Jack. Silence for the chair!
Jemmy. Put out the lights, put out the lights, every one shift for
himself. Here, Bob, carry me up the ladder, good luck to you do,
Bob.
1840. Thackeray, Catherine, ch. x. But Mrs. Polly, with a wonderful
presence of mind, restored peace by exclaiming, ‘Hush, hush! the
beaks, the beaks!’ Upon which, with one common instinct, the whole
party made a rush for the garden gates, and disappeared into the
fields. Mrs. Briggs knew her company: there was something in the
very name of a constable which sent them all a-flying.
English Synonyms. ‘Blue’ (traceable to Queen Elizabeth’s days when the
colour of the uniform was the same as now); ‘men in blue’; ‘Royal
Regiment of Footguards Blue’; ‘bluebottle’ (used by Shakspeare); ‘blew
coate’ (also a Shakspearian term, and still in use); ‘Dogberry’ (an
allusion to Much Ado about Nothing); ‘charley’ (one of the old
watchmen); ‘bobby’; ‘peeler’; ‘copper’ (a thieves’ term, from ‘to cop’
to lay hold of); ‘crusher’ (thieves’); ‘slop’ (a back slang corruption
of ‘police’ = esclop, with c not sounded and shortened to ‘slop’);
‘scufter’ (a northern term, as also is the example next following);
‘bulky’ (used by Bulwer Lytton); ‘philip’ (from a thieves’ signal);
‘cossack’; ‘philistine’; ‘frog’ (from pouncing upon criminals);
‘Johnnie Darby’ (a corruption of gendarme); ‘Johnnie’; ‘pig’ (a plain
clothes man); ‘worm’; ‘nose’; ‘nark’; ‘dee’ (a detective); ‘tec’; the
C.T.A. (a circus man’s term); ‘demon’ (Australian thieves’); ‘reeler’;
‘raw lobster’ (this like ‘blue,’ etc., would appear to be a reference
to the colour of the uniform).
French Synonyms. Un rousse (popular and thieves’: roux signifies ‘red,’
and red hair has always been held in contempt as indicative of
treachery and craft; hence its application by the criminal classes to
their natural enemies); un roussin (thieves’: of same derivation as
foregoing); un bâton de réglisse (popular: ‘a stick of liquorice’); un
baladin (properly ‘a mountebank, juggler, or buffoon’); une cagne
(popular: ‘a dog,’ i.e., ‘a worthless fellow,’ ‘a slut’; cagne or
caigne in Old French signified ‘dog,’ and was derived from the Latin
canis, whence caignot, ‘a little dog.’ It may also be noted that, prior
to the establishment of the modern gendarmerie, the archers of the
watch were known as chiens-courants); un cogne (thieves’: another form
of cagne); un balai (hawkers’: properly ‘a broom, brush, or besom’); un
serin (popular: properly ‘a canary’; serin is also slang for ‘a foolish
fellow,’ ‘a greenhorn’); un pousse (thieves’: the guardians of public
order formerly known in Paris as serjents or archers de l’écuelle were
called pousse-culs); une vache (literally ‘a cow’); un arnif
(thieves’); une peste (thieves’: literally ‘a plague’ or ‘torment’);
une tronche â la manque; un flaquadard; un cabestan (thieves’: properly
‘a hand-winch’; Michel thinks this is derived either from cabe, ‘a
dog’; or from capitan, ‘a captain.’ The latter, be it noted, has also
the signification of ‘hector’ or ‘braggadocio’); un raille or railleux
(thieves’: a detective. Michel derives it from raillon, a weapon with
which the police were formerly armed. Victor Hugo thought it came from
the English word ‘rascal,’ but there seems little, if any, authority
for this); un sacre (Nicot gives this as ‘a bird of prey,’ but Henri
Estienne adds that it was used to denote ‘one who lays hands on
everything that comes in his way’; also ‘a gourmand’); un grive
(thieves’: ‘a warder’ or ‘military patrol’); un laune (thieves’); un
flique (popular: also a petty police magistrate. Thought to be a
corruption of friquet, another opprobrious term for a police man); un
bec du gaz; un estaffier (familiar: also, among thieves, ‘a cat’); une
bourrique (thieves’: also ‘an informer’); un pousse trottoir (pousse
from pousser, ‘to push’; trottoir, a footpath); un lampion rouge
(thieves’); un escargot de trottoir (popular: literally ‘a snail of the
footpath’); un cierge (thieves’: properly ‘a wax taper’); un sergo
(popular); un grippe-Jesus (a term used by thieves in the north of
France, and by seafaring men which, says Michel, might lead one to
suppose that gendarmes only arrested innocent persons); un pince sans
rire (thieves’: a sly, malicious person); un pot â tabac (popular: ‘a
tobacco jar’); un singe de la rousse (singe = monkey, de la rousse, ‘of
the police force’).
For German Synonyms, see Copper.
Italian Synonyms. Un’ zaffo (literally ‘a bung’ or ‘tipstaff’); un’
foco or un’ fuoco (literally ‘fire’).
Spanish Synonyms. Uno mastin (literally ‘a mastiff’ or ‘bulldog’; ‘a
clumsy fellow’; ‘a clown’); una harpia (un harpeo = ‘grapnel’ or
‘grappling-iron’); una fiera (properly ‘a wild beast’).
2. (popular.)—A magistrate. Cf. foregoing, much of which has reference
to this secondary meaning of beak. Sometimes Called a beak of the law.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. ‘My eyes, how green!’
exclaimed the young gentleman. ‘Why a beak’s a madgst’rate.’
18(?) Hood, Tale of a Trumpet.
The pies and jays that utter words,
And other Dicky gossips of birds,
Who talk with as much good sense and decorum,
As many beaks who belong to the quorum.
1881. Punch, Dec. 3, 258. A pair of anti-vivisectionists. Sir
Slangsby Jaunter. ‘See that old fellow, Miss Diana? That’s Doctor
Katchett, who swears he’s going to find a cure for lunatics! Just
got into trouble. Been trying the effects of extreme terror and
bodily fatigue on a rabbit, and without chloroform, too, the old
ruffian! And then he killed it, and dissected its brain. Going to
be had up before the beak for it! Bow St., you know!’ Miss Diana.
‘Serve him right, horrid man! Don’t want to know about such people.
But talking of rabbits, what a splendid run that second Hare gave
us to-day! Thirty minutes gallop without a check!—Wasn’t it
lovely!—And I was in at the death!’
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Oct. 12, p. 5, col. 2. Taken before some
French beak whom he did not know, and an interpreter brought, the
‘cotched’ culprit was made to pay 20 f., his friend escaping
because he was not caught red-handed.
An English Synonym is ‘queer cuffin’ (old cant).
French Synonyms. Un sapeur (thieves’: properly ‘a sapper,’ i.e., ‘one
who undermines’ [one’s chances of wrong doing]); un pante en robe
(pante in French slang is equivalent to ‘a man’ or ‘cove’; en robe =
‘in a robe’); un endormi (popular: properly ‘a sleepy-head’); un
grignon (thieves’: probably from grigner les dents, ‘to show one’s
teeth threateningly’; or from grognon, ‘grumbler,’ ‘growler’); un
gerbier; un curieux (thieves’: i.e., ‘the curious one’; from the adj.
curieux. Michel, however, adds that curieux formerly signified ‘a
courtier’); un singe à rabat (thieves’: possibly rabat is an
abbreviated form of rabat-joie, ‘a wet blanket.’ The phrase would then
mean ‘a baboon with a wet blanket,’ ‘a damper’; or it may be derived
from singe, a monkey + rabat, slang for ‘a cloak.’ Cf., singe de la
rousse); un lustre (thieves’: properly ‘renown’; ‘distinction’); un
pant’ de la magistrat’ muche (thieves’).
Italian Synonym. Un antigo (literally ‘an old one’; also ‘a master,’ ‘a
boss’).
Spanish Synonym. Sombrador (thieves’ and popular: from sombra, ‘shade’;
i.e., one who puts in the shade. Poner â la sombra is ‘to imprison’).