pennyweightern.
/ˈpɛnɪweɪtə/, U.S. /ˈpɛniˌweɪdər/ U.S. Criminals' slang. Now rare.
A person who steals jewellery, precious stones, or metals; one who engages in pennyweighting.
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the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > [noun] > of jewellery
prop-nailer1862
pennyweighter1886
prop-getter1901
prop man1935
1886 Chester (Pa.) Times 24 Mar. 1/3 His diamond setting principally consisted in resetting stones stolen by pennyweighters.
1899 ‘J. Flynt’ Tramping with Tramps iv. 396 Penny~weighters, jewelry thieves.
1904 ‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing xiii. 261 I blew out and rung in with a couple of penny-weighters.
1932 Salamanca (N.Y.) Republican-Press 9 Aug. 2/3 The old time penny-weighter, whose trick of substituting fake stones for good ones cost jewelers many a dollar in the good old days, has about disappeared.
1950 H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 155/1 Penny-weighter, a thief who specializes in stealing uncut and unset diamonds.
2001 B. D. Joyce Deadly Love iv. 70 Each man had his name printed below each photo, with words like ‘cracksman’, ‘pickpocket’, ‘pennyweighter’, and ‘sandbagger’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1886