Showing posts with label English Usage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English Usage. Show all posts

Friday, August 17, 2018

Origin of the word 'cop'

Where did the word "cop" come from? Here's the origin story from Do's, Don'ts, and Maybes of English Usage by Theodore Bernstein:

"Cops are, of course, policemen. The slang word is neither of recent derivation nor an Americanism. The Oxford English Dictionary records a quotation using the word cop that is dated 1704. The slang verb cop meant to catch or arrest and one, who did that was a copper. Then copper was shortened to cop. One school of thought relates-copper to the copper buttons once used on police uniforms. Anyway, the cops themselves would rather be called officers. "