History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 117

Spellken (c. 1800), a theatre; from spell and ken. Spell (1812), a playhouse or
theatre; ad. Du. or Flem. spel, play, booth, show.
Crap (1812), the gallows; the vb. with the sense ‘to hang’ is earlier (1781); ad. Du.
krap, cramp, clamp, clasp; Bense suggests that the origin may be the Du. phrase de
krappe toedraaien, to close the clasps (of a book), and so ‘to close the book’ (of life),
but this seems far too refined an origin; the clasp intended was a neck-clasp.
Slang (1812), a watch-chain, chain of any kind; fetters, leg-irons; apparently ad. Du.
slang, snake.
Prop (1859, Dickens), in the thieves' slang sense of scarf-pin; ad. M.Du. proppe, prop,
broach, skewer, plug.
1. 8.
Closely allied to the words of cant and slang are the terms of gaming and dicing,
introduced mostly in the 16th century.
Mumchance (1528), a dicing game resembling hazard; (1550), to play mumchance,
to preserve F