noun General Slang

Prig

/prɪɡ/ · noun · slang

A thief, in the old canting tongue — the general word for anyone who lifts what isn't theirs.

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Definitions

1

As a verb, to steal or to filch. To prig something is to make off with it quietly.

“They prigged the cloth from the tenter-fields under cover of darkmans.”
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2

A thief; the all-purpose canting word for one who steals, often qualified by what he stole (prigger of prancers = horse-thief).

“He's a prig of the cleverest sort — your purse is gone before you feel the tug.”
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3

A prigger of prancers specifically — a horse-thief, one of the higher-ranked rogues in the canting orders.

“Mind the prigger of prancers at the fair; he eyes every bridle in the row.”
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Prig In A Sentence

Every prig in the rookery knew the fence on that lane.
Don't trust him to mind your bag — the man's a born prig.
She prigged a loaf and was through the crowd before the baker turned round.

Origin & Usage

Documented in Thomas Harman's 'A Caveat for Common Cursitors' (1566) and later canting glossaries through B.E. (1699) and Grose (1785). The modern sense of 'prig' as a self-righteous prude is a separate, later development.

Variants priggerprig of prancersprigging
Tags #thieves-cant#cant#historical#british#crime

People Also Ask

What does prig mean in thieves' cant?

It means a thief — the general word for one who steals, attested from Harman's 1566 glossary onward.

Is this the same as the modern word prig?

No. The modern 'prig' (a smug, moralising person) is an unrelated later sense; the cant 'prig' simply meant thief.

What is a prigger of prancers?

A horse-thief — 'prancers' was cant for horses, so the compound named one who specialised in stealing them.

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