A huge gap between 1882 and 1933. A lack of any article connecting Record of Arrest and Prosecution with rap.The term rap meaning “criminal indictment” dating from March 1865 (Atlantic Monthly: “He who has the bad taste to meddle with the caprices of believers…gets the rap and the orders of dismissal.” and “beat the rap” known back to 1927.
Again, virtually no acronyms appear before WWII. The earliest appearances of acronyms are given with the longer phrase they are initialing. I can’t find any instances of that, which is truly odd.
Those facts lead me to conclude that rap sheet comes from the same history that gave rap, take the rap, beat the rap, and similar phrases, rather from Record of Arrests and Prosecutions with capitals, something I can’t find at all in the pre-1933 hits.
The F.B.I. may very well have used a RAP sheet but I’m positive that was a late backronym to officialize a common term.
I looked at the online etymology dictionary and found this, for hat it’s worth:
…which comes from a completely different direction, if correct. “rap” as in “blame” or “responsibility” coming to mean “criminal indictment” from the late 18th century (well before the Atlantic Monthly)
and ultimately being used in “rap sheet”.
In any event, it argues for “Record of Arrests and Prosecutions” being a backronym
The most accurate pendulum clock ever commercially produced, the Shortt–Synchronome clock - Wikipedia was more accurate than the Earth’s rotation. When later measured by an atomic clock it was discovered to be accurate enough to detect changes in the Earth’s gravity due to lunar and solar tides.
Etymonline is usually a good source, but they don’t seem to be updating properly.
Rap as criminal indictment is far older than 1903, as I cited earlier. So is rap sheet. A quick search found “beat the rap” in the August 23, 1911 Yorkville, SC, Enquirer, as “to beat the ‘rap,’ which is a crook’s term for an official complaint.” The quotes show this is a very early use and I haven’t found an earlier one.
However, “beat the rap” was also baseball slang. If a baserunner successfully takes a base after a hit or moves forward he beats the rap, rap therefore meaning a struck ball. The two uses were contemporaneous, but the baseball usage seems to have come first. People like to borrow sports slang so that may be the source here.
You seem to be correct, since you didn’t state that was the origin of the term ‘Rap sheet’. The etymology is an interesting follow on to that information.
Microplastics have been found in places as remote as Antarctica1 and the summit of Mount Everest,2 in fish guts, and in honeybees.3 Researchers recently found tiny plastic particles in the lungs of surgical patients, the blood of donors, and the placentas of unborn babies.4 We can breathe in polyethylene from our T-shirts because wastewater plants can’t fully filter them out. Microplastics are in our food—carried into the food chain by water or plankton—and in our toothpaste and dental floss.
The above link doesn’t go too much into it. But both Johnsons came from the same county in Texas. So they certainly could’ve been related (they even look alike).
I could have sworn that the Johnsons were both born in Texas. But you do have to admit that their appearances have similarities (they both have pug noses and slicked back hair).
IAE both the senior Bush and Adams were born in the same county in Massachusetts—cf. the Adams-Bush Coïncidences .
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