Tony, Phil H, et al, Below I’ve tried to answer the question left unresolved in my above 2004 discussion – what’s the origin of
CROSS used in the expression
DOUBLE CROSS – which in retrospect I should have addressed back then. I hadn’t seen it mentioned anywhere in any of the sources I had consulted at the time and I just didn’t go on to pursue it.
In my current diggings to discover the original meaning of the infamous
CROSS in
DOUBLE-CROSS, I stumbled onto an idea I found in a 19th century slang dictionary and then pursued it through the maze of the
OED listings to come up with what appears to me to be the answer. This is a bit involved – but in my obsessive-compulsive pursuit of truth and thoroughness, I now go where I must. (<;)
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CROSS noun [1802]
slang: That which is not fair and ‘square’: dishonest or fraudulent practices.
a cross: a contest or match lost by collusory arrangement between the principals; a swindle.
on the cross: in a dishonest, fraudulent manner;
to be or
go on the cross: to be a thief, live by stealing.
to shake the cross: to give up thieving [[“to quit the
cross and
go on the square”—Farmer and Henley]]. (
Oxford English Dictionary)
<1802 “I got it on . .. the cross.”—Sessions’ Paper, June, page 334/2>
<1812 “Cross, illegal or dishonest practises in general are called the cross, in opposition to the square . . . Any article which has been irregularly obtained, is said to have been got upon the cross.”—A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language by J. H. Vaux>
<1829 “It was decided that it should be a decided ‘cross.’—That is, it was decided beforehand that the match was to be lost.”—Chronicles in Annual Register, page 21/1>
<1834 “Two milling coves, each vide avake, Vere backed to fight for heavy stake; But in the mean time, so it vos, Both kids agreed to play a cross.”—Rockwood by W. H. Ainsworth>
<1848 “A conversation . . . about the fight between the Butcher and the Pet, and the probabilities that it was a cross.”—Vanity Fair by Thaackeray, lv>
<1861 “The young woman . . . may be on the cross.”—Ravenshoe by H. Kingsley, lx>
<1869 “Cross, a deception—two persons pretending hostility or indifference to each other, being all the while in concert for the purposes of deceiving a third.”—The Slang Dictionary by J. C. Hotten, page 112>
<1878 “Never to act on the square, but invariably on the cross.”—Tinsley’s Magazine, XXIII. page 300>
<1883 “If I would shake the cross and live on the square for three months.”—Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain, lii>
<1889 “It's the hardest earned money of all, that's got on the cross.”—Robbery under Arms (1890) by Boldrewood, xii. page 85>
<1915 “It's mum with me so long as I see you living on the straight . . . But, by gum, if you get off on the cross after this it's another story.”—Valley of Fear by A. Conan Doyle, II. iii. page 201>
CROSS verb transitive [1823]
slang: To cheat or double-cross; to act dishonestly in or towards. (
Oxford English Dictionary). To play false in a match of any kind.(
Slang and its Analogues Past and Present by Farmer, Vol. II, page 218/1)
<1823 “CROSS. To cheat. To throw a match over, either in horseracing, or in a prize battle, or any article which has been improperly obtained , is said to be got upon the cross. Cant.”—A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Captain Francis Grose, edited by P. Egan>
<1864 “A cross cove is in the street for me, And I a poor girl of low degree; If I was as rich as I am poor, Ye never should go on the cross for me!”—Cornhill Magazine, II. page 336> [[a cross-cove, cross-man, cross-man, squire/knight/lad of the cross are synonyms for a thief – Slang and its Analogues Past and Present by Farmer, Vol. II, page 218/1]]
<1887 “What made you cross the fight, and play booty with your own man?”— Deacon Brodie by Henley & Stevenson, Act iv, scene 3>
<1925 “Cross, to squeal; to betray . . . To deceive; to cheat one's pals.”—Flynn’s, 10 January, page 877/2>
<1938 “It wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been crossed. A journalist thought he could put one over on us.”—Brighton Rock by H. G. Greene, II. ii. page86>
<1960 “He'd been using us; he'd crossed us; and he knew too much for safety.”—Closed Circuit, xv. page 179>
But the above dictionary definitions and quotes, interesting as they are, don’t answer the question: Where did the above early 19th century meanings of this
CROSS come from? In Farmer & Henley’s seminal 7-volume (1890-1904) slang dictionary
SLANG AND ITS ANALOGUES PAST AND PRESENT, Vol. II, page 217-218, I came
across the following:
CROSS (
thieves): 1) A pre-arranged swindle. In its special sporting signification a CROSS is an arrangement to lose of one of the principals in a fight, or any kind of match. [Obviously a shortened form of
CROSS-BITE]. When both principals conspire that one shall win, it is called a
DOUBLE CROSS.
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Hmm. “Obviously a shortened form of
CROSS-BITE” (whatever that is)!
CROSS-BITE / CROSSBITE:
Obsolete transitive verb [1532]: To bite the biter; to cheat in return; to cheat by outwitting; to ‘take in,’ gull, deceive. [from
cross +
bite where
cross (when used with an object expressed) is an obsolete adverb (see below)] (
Oxford English Dictionary). To cheat; . . . to hoax; stiff;
CROSS-BITER: A cheat; swindler; or hoaxer (
Slang and its Analogues Past and Present by Farmer, Vol. II, page 219)
<1532 “If ye lack contraries, to crosbite him withall, I shall lend you a pair of the same size that his cheats be.”—Dice-Play (Percy Society), page 30>
<1576 “CROSBITING, a kind of cousoning, under the couler of friendship; and in his epistle to the readers, The cheater will fume to see his CROSBITING and cunning shiftes decyphered.”—Roche of Regard by G. Whetstone, page 50>
<1591 “To Reader, When a broaking knaue cros-biteth a Gentleman with a bad commoditie.”—A Notable Discovery of Coosnage (= The Art of Conny-Catching) by R. Greene> [[cony-catch (obsolete verb): To cheat, trick, dupe, gull.]]
<1592 “Laying Open the Life and Death of Ned Browne, one of the most notable Cutpurses, Crosbidters, and Coneycatchers.”—Blacke Bookes Messenger [part of title] by R. Greene>
<1593 “If he playeth at the fast and loose . . . whom shall he conny catch, or crossbite, but his castaway selfe.”—New Letter in Works of G. Harvey (Grosart), I. page 274>
<1672 “Fortune our foe . . . By none but thee our projects are cross-bit.”—Love in a Wood by W. Wycherley, v. vi>
<1717 “As Nature slily had thought fit, For some by-ends to cross-bite wit.”—Alma by M. Prior, III. page 365>
<1822 “I know—I know—ugh—but I’ll cross-bite him.”—Fortunes of Nigel by Sir Walter Scott, xxiii, page 289>
<1823 “If your Grace can . . . throw out a hint to crossbite Saville, it will be well.”—Perveril of the Peak by Sir Walter Scott, xxviii>
<1823 “Cross Bite. One who combined with a sharper to draw in a friend . . . Cant. This is peculiarly used to signify entrapping a man so as to obtain crim. con.[ [[criminal conversation]] money, in which his wife, real or supposed, conspires with the husband.”—A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Captain Francis Grose, edited by P. Egan>
CROSS preposition [1551]: = ‘across,’ now
dialect or
poetic (in the latter case commonly written
'cross, as a recognized abbreviation), from the
Obsolete adverb (aphetic form of ‘across’) with object expressed. (
Oxford English Dictionary)
CROSS adverb: 1) [circa 1400-50] From side to side, whether at right angles or obliquely; across, athwart, transversely. 2) [1614] In a contrary way, in opposition
to. 3) [1603] In an adverse or unfavourable way; contrary to one's desire or liking; awry, amiss; = across
adverb (
obsolete or
colloquial). See also
adjective (
Oxford English Dictionary)
CROSS adjective: 4) [1565] Of events, circumstances, or fortune: Adverse, opposing, thwarting; contrary to one's desire or liking; unfavourable, untoward. 8) [1812]
slang Dishonest; dishonestly come by. (Opposed to
square or
straight) [[see noun above]] [Originally an attributive or elliptical use of ‘cross’
adverb, some participle (e.g.
lying, passing, coming, etc.) being understood.]
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Note: As I followed the
CROSS trail through the
OED, I noticed that the dates of quotes provided for parent words and their progeny weren’t always in what reason would seem to dictate is the logical sequence. But these are first-in-print dates and don’t always reflect the order in which the spoken word came into existence.
<1565 I am ashamed of your too cross and overthwart proofs.”—An Aunswere to (John Martiall's) Ttreatise of the Crosse (Parker Society) by J. Calfhill, page 72>
<1603 “Things falling out crosse with the old Emperour.”— The Generall History of the Turkes (1621) by R. Knolles, page 164>
<1614 “Jesus Well: whose bottome . . . was in Heauen; whose mouth and spring downewards to the earth: crosse to all earthly fountaines.”—The Devil’s Banquet by T. Adams, page 217>
<1638 “To foist in two others, clean crosse to the Doctor's purpose.”—The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation by W. Chillingworth, I. v. §84. page 288>
<1718 “Every Thing was carried cross to his Intentions.”—J. Kettlewell by Hickes & Nelson, II. xlix. page 153>
<circa 1732 “The crook of the lot will . . . be found to lie cross to some wrong bias of the heart.”—The Crook in the Lot (1805) by T. Boston, page 33>
(all quotes in this posting are from the
Oxford English Dictionary and various hard copy as well as archived dictionaries as indicated)
My above efforts might not be proof positive that the
CROSS in
DOUBLE-CROSS began its life as an obsolete preposition (connected to the adverb, adjective), which was a shortening of the adverb/ preposition/adjective
ACROSS (the
OED paradoxically informed those who bothered to crosscheck, in what appears to be a chicken-or-the-egg situation, that ‘across’ (derives from “‘
a,’ the preposition meaning ‘on’ = ‘in’ + cross”). But, from the evidence above, it sure looks pretty clear to me that the derivation of this particular
CROSS goes back to the lowly, unassuming, and unexciting preposition/adverb/adjective and that the other abovementioned etymologies are folk etymologies (e.g., church-related
cross, etc.) and can be relegated to the dustbin.
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And here’s another piece of useless trivia (in keeping with the rest of my ravings) which I happened upon in my searches:
The number sign (#), that we all know and love, has several other names which include
crosshatch, hash mark, pound sign, space mark, tick-tack-toe sign and
double cross!
<1791 “In addition to a capital letter, most of the gatherings are signed on one or more leaves with a typographical symbol (asterisk or double cross).”— A Series of Letters to the Right Hon. Edmund Burke; in which are Contained Enquiries Into the Constitutional Existence of an Impeachment Against Mr. Hastings. ... with an Appendix in which are Contained, Observations Upon Major Scott's Letter, Published in the Diary, 11th April 1791 by By George Hardinge, Edmund Burke, T. Cadell>
<1998 “By 1710 Swift [[Jonathan]] had changed the typography to use both marginal notes and footnotes marked by symbols. . . The genesis of these various symbols [is] interesting . . . They seem to have been cast as type by early printers and to have been added as needs arose. In order of their generality of use, they came to include the asterisk, the cross or dagger, the double asterisk, the double cross, the double dagger, . . .”—Rhetoric Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, Autumn, page 32>
However, it is not entirely clear to me (and I haven’t checked it out) if the
DOUBLE CROSS of either of these two quotes actually refers to our number symbol (#). Interesting question. I might look into this some time (but probably not). Perhaps one of our members already knows the answer to this one.
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Ken G – January 8, 2009
