I heard a few years ago that police constables in London were no longer called "bobbies". Is it true and if so, when did this name disappear? I'm a fervent reader of Ian Rankin novels and I've read he sometimes calls policemen "coppers". I thought this name was rather American. Quizmonster? Corbyloon? Peter Pedant? IndieSinger?... Please?
xmanfe1999 Sat 07/05/05 20:36
To subscribe to this question you need to
sign in to the AnswerBank or register
if you are not already a member. All you need is a valid email address to register.
|
|
Slang terms, like most trends, go in and out of style and may be dependent on many factors such as geography and culture. I have never lived in London but I would be surprised if 'bobbie' was used with any prevalence anywhere in the UK within the last twenty years.
As for 'copper', this has been an English term for centuries, probably a corruption of the Old French caper, to capture. I thought Americans were more likely to use 'cop'.
|
|
|
Hi xmanfe - slang terms go in and use as they do in France. Whoever uses 'Fuzz' nowadays - for the Police I mean.
Coppers - definitely English.
|
|
|
There seem to be two credible possibilities. Either a corruption of the 16th Century English word 'cap'/Middle French 'caper' (as kempie suggests/Latin 'capere' - all meaning to seize or capture; or, as a possible American origin, a reference to the metallic copper badges worn by New York policemen many years ago.
|
|
|
I'm not sure if I'm invited to answer this - but I'll offer my 2p worth anyway. It's still recognised as slang on this website. I also suspect that the use of the word has not totally disappeared from the whole of London. There are lots of different people in London - I bet some still use the phrase. I don't tihnk it would be possible to prove that they are "no longer called Bobbies" - sounds like a bit of a null hypothesis to me.
http://www.londonslang.com/db/b/
|
|
|
And where did calling them pigs come from?
As for copper, it seems logical to me that as a robber robs, then a copper cops him for doing it. Don't know if 'cops' is a northern term or whether it's a national one, but I grew up in Yorkshire and when people got 'caught' doing something, they often said they'd been copped for doing it. I never hear the expression where I live now, a long way away from there.
|
|
|
With reference to kempie's post the word 'bobby' only seems to be used in the alliterative 'bobbies on the beat.'
|
|
|
I live in the London area and we usually call them the old bill or just the bill
|
|
|
Police officers certainly call themselves "bobbies" in my local force in Yorkshire. Dunno about elsewhere.
|
|
|
Question Author
Hi everybody, and "everybody" really means it, even the ones who were not invited by name (please acw, don't bear me a grudge). I haven't had the pleasure to "meet" all of you yet and really regret we can't meet in person. We would form quite a funny club, wouln't we? Thank you all for your answers and links (londonslang.com particularly, very useful -though not while I'm on duty - and very funny too.
If some of you speak French here are some p-words that you might use on a visit to our lovely country, but if you are "copped" telling them, I will deny everything...So, in France, we love our police(!) and we give them lots of names : the most popular is "les flics" from the German "Fliege" a fly; this name has become so common that is isn't even really derogatory anymore and that the 1st "flic" in the country is the Minister of the Interior. It has known a slight revival for a dozen years, when a new form of slang appeared in the suburbs, that is called "verlan", which is "à l'envers", read back to front : "les flics" became "les keufs", ("les femmes" became "les meufs", "une fête" "une teuf" and so on...). Let's go back to the police : they're also called "les poulets" (the chickens), la poulaille( poultry), la maison poulaga = the henhouse (as a group)...Some words are less used today but are still in favour with "argot" (slang) lovers : les perdreaux -essentially for uniformed gendarmes (the -young- partridges), les argousins (this one's very old) and many others. Being a good citizen, respectful of the law, my knowledge on the matter is quite limited and I swear I'll spend some time looking for a link to a French slang website if some of you are interested. Bye now, I have to go and fetch my son at school. Read from you soon, it's been a pleasure.
|
|
|
Octavius - re Old Bill. What's your source for this. I always thought that it was a post WW1 expression referring to a cartoon character of that name who was a soldier in the trenches. As a lot of ex-soldiers became policemen after the war they were 'Old Bill'
|
Buy Anything On eBay | Leominster Ma Interior Designer | Modded Xbox | The eBay Song | Fast Loans
