KOKUM also COCUM, COKUM, KOCUM ADJ. smart, cunning, sly; advantageous, lucky ...1839 sl. rare NOUN 1. good sense; ability; acumen; judgement; knowledge; cunning; cleverness, shrewdness ...1848 sl. rare 2. advantageous or favourable circumstances; luck ...1851 obs. 3. deceit, entrapment ...1886 Aust. sl. 4. (also CHOCHEM) a thief, usually an intelligent one ...1963 S. Afr. criminals' sl. ETYMOLOGY from Yiddish khokhem (wise, prudent), from Hebrew ḥāḵām (wise, prudent), from the same Semitic base as Arabic ḥakīm (learned person) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1839 - Cocum, very cunning and sly. To fight cocum, to be wary From: Dictionary of the Flash or Cant Language - Henry Brandon in Poverty Mendicity and Crime, Or, The Facts, Examinations, &c. Upon which the Report was Founded - W. A. Miles EXAMPLE "...We both have reached a time of life When 'tis good ‘Cokum’, lad, to buy ‘a knife’...." From: The Sydney Daily Advertiser Oct. 11, 1848
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