[Ads-l] OED -- HIGH JINKS -- Ante-dating and Comment

[Robin Hamilton]

The OED entry under JINK n1, "3a. high jinks n. app. orig. high pranks," currently first cited from 1699, can be ante-dated.

[Speed, John], _BATT upon BATT_ (1680), p.5:

     O mortal men! is Eating all you do
     At Christ-tide? or the making Sing-songs? No:
     Our _Batt_ can dance, play at high Jinks with Dice,
     At any primitive Orthodoxal Vice.

This corresponds to the sense of light hearted drinking while playing dice, which the majority of the early citations given for 3a represent.

As a further point, the current earliest citation for 3a:

     1699   B. E. _New Dict. Canting Crew_   Highjinks, a Play at Dice who Drinks.

... is probably the source for the lone citation for "3c. See quot. 1785.":

     1785   F. Grose _Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue_   High Jinks, a gambler at dice, who, having a strong head, drinks to intoxicate his adversary, or pigeon. [1823 adds: chaps always on the look out to rob unwary country men at cards, &c.].

B.E. was one of the major sources for Francis Grose, and it's possible he was simply elaborating or clarifying the earlier entry.  The 1823 addition by Piers Egan suggests it was still current then, with a slightly different sense than that found earlier in Grose.  Whatever, the B.E. and Grose/Egan citations go together.  If we accept Grose’s version as a valid expansion of B.E., then there is a cant or slang variant of the term distinct from the “high-spirited game” sense of OED 3a.

Grose’s 1785 entry continues unchanged until 1811.  Pierce Egan’s 1823 addition reads in full (and perhaps should be considered a distinct citation):

     HIGH JINKS. A gambler [...] pigeon. Under-this head are also classed those fellows who keep Little Goes, take in insurances: also, attendants at the races, and at the E O Tables; chaps always on the look out to rob unwary countrymen at cards, &c.

Robin Hamilton

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