have been absorbed into
Standard English." Terence Patrick Dolan, 1999
"There's A Sucker
(Sách úr, fresh new "fat cat")
Born Every Minute," Mike McDonald, 1839 - 1907
Dan Cassidy is founder and co-director of the Irish Studies Program, An Léann Éireannach at the New College of California in San Francisco, CA. Cassidy's Sanas (Etymology) of the word Jazz was published in Ireland's Hot Press music magazine in March 2005 and can also be seen at the linguistics and education website CyberPlayGround.
American pronunciations. Irish words and phrases are
scattered all across American language, regional and class dialects,
colloquialism, slang, and specialized jargons like gambling,
in the same way Irish-Americans have been scattered across the
crossroads of North America for five hundred years.
Irish was transformed by English
cultural imperialism from the first literate vernacular of Europe
in the 5th century, into the underworld cant (caint,
speech) of thieves and "vagaboundes" in the 16th century,
and then into the countless number of anonymous Irish words and
phrases in American Standard English, vernacular, slang, and
popular speech today .
From the early 19th century
to the mid-twentieth century, Irish-Americans played a key role
in the development of professional gambling and casinos in the
United States. With a potent political base made up of millions
of Irish immigrants and their American-born children, in cities
as geographically scattered as New Orleans, Chicago, New York,
Boston, Hot Springs, Dallas, and San Francisco, Irish Americans
built powerful urban political machines fueled by the huge cash
flow generated by the gambling underworld.
There were sure-thing tricksters
and professional gamblers of all nationalities from the earliest
days of the American Republic. French, Scottish, English, and
Creole gamblers and gambling syndicates were augmented in the
late 19th century by waves of impoverished southern Italians
and Sicilians, as well as Jews from the shetls of Eastern Europe
and Russia. But from the early 1800s until the 1930s, Irish urban
street gangs, and the political machines that grew out of them,
controlled the tiger's share of the profits from illegal gambling
in the United States.
Irish-American big shots
Price McGrath, Jimmy Fitzgerald, and Pat Herne were the leading
faro bankers in the wide open city of New Orleans in the
first decades of the 19th century. When the political "fix"
curdled in the "Big Easy" in 1830, clans of
sure thing tricksters fled up the Mississippi River and scattered
to a hundred towns and cities. Price McGrath opened up a Faro
"rug joint" in New York City, at 5 West 24th street,
with former heavyweight boxing champion, John Morrissey, as a
partner. The two men couldn't have been more different: McGrath
was a sporty swell (sóúil, sóghamhail,
comfortable, prosperous, rich) and Morrisey a world-class
slugger (slacaire, a mauler, a bruiser), but they
both spoke the same language.
Secret Flash Words of the Secret Brotherhood of Gamblers
In the 1840s, a former professional
gambler, faro mechanic, and card sharp, Jonathan Harrington
Green, announced in the press that he had become a born-again
evangelical Christian, whose new mission in life was exposing
the scams ('s cam) and gimmicks (camóg,
a crooked device, a trick) of a vast, secret "brotherhood
of gamblers," ruled by a mysterious underground, hierarchy
of "Grand Masters." Like all successful con men, Jonathan
Harrington Green was a master of the ballyhoo (bailiú,
[act of] gathering a crowd) and took his slick (slíocach,
cunning, sleek) spiel (speal, sharp, cutting,
satiric speech) on the road, adding some pizzazz to his born-again
baloney (béal ónna, pron.
bail owny, silly talk), with fancy card tricks and elaborate
demonstrations of ingenious cheating devices, for overflow audiences
of zealous Christian reformers and middle-class curiosity seekers.
In two best-selling autobiographical
books, Green claimed that this brotherhood of faro tricksters
even communicated in a secret language. The few examples Green
gave of this underworld lingo of "the Brethren" were,
in fact, neither "flash" nor "secret," but
the American-English phonetic spelling of fairly common Irish
words.
In a chapter entitled "Flash
Words of the Secret Brotherhood of Gamblers," Green wrote:
"The Grand Master shall be fully invested with power to
give out the following catalogue of useful flash words.
The six words of quality are highly beneficial in conversation,
and must, in all cases, be used when one is present who is not
known to be a member. By this means can be found out strange
Brethren, who are ever ready for any sound so familiar to their
own ears." (Jonathan Harrington Green, The Secret Band
of Brothers, NY, 1841, pp. 107-113)
Below is a list of the Gambling
Brotherhood's so-called secret words, spelled first in Green's
phonetic English and then in Irish, with matching definitions.
It is not surprising that the Irish gambler's secret cant was
as Gaelic as the gamblers themselves.
Huska, good, bold, intrepid.
Oscar (pron. h-uscar), a champion or hero;
a bold intrepid hero. Oscartha (pron. h-uscarha),
martial, heroic, strong, powerful; nimble.
Cady, a highway man.
Gadaí (pron. gady), a thief, a robber.
Gadaí bóthair, a highway man.
Maugh, profession.
Modh (pron. moh), mode of employment.
Caugh, quarrelsome, treacherous.
Cath (pron. cah), battle, fight, conflict.
Cathaitheoir (pron. cauhoir), a mischief-maker.
Cully, a pal, a confederate, a fellow thief.
Cullaidhe (pron. cully), companion, an associate, a comrade,
a partner. (Dineen, p. 279)
Gaugh: manner of speech
Guth (pron guh): voice, manner of speech.
Glim: A light.
Gealaim (pron. galim): I light or brighten.
Geister: An extra thief.
Gastaire: A tricky cunning fellow; a person with artifice,
skill, ingenuity.
In fact, Jonathan Green was
no huska (oscar, hero) of Christian rectitude,
but a caugh (cath, pron. cah, quarrelsome)
geister (gastaire, a tricky cunning fellow; a thief),
whose new maugh (modh, pron. moh, profession)
involved a smooth gaugh (guth, pron, guh,
manner of speech). "Doc" Greene put the glim (gealim,
I light) on his former cullys (cullaidhe, pron.
cully, companion, associate, comrade[s]) and cronies (comh-roghna,
pron. cuh-rony, fellow- favorites, mutual-sweethearts),
while keeping it off of himself. Green's secret lexicon demonstrates
the early pervasive influence of the Irish language on the argot
of American gamblers,-- a fact as secret today as it was in the
1840s.
The
Irish-American Big "Shot"
Seód, séad, seád, pron.
shot, a jewel; fig. often a chief, a warrior, a powerful
person, Dwelly, p. 808)
The Ard Rí (High-King)
of Faro and professional gambling in America after the Civil
War was the head Dead Rabbit (ráibéad,
a hulking person, a big galoot) of the Five Points, former World
Heavyweight Boxing Champ, Congressman, and Tammany Hall Big Shot,
John Morrissey, who owned the swank (somhaoineach, valuable,
wealthy) gambling casino, 18 Barclay Street, near The
New York Stock Exchange, where he plucked only the fattest
suckers: bankers, stock brokers, and merchants. But the jewel
in "Old Smoke" Morrissey's Big Shot crown was
Saratoga, in upstate New York, where he founded the world-famous
racetrack and gambling casino in the early 1870s -- at the dawn
of the Gilded Age. (6)
In the 1880s, Mike McDonald
was King of Slab (Mud) Town's gamblers and popularized
the famous aphorism "there's a sucker born every
minute." McDonald reigned over Chicago's faro dealers,
grifters (grafadóir), and crooked gambling joints,
with the aid of ward heelers (éilitheoir, a claimsman,
a friendly petitioner) Silver Bill Riley and Big Jim O'Leary,
until the old geezer's (gaosach, gaosmhar, pron.
geesar, a wise person or "wiseguy") middle-aged wife
ran off to Europe with a handsome young priest. King Mike converted
to Protestantism, got divorced, and shacked up with a
showgirl half his age. The world-class big shot had turned
into a world-class sucker and became the proof of his
own axiom. Mike McDonald was succeeded by the master grafter
(grafadóir, grubber, scrounger, raker) and legendary
diminutive boss of Chicago's wide open First Ward and its infamous
Levee District, "Hinky Dink" Kenna, and his
hulking, dapper partner, "Bathhouse" John Coughlin.
Hinky Dink and Bathhouse John ruled over Chicago's underworld
for more than three decades with iron hands that were always
palms up.
From his bailiwick (baile
aíoch, hospitable home, friendly locale) on
New York City's Bowery, Big Tim Sullivan, the High-King of the
Tammany Ward heelers, replaced "Old Smoke" Morrissey
as the "Big Shot" of New York's underworld from
the 1880s to the first decades of the 20th century. Whether five-cent
"Policy" (pá lae sámh,
pron. paah lay seeh, easy pay day) banks, floating crap
games in the East Side tenement districts, or uptown "rug
joints" and snazzy Faro palaces a short block
(bealach, pron. balock, a path, a road) from
Wall Street, the Sullivan Machine controlled New York City gambling.
The teetotal Big Tim was a degenerate gambler himself, losing
vast amounts of dough during his lifetime. (8)
The first decades of the 20th
century saw the rise of New York City's powerful Gopher (Comhbhá,
pron. cofa, Alliance) Gang and its leader Owney "the
Killer" Madden. In the decades leading up to Prohibition,
Madden took a motley crew of Hell's Kitchen Irish street gangs
and transformed them into a West Side alliance that became an
international underworld corporation. With the end of Prohibition
and the defeat of the Irish bootleg racketeers (racadóir,
a dealer, a seller, a sportive character) in The War Between
the Guineas and the Micks Madden "retired"
and married the postmaster's daughter in Hot Springs, Arkansas,
once controlled by the Flynn brother's southern-Irish political
machine. Owney "the Killer" became Owney "the
Businessman" and managed his considerable assets in bookmaking
operations, wire services, and racetracks, throughout the Northeast
and the South, until his death in "Bubbles" (Hot Springs)
in 1965.
In January, 1947, Benny Binion,
an illiterate Irish-American road gambler, policy wheel
operator, dice "fader," and triggerman -- who had been
a top player in Texas gambling and political circles for more
than two decades decided it was high time to boogaloo.
The Fix had shifted in Dallas and the Chicago mob and Jack Ruby
had invaded Binion's old turf. Benny went on the lam (léim,
jump), scramming to Vegas with two million dollars
in the trunk of his maroon Cadillac. Benny Binion opened up the
Horseshoe Casino in 1951, with Meyer Lansky as a silent partner,
and in 1970 founded The World Series of Poker.
He remained a major figure in Las Vegas until his death
at the age of eighty-five in 1989.
But while it may have been
Irish Americans like Price McGrath, "Old Smoke" Morrisey,
King Mike McDonald, Hinky Dink Kenna, and Big Tim Sullivan who
laid the foundation for today's multi-billion dollar American
gaming industry, the foundation itself was the now-forgotten
gambling game called Faro.
The Sanas
(etymology, secret knowledge) of Faro
The Fiaradh
(Turning) of the Irish "Wild Geese"
Gaelic New
Orleans: 1717 - 1769
Rules of the Faro Game
The Tiger
God of the Odds
II. The
Sanas (etymology, secret knowledge) of Poker
Sanas Beag
(a small glossary) of Poker
Brag: The name for an early card game related
to Poker
Bréag: A lie, exaggeration, deceit, deception.
According to Herbert Asbury,
the early card game Brag's influence on poker was so great
that it was often called "the brag game." In
the early forms of Brag, the jack of clubs and the ace
and nine of diamonds were wild and called braggers (bréagóir,
a braggart, liar, and exaggerator). The key endeavor of the
Brag card game as described in Seymour's Court Gamester,
published in 1719, was " to impose on the judgment of the
rest who play...by boasting or bragging of the cards in
your hand."
The Barnhart Dictionary
of Etymology speculates
that the word "brag" might "possibly"
have a Gaelic origin, though inexplicably links it to a "Celtic"
word meaning trousers; "brag ...of uncertain origin; possible
sources include Gaullish or Celtic 'braca,' (a) kind of trousers..."
Barnhart also cites Provencal, French (Swiss dialect),
Scandinavian, and Old Icelandic as other possible sources of
the word "brag." (41)
Well into the late 19th century "brag" was considered
"slang" in American English. The underworld slang lexicologist
and warden of New York City's Tombs prison, George Matsell, included
"brag" in his Vocabulum or The Rogue's Lexicon,
defining it is a "boast." Professor MacBain the Scots-Gaelic
etymologist, derived the Irish word bréag from
Old Irish bréc, and related it to the Sanskrit bhramca,
a deviation.
The River Card
The Ríofa Card
Computer, Calculator, Reckoner Card.
The Card of Reckoning.
Ríofa, al. ríomhaire (pron. reever), reckoner, calculator,
computer; Ríomh, v.t. (pp. ríofa),
Reckon, compose, arrange, set in order, enumerate, calculate.
Ríomhadh (pron. reeveh) Reckoning, (act
of) reckoning, arranging, setting in order; calculating. Reckoner.
Calculator. al. rímhe (reeveh), m.
(act of) reckoning, composing, arranging, setting in order.
The River (Ríofa)
Card, also known as "Fifth Street," is the final
and fifth community card in 7-Card Texas Hold 'Em. The
Ríofa (computing, calculating, reckoning) card
is the card of final computation, calculation, and reckoning.
Everyone knows when the River
(Ríofa) Card flows on Fifth Street.
Nut; the nut hand; the nut cards; also
the nuts
Neart (pron. n'art)
Power, physical strength, force. Enough, plenty, a sufficiency;
ability.
The Nut hand is the
hand with the power in poker. The "Nut" or "Nuts"
is the strongest possible hand in 7 Card Texas Hold 'Em. Any
gender can have the nuts on Fifth Street.
In Irish American Vernacular
the word "nut" is also used to mean a "sufficiency"
or "enough," as in, "I made my weekly nut."
To be a "nut" was also to be a "power"
and was most often a good thing in the speech of the 19th and
early 20th century North American breac-Ghaeltachta. Today, sadly,
the old "neart" has been reduced to the whacky
"nut." Though, even crazy "nuts" are powerful.
As in the expression: "He fought like a nut." That's
the Irish neart in an Irish-American nut shell.
Múch (pron. muk or mook, "ch"
= "k") to cover over, deaden, suppress.
Muck, to cover over your cards and "kill" them.
Muck is both a verb and a noun in poker: to muck
means "to turn your cards over face down in the center of
the table." The "muck" can also mean the
pile of cards covered over face down in front of the dealer.
A pile of dead cards.
Check
Téacht (pron.
chayk).
To freeze; to set.
When you check in poker
you tap the table, freeze your bet, and set.
Snakin' the deck
Snoíochán (pron. snakin')
(Act of) meddling; carving, cutting; filing.
Snakin' the deck means "to carve, mark,
cut, or meddle with" it; or to surreptitiously ring
(roinn, pron. ring, deal) in a "snaked"
deck for a square one.
Kitty
Cuid oíche (pron.
cuiddihy)
Some of the night. A share, a portion of the night, The night's
meal or livelihood or property..
The kitty also became
a name for the money and swag that a faro banker cut up with
his crew: the mechanic, case keeper, cappers, and shills at the
end of the night. At the end of the day, the cuiddihy, or "kitty,"
is "any shared portion of money or benefits."
Piker
Picear
A cheap niggardly person. A two-bit lout.
A piker is a name for two-bit
penny ante gambler or a cheap lout.
Beat. To get beat. A "beat" artist.
Béad: A loss, injury, robbery, crime; sorrow. To
be robbed or cheated.
A smart gambler has the number
of every sucker on Beat Street.
The last word in Hughie,
the last play by the Nobel-prize winning Irish-American playwright,
Eugene O'Neill, is actually two Irish words concealed beneath
the phonetic orthography of that key American "slang"
term, "sucker" Sách úr (pron.
saahk oor) A new, fresh, well-fed, self-satisfied fellow. A
fresh "fat cat."
"There isn't any such
thing as an honest gambler." Richard Canfield.