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], “A Kinchin Co”, in The Belman of London. […], London: […] [Edward Allde and Nicholas Okes] for Nathaniel Butter, →OCLC, signature D3, verso:

     Theſe Kinchins, the firſt thing they do, is to learne how to Cant, and the onely thing they pꝛactiſe, is to créepe in at windowes oꝛ Cellar dooꝛes.

   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 219:

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

   • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “An Old Acquaintance of Oliver’s, Exhibiting Decided Marks of Genius, Becomes a Public Character in the Metropolis”, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 112:

     "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