Meaning & Analysis
Literally, 'cinque cater' refers to the roll of a five and a four in old dice games like Hazard. The proverb describes someone who is a veteran of such games—an old, seasoned player who is therefore crafty and experienced in calculating odds and people.
Insights
Craftiness and Worldly Experience
The proverb serves as a metaphor for a person who is exceptionally shrewd, wily, and experienced in the ways of the world. Their 'craftiness' is not necessarily academic but is a practical, street-smart intelligence.
Unscrupulous Skill
Given its origins in gambling, the term carries a connotation of moral ambiguity. An 'old cinque cater' is not just experienced but is potentially a sharp operator or schemer who uses their cunning for personal advantage.
Survivor's Cunning
The phrase symbolizes the kind of cunning that ensures survival in a competitive or predatory environment. It describes a person who has learned to thrive by outwitting others through long practice.
Historical Context of Gaming
The proverb draws its meaning from the historical context of dice games, particularly 'Hazard', where 'cinque' (five) and 'cater' (four) were significant throws. An 'old cinque cater' is thus an experienced gambler, someone who understands the odds and strategies, reflecting a society where such games were a common feature of social life.
Archetype of the Cunning Veteran
This figure represents the archetype of the 'wily old fox'—a person whose age has conferred not just wisdom but a sharp, practical cunning. It suggests a character who has navigated a world of risk and competition and has survived through shrewdness and experience, not just luck.
Linguistic Fossil
The term, a blend of Anglo-Norman French, is a linguistic artifact. Its obscurity today highlights how proverbs tied to specific, now-outdated social practices (like archaic dice games) can lose their transparency, becoming historical curiosities.
Psychology of a Survivor
Psychologically, the proverb describes a personality shaped by a high-stakes environment. It points to a worldview where one must be perpetually vigilant, calculating, and opportunistic—a mindset forged in the unpredictable world of gambling and applied to life in general.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The entire expression is a metaphor, using a specific term from a dice game to represent a complex set of personality traits associated with a crafty, experienced individual.
Allusion
The proverb's meaning is entirely dependent on an allusion to the historical game of Hazard. Without this cultural knowledge, the phrase is unintelligible.
Archaism
The use of the archaic, French-derived term 'cinque cater' lends the proverb a specific historical and linguistic flavor, marking it as a product of a particular era.
Transcription
Quotations
Of an Old crafty Fellow; as the English word is, and Old Cinquequater, and Old Tost, one of the Old Stamp.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.