Choice Words

This week, Prof. Alex Taylor covers the meaning and origin of a few select words from the world of crime. To comment, time apparently never favors certain parts of language, as you shall soon see.

This column was originally published, October 18, 1988 in Gainesville Georgia's Times, usually found on the left of the first page of its NE Georgia section.

For those of you just joining this regular feed, Prof. Taylor retired from the Tampa Police Department in the late 1970s as a Detective Sgt and former head of TPD's Criminal Intelligence Unit. While at TPD, he received his masters from the University of Tampa and was sourced as one of Brenau University's professors of Sociology, Criminology and Deviant Behavior, where he later became Dean of that department. He was a regular lecturer for several local colleges and universities, and attended Atlanta's John Marshall School of Law. There's quite a lot more to his CV, and maybe I'll get to that when the proper context arises. 

"We'll see..."

(don't forget to check below the column for additional info!)

Now, I need to remind everyone that my father's columns were drafted in the pre-net era, given to anecdotal folly and limited or lax formal reference due to the arcane nature of slang. In other words (pardon the poor pun), paper encyclopedias and books from "authorities" were never 100% accurate or foolproof. I know, neither is the internet, but with enough credible sources, a little verification, and a dash of common sense, we'll arrive at a reasonable conclusion that is likely true. Diving in for the facts...

"Copper" seems to arrive from a different place if you are to believe etymology.com's reference. No badges or their ranking metals mentioned. Wikipedia may have copped theirs from here or vis versa. If you run a Google search for cop copper brass and gold badges, you'll locate several references to the metal of one's badge. I have to wonder where "top brass" came from if the actual top brass used gold badges. A military-ism, perhaps. Opinions vary.

Take any 1930s gangster movie or film noir and "G-Man" is a ubiquitous affair. Of course, as the WWII-era poster depicts, G-Man later became synonymous with virtually any government employee. Wikipedia cites several references, careful to employ the passive, safe-harbor term "may". Fair enough. 

This brings us to "hoodlum", which appears to be spot-on if you trust Wikipedia and the Online Etymology Dictionary. For those with curious minds, "hoodwink" appeared a few hundred years before hoodlum, although it was possible to be hoodwinked by hoodlums in the late 1800s. Today, you might be hoodwinked by hoodlums wearing hoodies.
Bad hoodoo!

All right, enough of that.

"Hijack" is more of an enigma to verify. There are several references that state something similar to "probably" from the Prohibition Era, so I'll have to give this one a pass as credible.

And now, "lynching". It was 1988 when my father wrote this, so (and due to obvious father-son bias) there's somewhat of a cultural context pass for the omission of lynching's racial context. The Etymology Dictionary's entry does a fair job of that, so I'll let them do the heavy work. Otherwise, the word origin is correctly attributed.

Lastly, "Red Light Districts", according to Wikipedia, passes as credible, although one of its contributors appears to favor the possibility of a western-European origin. It's Wikipedia, therefore I'm surprised Facebook doesn't place misinformation disclaimers anytime someone cites it. Too inconvenient, methinks.

Coming next Taylor Tuesday: Some Nude History