My dad was a senior vp at a major aerospace firm. They definitely took a glance at me from time to time but probably just a quick background check. As I recall, they’d do some research extra checking for him every five or maybe ten years and he’d ask us kids and steps for basic info like address changes, dates of marital status changes, etc. If he bahaved like a normal parent instead of a workaholic, he’d know these things.
I have a strong suspicion that prisons are full of drug dealers who swore they could tell a narc a mile away.
It’s not a word we use in my country, but I cannot forget Norbert from the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
(Facebook link, stupid discoarse struggles with basic functionality)
The word is also:
noun: (informal, colloquial, drugs) Alternative spelling of nark (“spy”) [(British, Ireland, slang) A police spy or informer
Now, whether this is also derived from “narcotic,” or (IMHO more likely) an independent word, and one that may well have influenced the American usage, I don’t know.
I think, but because I am not a linguist, I cannot be sure, “nark” was formed from “narc” (from Narcotics Officer)
But you have a fair amount more experience in the US legal system where the term evolved, and well… I have merely read Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers cartoons.
I think we can tell who is more likely correct here… it is not me.
(I have never heard it in the UK/IRL context, not even in movies)
I had always assumed that “narc” derived from Narcotics Officer, but I was surprised to learn some time ago that “narc” or “nark” has a long history predating the existence of dedicated narcotics officers, and its source is unrelated to “narcotics”. The OED has quotations from 1859 where it means “informer”, and from 1890 where it means “police officer”. It says the etymology of these senses is uncertain:
Perhaps < Angloromani nok nose (1863 in B. C. Smart Dial. Eng. Gypsies; compare Welsh Romani nakh, European Romani nak); for the semantic development, compare the earlier use of nose in the sense ‘informer’ (see nose n. I.4) and such uses as to poke one’s nose into at nose n. Phrases P.1d.ii. However, the rendering of the Romani short vowel (o or a) as a(r) in English is unusual. Also, the assumed development would require that the Romani word had an extended sense denoting a person, but this is not attested; if it did occur, it would most probably have been calqued on English nose ‘informer’, which would require that sense 2 should be the earlier sense. Compare also knark n., which, if it is merely a variant of the present word, would appear to confirm the priority of sense 1.
E. Partridge Dict. Underworld (1949) at cited word suggests that the word may be shortened < French narquois (adjective) mocking (1842), cunning, deceitful (1694; earlier in sense ‘slang’ 1653), (noun; now archaic) vagabond soldier (c1590), (obsolete) thief, crook (1620; also in sense ‘slang’ (1611)), of uncertain origin.
It also notes that in later use there is “some convergence” between the “police officer” sense and the “narcotics officer” sense; the latter is chiefly North American and its first quotation is from 1966.
It would have been in Lorain County, Ohio.
The same thing is true for people who buy meth-making materials in bulk.
I actually learned the process in pharmacy school (it’s not very complicated, although we weren’t tested on it and I don’t remember it) and then the professor said, “If you buy all of these materials at the same time, law enforcement will come knocking, and if they find out you are a pharmacy student, you’ll be hauled off in handcuffs.”
I reckon you mean stuff like Bunsen burners, graduated cylinders, beakers and the like? Not so much pre-cursor chemicals as there’s usually one or two that are either Scheduled illegal and some others that you probably only could buy if you say you’re a pharmacy student.
If you’re doing it right, your kitchen (laboratory?) should be all shiny, clean and sterile between batches. If you just have the right setup and no…erm… “product” or illegal precursors on hand I’d think the “hauled off” just gives them time to get a search warrant.
Yet nice of your professor to warn you. Yet if I had all the right equipment still in the box what could I say? I like beakers?
I suspect they are both plainclothed and undercover. Plainclothes, for sure. I see them patrolling the floor. They might stop and converse with security or management, but not with guests. On weekend nights, they might wear bulletproof vests that say “state trooper”. But then there are “suits” or “puffy vests” who blend in and intermingle with patrons. Then, suddenly they whip out handcuffs to arrest someone. I suspect they are undercover.
I’m going to make a wild guess that ALL plainclothes, undercovers, and whoever else falls beneath the umbrella of non-uniformed LEOs wear layers. I believe all LEOs carry 9mm handguns. Most of them aren’t large, but they aren’t small either. They would be kind of hard to conceal without layers of clothing.
Ever had any strong suspicions that you’ve encountered a narc?
Given that I’ve gone to the occasional Christmas party at RCMP Depot, yes, pretty much.
@Chefguy , your story reminds me of when I was a kid in the 1970s and I knew an adult whom some other adults said was with the CIA.
My dad worked in a foreign country that was of interest to spooks, and I attended an international school. A lot of the parents were from embassies, or journalists, or working with multinational companies. One American kid’s dad supposedly worked at Big Name Aerospace company, but rumor said he was really with the CIA. How likely was a spook to say he was working at a US company rather than just being a “political officer” at the embassy?
Here’s something that actually happened in 1984. I was sitting at the same table as this idiot. I was in Warsaw to oversee some ducting installation by a German contractor. It’s called “CONSEC” or construction security, which is what Seabees attached to the DOS did, among other things.
Anyway, I’m sitting at a table having lunch in the embassy cafeteria with three other embassy employees that I didn’t know. There was a man sitting next to me and there was a married couple across from us. The woman suddenly says to the guy next to me: “Oh! My husband says you’re a spook! You don’t look scary to me! ::and she laughs::” The guy was a bit stunned, but tried to laugh it off: “Oh, yeah, I’m real scary. Booooooo! hehhehheh” The woman wouldn’t leave it alone and kept needling him, while the husband was doing everything he could think of to shut her up as he watched his career going down the toilet. He finally jumped up and told her “Let’s go, you stupid bitch!” As he started to leave, the other guy says: “Be in my office in 30 minutes.” I always wondered what happened to him.
It was a joke based on the plot of Smokey and the Bandit.
Most, but not all. Some for instance use .45 caliber pistols.
9 mm is becoming more popular (again) but .40 is still in wide use and .45 isn’t that unusual. An actual undercover (or narc) may carry pretty much anything his agency allows. Now that Glocks are ubiquitous, no one would see that as a tip-off. When they first appeared in the U.S., they we viewed as a dead giveaway that the bearer was a cop. I knew plenty of u/c that carried .38 snub noses or .380s This was pre-"micro 9"s that you see today. If a u/c is involved in a gunfight (extremely rare in the real world) is it likely to be at very close range and over very quickly.