Tag: police

‘sneaky-beaky’: meaning and origin

.Reading time 15 minutes.

an intelligence operative, also an intelligence operation—UK, 1966—from ‘sneaky’ (furtive, deceitful) and ‘beaky’ (referring to an overly inquisitive person, with allusion to a prominent nose)

Read More

‘(as) thick as a brick’: meaning and origin

.Reading time 8 minutes.

very stupid—popularised by Jethro Tull’s ‘Thick as a Brick’ (1972), but already existed—in early use (19th century) applied to nouns such as ‘skull’ and ‘head’, used metonymically for ‘intelligence’

Read More

‘mugshot’: meaning and origin

.Reading time 7 minutes.

U.S. slang, 1935—a photograph of a person’s face, especially in police or other official records—from ‘mug’ (a person’s face) and ‘shot’ (a single photographic exposure)

Read More

‘sleeping policeman’ | ‘gendarme couché’

.Reading time 26 minutes.

a raised band across a road, designed to make motorists reduce their speed—1961—based on the image of a policeman lying asleep in the middle of a road—in early use often with reference to Jamaica

Read More

‘blue flu’: meaning and origin

.Reading time 9 minutes.

absenteeism among police officers (and by extension other workers) who claim to be ill but are in fact absent to support union contract demands or negotiations—USA, 1967—alludes to the traditional colour of police uniforms

Read More

‘blouson noir’: meaning and origin

.Reading time 20 minutes.

in French contexts: a young person, especially a young man, belonging to a youth subculture of the 1950s and 1960s—UK, 1959—from the noun ‘blouson’ (a short jacket) and the adjective ‘noir’ (black)

Read More