Orgin of the word "cop"?
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Orgin of the word "cop"?
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does anyone know where / why police officers got the name, "cops? only real answers, no guesses please. thanks!
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jardin
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The following is from World Wide Words
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" Half a dozen explanations at least have been put forward for this one, including an acronym from “constable on patrol”, which is reminiscent of the story behind posh and quite certainly just as spurious. It is also said to come from the copper badges carried by New York City’s first police sergeants (patrolmen were alleged to have had brass ones and senior officers silver); it is almost as often said to refer to the supposedly copper buttons of the first London police force of the 1820s. Both these stories seem about equally unlikely.
The most probable explanation is that it comes from the slang verb cop, meaning “to seize”, originally a dialect term of northern England which by the beginning of the nineteenth century was known throughout the country. This can be followed back through the French caper to the Latin capere, “to seize, take”, from which we also get our capture.
The situation is complicated because there are—or have been—a number of other slang meanings for cop, including “to give somebody a blow”, and the phrase cop out, as an escape or retreat. Both of these may come from the Latin capere. But it’s suggested that another sense of cop, “to steal”, could come from the Dutch kapen, “to take or steal”. There’s also “to beware, take care”, an Anglo-Indian term from the Portuguese coprador, and phrases like “you’ll cop it!” (“you’ll be punished, you’ll get into trouble”), which could come from the idea of seizing or catching, but may be a variant of catch.
But the “seize; capture” origin for the police sense seems most plausible. So policemen are just those who catch or apprehend criminals, a worthy occupation. And a copper is someone who seizes, a usage first recorded in Britain in 1846." |
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shrty0525
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all i know is that it means contable on patrol. probably english. |
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elk312
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Came from Britain where they referred to on-duty officers as "Constable on Patrol". |
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scottfamilytribe
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CONSTABLE ON PATROL |
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Great Legislator
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Police in New York wore a copper badge. First it was "coppers", then shortened to cops. |
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kram
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citizens on patrol back in the 1800's |
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sndprssr
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English police officers used to wear copper badges...cop became short for copper |
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Mister2-15-2
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Remember hearing it came from Civil Officer Patrol or something like that. |
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darasidhe
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in the "old days" police officers used to wear copper badges. it got shortened to cop |
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The Last Patriot
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Old Chicago term. Shortened for the amount of cash it took to pay one of them off. Cop was short for copper and it was slang for the penny it took to make them look the other way. Thanks to inflation it's anywhere from fifty to a hundred now. Maybe we ought to call them "c-notes". |
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nicholas_dloniak
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they used to wear copper badges. they got the term "coppers" and from coppers we get "cops" |
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aggravatingprick
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Cheif of police .......... my thought |
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nasser
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from copper robert hence bobby |
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