Origin of the slang 'canister' for head?

[Dave Potts]

Does anyone know the origins of the slang 'canister ' (meaning 'head') - is it cockney rhyming slang, and if so what is the complete phrase? While we're it, how about 'swede' for head and 'kite' for cheque?

[Quizmonster]

I'd guess 'canister' was just a reference to a form of 'container'...as in tea-canister, gas-canister etc. 'Swede' refers to the vegetable, a roundish form of turnip - which itself has also been used to mean 'head'. >P>'Kite' for cheque appeared in the 1920s. At that time, it usually meant a blank or stolen one, generally made out in the knowledge that there were insufficient funds to meet it! Much earlier, back in the very early 19th century, 'kite' was used as a joke - in reference to the child's flying toy - to mean a financial document used to try to raise money on credit. Doubtless, the modern usage was at least based on the older one.