Does anybody know the kind of etymolgy book I’m looking for?
What I want is a book that dfoes not say “oggel” comes from oglymachtisudezoozze in gorgian, but onehtat talks about words like “cop.”
It is now a common noun, a common verb, a copper is also a word. It comes from the huge hat the police in the first regular police force in London were forced to wear.
Polie at first had no uniform. Then it was niice hat they would stop being police when troble broke out. So they were required to wear high hats. But since high hats were prettycommon, they were STILL able to keep from being identified when somebody needed help when things were getting rough.
So they had to wear those bottle-shaped hats and a huge piece of copper, a medallion, was put onthem so there was no way they could hide what they were.
Policemen had a lousy reputation fiftyyears after the Lodon Bobbies (named for the founder of the force, whose first name was Robert) were formed. Matk Twain was in Pompeii in 1868 and praised the courage of a Roman soldier who stood at his post until he was burned to death by the lava:
“If he had been a policeman, he would have died there, too. He would have been asleep.”
Mark Twain also desribed the endless number of cemeteries and the millions of burials under Paris. In fact, he coinced the term “the silent majority of Paris”, and silent majority became a modern political ter,.
So it went from “find a copper” to a cop to an arrrest becoming a “cop.”
The most likelu explanation of Yankee, is the word “Anglais,” a none-too-friendly designation by French Canadians for an Englishman.
The word “awful” used to be a compliment. Henry VIII could have described somthing as “awful and aritifical” and meant it as a compliment. Artificicial comes from artifice, made by men, art. But now we use aweSOME because awful means bad awe.
Is there a little book on fun stuff like this?
By the way, you could refer to Koreans as The Chosen People, but DON’T. Chosen was the name the Japanese gace Korea when it was under Japanese rule. Koreans were treated like dogs by the Japanese, and thet do NOT like to be referred as Chosen.
#1 by Pain on 08/22/2006 - 12:10 pm
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You might like this:
Entry printed from Oxford English Dictionary
Copyright © Oxford University Press 2006
cop, n.5
SECOND EDITION 1989
slang.
[Cf. COP v.3 and COPPER4.]
A policeman. cops and robbers (orig. U.S.): a children’s game in which ‘police’ hunt ‘robbers’; also (? nonce-use) cops and thieves and transf.
1859 MATSELL Rogue’s Lex. 124 (Farmer) Oh! where will be..all the cops and beaks so knowin’ A hundred stretches hence? 1867 F. H. LUDLOW Brace of Boys 262 What’s a cop?.. That’s what the boys call a policeman.
cop, v.3
SECOND EDITION 1989
north. dial. and slang.
[Perh. a broad pronunciation of CAP v.2 (OF. caper to seize); in nearly all North Eng. glossaries; and now of general diffusion in the slang of schoolboys, criminals, policemen, etc.]
a. trans. To capture, catch, lay hold of, ‘nab’.
copper, n.4
SECOND EDITION 1989
slang.
[app. f. COP v.3; but other conjectures have been offered.]
A policeman; also attrib., as in copperstick, a policeman’s truncheon. Hence, one who informs on fellow prisoners; a police informant; esp. to come or turn copper.
cap, v.2
SECOND EDITION 1989
Obs.
[app. a. OF. cape-r to seize, take, cf. cape ‘bref de prise de corps’ (Godef.): see CAPE n.4 But cf. also CAPIAS, the name of a writ; and CAPE v.2, a. Du. kapen to take.]
1. trans. To arrest.
Yankee, n. and a.
SECOND EDITION 1989
Also 8-9 Yankey, Yanky, pl. Yankies.
[Source unascertained.
The two earliest statements as to its origin were published in 1789: Thomas Anburey, a British officer who served under Burgoyne in the War of Independence, in his Travels II. 50 derives Yankee from Cherokee eankke slave, coward, which he says was applied to the inhabitants of New England by the Virginians for not assisiting them in a war with the Cherokees; William Gordon in Hist. Amer. War states that it was a favourite word with farmer Jonathan Hastings of Cambridge, Mass., c 1713, who used it in the sense of ‘excellent’. Appearing next in order of date (1822) is the statement which has been most widely accepted, viz. that the word has been evolved from North American Indian corruptions of the word English through Yengees to Yankees (Heckewelder, Indian Nations iii. ed. 1876, p. 77); cf. YENGEES.
Perhaps the most plausible conjecture is that it comes from Du. Janke, dim. of Jan John, applied as a derisive nickname by either Dutch or English in the New England states (J. N. A. Thierry, 1838, in Life of Ticknor, 1876, II. vii. 124). The existence of Yank(e)y, Yankee, as a surname or nickname (often with Dutch associations) is vouched for by the following references:
1683 Cal. St. Papers, Colon. Ser. (1898) 457 They [sc. pirates] sailed from Bonaco..; chief commanders, Vanhorn, Laurens, and Yankey Duch. 1684 Ibid. 733 A sloop..unlawfully seized by Captain Yankey. 1687 Ibid. (1899) 456 Captains John Williams (Yankey) and Jacob Everson (Jacob). 1687-8 MSS. Earl of Dartmouth in 11th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 136 The pirates Yanky and Jacobs. 1697 DAMPIER Voy. I. iii. 38. 1725 Inventory of W. Marr of Carolina in N. & Q. 5th Ser. X. 467 Item one negroe man named Yankee to be sold.
Cf. also ‘Dutch yanky’ s.v. YANKY.]
A. n.
1. a. U.S. A nickname for a native or inhabitant of New England, or, more widely, of the northern States generally; during the War of Secession applied by the Confederates to the soldiers of the Federal army.
#2 by Antonio Fini on 08/22/2006 - 2:13 pm
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Incidentally I notice Buchanan’s new anti immigration book is now # 1 on Amazon. At least I know Sam Francis didn’t write it. Any idea who did?