This is in reference to the article: Why are the police called cops, pigs, or the fuzz?
Just to add to the list of reasons. I have also heard that the term ‘pig’ is because the police squeal (for those of you unfamiliar with English slang, this is to incriminate someone)
Also the English equivalent of ‘gendarmes’ would probably be Sergeant-at-Arms, an ancient rank held for men who ensured criminals arrived in court.
I had heard a common term for the police, Rozzers dervives from Rashers, which in turn comes from the fact that the livery on police cars looks like a bacon sandwich, thus the one inside the bacon sandwich is a rasher of bacon. Bacon comes from a pig, thus the one inside could also be called a pig.
Actually, it’s more equivalent to ‘armsmen’. From the French Gent d’Armes, a man with arms (as in weapons, not physical extremities).
Which is, of course, exactly what the Staff Report says. One of the reasons we like to provide a link to the Staff Report is so that people don’t need to duplicate ideas.
I heard my older brother use the term in the 1970s, usually ironically. Maybe he was 12 at the time. He probably picked up the term from Dragnet or perhaps The Mod Squad.
I have to wonder what age Morris was during the Nixon administration.
Not only was fuzz a common term, but there was also the 1970 story “Brillo,” by Ben Bova and Harlan Ellison. It was about a robot cop. Brillo. Metal fuzz.
Once upon a time they were the bulls, the blues, the heat, flatfeet, even Paddies (as in paddy wagons).
‘Fuzz’ is perhaps more common in UK, mostly used ironically or in jokes, as in the following:
Have you ever been picked up by the fuzz?
No, but I have been swung round by the tits!
dum tish etc etc
How about The Fucking Gestapo?
As long as they are doing that, and not hauling me off to camp, let them.
Otherwise, :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Hmmm… it looks to me that the most obvious equivalent of gendarmes/gens d’armes, would have been the group of “men at arms”, who are always listed behind the knights and esquires; but then again you find knights and esquires being referred to as men-at-arms. Googling the info is a problem as I get a whole lot of sites for roleplaying, rather than history.
Where i come from they have always been called THE FILTH :dubious: and that is how i see em cheers stinky
And for the sake of completeness, “paddies” comes from a time in American history when police officer was one of relatively few respectable jobs open to Irish-Americans, leading to a lot of policemen being Irish.
Probably because he was in fact a “bottom”.
The correct title is Smokey Bear. State troopers wear Smokey Bear hats.
Any chance “fuzz” is from the static one hears during an exchange over police radios? Or does the term predate this technology?
Back in the 70’s I remember the explanation for fuzz was applied to tenacious policemen who stuck like lint during a pursuit. I don’t recall the source, it might have been a question on Hollywood Squares or something.
The first citation appears to be from 1929. Large cities probably had radio cars by then, but it doesn’t explain why the word first appeared in underworld slang.
Morris lists a number of speculations:
The tenacity derivation is almost certainly folk etymology.
I thought Cop was short for Constable on patrol
Thanks, Exapno. I wouldn’t trust Eric Partridge on a lot of etymologies, however (though I love his books). He likes to take stabs in the dark that just don’t feel right (you know what I mean by that “feel” – if BrianJ4, for example, continues to pursue his interest in etymologies, he’ll soon be able to see how unlikely it is that something like “Constable On Patrol” would be a real one).
Example of Partridge’s stabs: His WAG that “hobo” comes from a greeting, “ho, boy!”. The fuzz <-- beard idea sounds pretty unlikely, too. But I guess it could be correct.
Yeah, a lot of people think that. But it’s wrong. Acronyms as word origins are a very recent phenomenon, restricted almost entirely to the past century. If you’ve heard an acronym origin for “posh”, “tip”, “golf”, or various profanities (except for “tanj”, of course ;)), they’re wrong, too. In some cases, the word itself is probably older than some of the words which make up the supposed acronym.