bene, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bene adj.

also bane, ben, been, bien

[Lat. bonus and Fr. bon, good]

(UK Und.) good; it can be conjugated as benar, better and benat, best.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 86: What stowe you bene cofe and cut benar whyddes and byng we to Rome vyle to nyp a bounge [...] What holde your peace good fellowe and speake better wordes, and go we to London to cut a purse.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching [as cit. c.1566].
1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 1: Stowe you beene cofe: hold your peace good fellow. And cut benar whiddes: and speake better words.
1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle V i: A gage of ben rom-bouse [...] Is benar then a caster, / Peck, pennam, lap, or popler.
1641		R. Brome Jovial Crew II i: For all this bene Cribbing and Peck let us then, / Bowse a health to the Gentry Cofe of the Ken.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 169: Benar Better.
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Bien, brave. [Ibid.] Bene, good. Benar, better.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 195: Cut been Whids [Give good Words].
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 11: Bien, Good.
1728		Defoe Street Robberies Considered 30: Bien Whids, good Words.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Bene, (cant) good.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Benar. better. Cant.
1787		Burns Lady Onlie in Works (1842) 181/2: Ladie Onlie, honest Lucky! Brews good ale at shore o’ Bucky [...] Her house sae bien, her curch sae clean, I wat she is a dainty chucky.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Bene. Good—Benar. Better. Cant.
1810		‘Come under my Plaidy’ Garland of New Songs (32) 6: A bien house to bide in.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1828		Lytton Pelham III 292: Egad, you carry a bane blink aloft.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 5: Bene – prime, good.
1841		Punch 17 July I 7: The chaff predominates — (munch) — not bene by any means.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 267: The brick house agin the bridge is bene if you can catch the ‘burerk’ (mistress) at home.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 5: BENE, good. Ancient cant; benar was the comparative.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 6/1: The first sight we saw was [...] ‘Squib Dixon,’ a tumbler of ale in one hand and a ‘bene cross moll’ in the other.
1868		J.D. McCabe Secrets of the Great City 359: The Detectives’ Manual gives a glossary of this language, from which we take the following specimens [...] Bene. – Good, first-rate.
1871–82		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 8: Bene, good.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 289/1: ben, bene good [...] benar better.

In derivatives

benely (adv.)

(UK und.) well.

1639

J. Taylor Crabtree Lectures 193: Mort. [...] And if thou want lower, budge to the next Vile, and there nip a Bung, or cloy a Culley; then budge to the bowsing Ken, and boose rumsie and beanely.

In compounds

bene bouse (n.) (also ben bouse, bene bowse, bien bowse) [bouse n.]

drink, lit. good liquor; thus bene-bowsy, tipsy (with good drink).

c.1535		R. Copland Hye way to the Spyttel House Eiii: For the bene bouse my watch hath a wyn.
c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 59: Yf their women haue any thing about them [...] they [...] sell it out right, for bene bowse at their bowsing ken.
1608		Dekker Belman of London (3rd) J3: I will lage it off with a gage of bene bowse.
1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle V i: I’ll [...] drink ben bouse, and eat a fat gruntling cheat, a cackling cheat, and a quacking cheat.
1622		Beaumont & Fletcher Beggar’s Bush III iv: I crown thy nab with a gage of ben bouse.
1639		J. Taylor Crabtree Lectures 191: Mort. [R]ather then want Rum-peck, or Beane boose, mill the Cacklers, coy the Quack, or Duds.
1641		R. Brome Jovial Crew II i: This is Bien bowse, this is Bien bowse, / Too little is my Skew.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Bene-bowse, strong Liquor, or very good Drink.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 202: Bene-Bowse, strong liquor, or very good drink.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: bene-bowse c. strong Liquor or very good Drink [...] bowse Drink [...] see Benbowse and Rumbowse.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Bene bowse, (cant), good beer, or other strong liquor.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 5: Bene bowse – good beer.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 10: bene-bouse Good drink.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).

bene cove (n.) [cove n. (1)] (UK Und.)

1. (also bene cofe) a friend, lit. ‘a good fellow’; thus in cant, a fellow criminal.

1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 1: A Gentleman is called a Gentry Coue, or Cofe: A good fellow, is a Bene Cofe.
1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle V i: A ben cove, a brave cove, a gentry cuffin.
1612		Dekker O per se O Canting Song O2: Bein darkmans then, bouse, mort, and ken / the bien coue’s bingd a wast.
1639		J. Taylor Crabree Lectures 191: Cove. I whid to thee: I budged to the bowsing Ken, & there I bowsed all my lower amongst the Beane Coves, and Doxes.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 45: The bien Cove hath the loure.
1671		Head Eng. Rogue [as cit. 1612].
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1703		Hell Upon Earth 5: Stoe you bien Cove.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 202: Bene-Cove, a good fellow.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: bene cove a good Fellow, a merry Companion.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 5: Bene cove – hearty fellow, a tramp.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved With Gold 265: I’ve brought a couple of bene coves, with lots of the Queen’s pictures in their sacks.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1874		Cairo Bull. (Cairo, IL) 5 Nov. 2/3: [from The Graphic, London] He’s in the ring, my bene-coves, / And fly on all the jerks.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 69/2: C.17–18.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 289/1: bencove a friend.

2. a tramp.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

bene cull (n.) (also ben cull) [cull n.¹ (4)]

a good fellow, a friend.

1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 23: ‘Paul, my ben cull,’ said she, ‘what gibberish hast got there?’.
1852		Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 24 Dec. 862/1: [Those] who affect to be ministers, and preach in the open air to collect crowds for the benefit of those whose ‘mawleys’ dip deep into the ‘cly’ or who ‘fake a blowens;’ and whether ‘magsmen,’ ‘buzgloaks,’ or ‘dummy-hunters’ give the ‘reglars to their ‘benculls’-pick pockets, and share the spoil with their confederates.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 73: BEN CULL, a friend, or ‘pal.’.
1867		(con. 1600s) M. Lemon Leyton Hall I 236: ‘A barnacle—a foist, I think you call him—hath eased me of my purse.’ ‘Oh!’ said Honest Joe [...] ‘So clapperclawed already? I trust by a ben cull of my ken.’.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Sept. 6/5: Right you are, my Ben Cull, but stash the rust.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 8: Bene cull, a good fellow.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

bene darkmans [darkmans n.; Partridge in DU suggests ‘ca. 1560 or even earlier. Not dictionaried, however, until 1698 (B.E.)’]

(UK Und.) good night.

1612		Dekker O per se O Canting Song O2: Bein darkmans then, bouse, mort, and ken / the bien coue’s bingd a wast; / On chates to trine, by Rome-coves dine / for his long lib at last.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 196: [as cit. 1612].
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 202: Bene-Darkman, good-night.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).

bene mort (n.) (also bien mort) [bene adj. + mort n.¹]

a pretty woman.

1608		Dekker Belman of London (3rd edn) J4: A bene Mort, hereby at the sign of the Prauncer.
1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 42: O Ben mort wilt thou pad with me, / One ben slate shall serue both thee & me.
1612		Dekker Canting Song O per se O O1: Bing out bien Morts and toure.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 45: Bing out bien Morts, and toure and toure.
1671		Head Eng. Rogue [as cit. 1665].
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 131: ‘Tour out,’ said the one ruffian to the other; ‘tour the bien mort twiring at the gentry cove!’.
1859		‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ Matsell Vocabulum 124: The bene morts, who sweetly sing, / A hundred stretches hence?
1861		Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 9 Nov. 216: Take all my bob culls and my bené morts. / I’d hold high revel, sluice my gob alway.
1881		Trumble ‘On the Trail’ in Sl. Dict. (1890) 42: Why, Bell, is it yourself? Tip us your daddle, my bene mort.