Chapter Canoe' to Cap of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

will not pass through the meshes of a net. Subsequently the tester of a bed was so called, and lastly the canopy borne over kings. (Greek, kwuwy, a gnat; kwiwpeiou, a gnat-curtain; Latin, conopeum, a gnatcurtain.)

Canossa Canossa, in the duchy of Modena, is where (in the winter of 1076-7) Kaiser Heinrich IV. went to humble himself before Pope Gregory VII. (Hildebrand).
   Has the Czar gone to Canossa? Is he about to eat humble pie?
   When, in November, 1887, the Czar went to Berlin to visit the Emperor of Germany, the Standard asked in a leader, “Has the Czar gone to Canossa?”

Cant A whining manner of speech; class phraseology, especially of a religious nature (Latin, canto, to sing, whence chant). It is often derived from a proper name. We are told that Alexander and Andrew Cant maintained that all those who refused the “Covenant” ought to be excommunicated, and that those were cursed who made use of the prayer-book. These same Cants, in their grace before meat, used to “pray for all those who suffered persecution for their religious opinions.” (Mercurius Publicus, No. ix., 1661.)
    The proper name cannot have given us the noun and verb, as they were in familiar use certainly in the time of Ben Jonson, signifying “professional slang,” and “to use professional slang.”

“The doctor here,
When he discourses of dissection,
Of vena cava and of vena porta ...
What does he do but cant? Or if he run
To his judicial astrology,
And trowl out the trine, the quartile, and the sextile,
Does he not cant?”
Ben Jonson (1574-1637): Andrew Cant died 1664.

Cantabrian Surge The Bay of Biscay. So called from the Cantabri who dwelt about the Biscayan shore. Suetonius tells us that a thunderbolt fell in the Cantabrian Lake (Spain) “in which twelve axes were found.” (Galba, viii.)

“She her thundering army leads
To Calpê [Gibraltar] ... or the rough
Cantabrian Surge.”
Akenside: Hymn to the Naiades.

Cantate Sunday Fourth Sunday after Easter. So called from the first word of the introït of the mass: “Sing to the Lord.” Similarly “Laetate Sunday” (the fourth after Lent) is so called from the first word of the mass.

Canteen' means properly a wine-cellar. Then a refreshment-house in a barrack for the use of the soldiers. Then a vessel, holding about three pints, for the use of soldiers on the march. (Italian, cantina, a cellar.)

Canterbury Canterbury is the higher rack, but Winchester the better manger. Canterbury is the higher see in rank, but Winchester the one which produces the most money. This was the reply of William Edington, Bishop of Winchester, when offered the archbishopric of Canterbury (1366). Now Canterbury is 6,500.

Canterbury Tales Chaucer supposed that he was in company with a party of pilgrims going to Canterbury to pay their devotions at the shrine of Thomas à Becket. The party assembled at an inn in Southwark, called the Tabard, and there agreed to tell one tale each, both in going and returning. He who told the best tale was to be treated with a supper on the homeward journey. The work is incomplete, and we have none of the tales told on the way home.
   A Canterbury Tale. A cock-and-bull story; a romance. So called from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Canting Crew (The). Beggars, gipsies, and thieves, who use what is called the canting lingo.

Canucks The Canadians. So called in the United States of America.

Canvas means cloth made of hemp. To canvas a subject is to strain it through a hemp strainer, to sift it; and to canvass a borough is to sift the votes. (Latin, cannabis, hemp.)