[Spridgets] Po Po - Aliens in the attic - no LBC

[corvallis at peoplepc.com]

I thought it was from the first answer there, but am wrong.  Bill in Oregon

From: http://orvillejenkins.com/words/cops.html

Question:
Why are Police Called Cops?

Answer:
Some have proposed that the reason police officers are called "cops" is
because of the New York force's copper badges.  The source of this word is
much earlier.  Several sources say the usages originated in Northern
England.

The word "cop" is an old Anglo-Saxon verb for catch, grab or capture,
deriving from a noun "cop" dating back at least to the 1100s.  Some sources
say this word related to the Dutch word kapen, with a similar meaning.  The
earliest written documentation of the form "cop" as a verb in English dates
to 1704.

A new noun form developed form this verb, giving us "copper."  This form
"copper" thus was the noun for "one who cops."  Some sources document the
use of the verb "cop" used with the meaning "arrest" in 1844, and suggests
this was the source of the specific use of "cop" to refer to a law officer.

The term "copper" was originally used in England as a slang word for a
police officer.  This term was used, however, as a term of abuse by
criminals, especially petty street criminals.  It was considered highly
derogatory by the police themselves.  It was made illegal in England to use
this term for a police officer, because it was so derogatory.

The term became associated with the metal copper after that law was passed,
when those hoods who wanted to abuse an officer would carry a small piece of
copper metal in the palm of their hand, then flash it at the policeman.
This usage of "copper" got shortened to "cop."  The first documented use of
the term copper for a police officer is in 1846.  The Oxford English
Dictionary documents this usage.  Most sources report that the first
documented use of the short form cop as applied to a police officer is in
1859.  Snopes finds that the term "copper" was used in London for police by
1846.

Even when I was a child in the US in the 1950s, though not illegal, it was
still considered impolite to call a policeman a cop.  We were taught it was
only the bad boys who feared being caught by the police that called
policemen cops.  (It is only in comparatively recent history that police
themselves have accepted and used the word for themselves.)


http://tinyurl.com/8qbqce8

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-----Original Message-----
From: spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net
[mailto:spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2012 5:58 PM
To: spridgets at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] Po Po - Aliens in the attic - no LBC

Constable on Patrol = COP  

I think Copper came from West Side Story :)


----- Original Message ----- 

And where did the name Copper come from?  Bill in Oregon
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