One way to hold canny is the person who knows how the thing works. Not the cleverest person in the room, and not the loudest — the one who has seen this before, so nothing surprises them and nothing hurries them. From that one picture the word grows in two directions. Because they know, they are hard to fool, and they make the small careful move at the right moment. And because they know, they are steady to be near, which is why in Scotland and the north-east of England calling someone canny is simply calling them good company.
From the word’s history
The supplied source takes canny from Northern English dialect, from can meaning to know, plus -y, and behind that Old English cunnan, to know how to do something. The same root gives cunning. That is the whole word in one line: canny is know-how turned into a description of a person.
packet 附的來源說 canny 來自英格蘭北部方言，由 can（知道、會）加 -y 構成，再往前是古英文 cunnan（知道怎麼做）。同一條線也長出了 cunning。一句話就說完了這個字：canny 就是把「會、懂」變成對一個人的形容。
Wiktionary entry for 'canny' (etymology 1) as supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:631664799): 'Northern English dialect, from can (to know) ( + -y), from Middle English can ... from Old English cunnan (to know how to, be able to)'.
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