terms for fraud and cogging and foisting and foysting

Let's begin with topping, a word with a wonderful variety of meanings, from putting a top on something to cutting off the top of trees (interesting that contrary meanings are ascribed to the same word, somewhat like cleave or sanction) to, in the phrase "topping and tailing," "the action or practice of washing a baby's face and bottom." One of its meanings, however, is "a method of cheating at dice." It is defined in a 1680 quotation: "You must sometimes use Topping; that is, by pretending to put both Dice into the Box, whereas you have dropt but one, holding the other between your fore-fingers." Hm. Sounds like worthwhile advice. A 1700 dictionary defined To Top as "to Cheat, or Trick any one; also to Insult." What do you Top upon me? means 'do you stick a little Wax to the Dice to keep them together, to get the Chance?' or He thought to have Topt upon me, means "he design'd to have...Sharpt me,..or Affronted me."

Just as one can slur one's words, so one could, at one time, slur the dice. From 1660: "A man that has read my Writings..cannot chuse but see how he slurs his Dice." But to slur dice means to throw them in such a way that they don't tumble. From 1674: "On a smooth table...it is usual for some to slur a Dye two yards or more without turning." Or "Slurring, is when you throw your Dice so smoothly on the Table that they turn not." And, more humorously, also from the 1670s, "Three parts of every nights dream is spent...in topping, slurring, palming."

Cogging

Again, the OED has several examples of the use of this word, but says that the original meaning with respect to dice (used in the 1532 book Dice Play) is rather obscure. It appears that cogging "generally designated some sleight of hand, made use of to control the falling of a die; occasionally it may mean the substitution of a false die for the true one." The definition in many modern dictionaries as "loading the dice" is probably inaccurate. But as with many of terms for various kinds of fraud, it could become loosed from its original context fairly quickly and be associated with any kind of fraud. Note the proliferation of other terms connected with cogging. From 1548: "What false dise use they? as dise stopped with quicksilver and heares...and if they be true dise, what shyfte will they make to set ye one of them with slyding, with cogging, with foysting, with coytinge as they call it." So cogging may be taken to mean a general kind of "deception, trick, fraud, or imposture."

As I think more specifically about the word "cog" and "cogging," however, I can see how cogging in throwing dice might mean to hold back a die because it is "caught" somehow in one's hand. Another meaning of cogging is "The act of securing a piece of timber across another." Possibly the cogging as deceit definition grew up and flourished because there was something in the motion of one who cogged that tried to "connect" or secure the die to the hand. Just a guess....

Foisting

Foisting also has a rich collection of meanings. Going back to the 15th century it can mean, like a cog, a kind of ship, though a foist was broadly built "with roundish prow and stern." "Wee were set upon by five foystes of Pirates." It can also signify a cask for wine. "Good wine sometyme savoureth of the foyst." Thus it also suggests the musty or mildewed scent of a cellar.

For our more specific purposes, however, foisting appears to mean "to palm a flat or false die so as to be able to introduce it when required." To foist in means to introduce the flat die surreptitiously when palmed. Though the following quotation isn't crystal clear, it gives the sense of the word. From 1550: "What shift have they to bring the flat in & out? M. A holy fine shifte, properly is called foysting, & it is..a sleight to cary easely within the hand as often as the foister list." More generally to foist means to practice roguery or to cheat. A 1584 quotation had it: "Thou doest nothing but cog, lie, and foist with hypocrisie. More specifically, the pickpocket was said to be the one who practiced foisting. From 1611: "A pickpocket; all his train study the figging law, that's to say, cutting of purses and foisting." The word "figging" was not familiar to me before today; the verb to fig means "to pick pockets." A dictionary of the "vulgar tongue," compiled appropriately by a Mr. Francis Grose (1785) has the following: "Figging law, the art of picking pockets."

Though we sometimes speak of something foisted upon us, the original phrase attested many times is to foist in or into. From Foxe's Book of Martyrs: "Unlesse..by some fraudulent misdealing of mine enemeis, there be any thing foysted into them." Or, from 1570: "They...desire to shift and foist in the Bishop of Rome to be head of the church in earth, in the stead of Christ." In this sense, then, it means to "introduce surreptitiously or unwarrantably into." There is one attestation of foist out of: "If I be foisted and jeer'd out of my goods!" Theologically, it was used in the following sentence to suggest "to put forth or allege fraudulently." From 1640: "Men must take heed that they foyst not the name of Christ." It can, of course, also be used in the phrase foist on or foist upon, which means "to palm or put off" or "to fasten upon." "The ignorant assertions foisted on the public by editors..." And then, there is the quotation which everyone would love, probably spoken by someone who had just been taken advantage of by a lawyer (an experience not confined, apparently, to our day): (1628) "Thou cogging base foysting lawyer." Say that five times, and it will make you feel better.

I actually need one more essay to come back again to where I started.

[Next]

1489