How the Irish Invented American Gambling Slang

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.