XI Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2019

For a long time, the police carried out a wide range of functions which are mostly common in different countries. Police activities cover a wide range of areas such as protection of public order; protection of state, society and individuals from unlawful actions; crime prevention and crime detection; supervision of weapons circulation; protection of buildings; migration services and others. During the historical evolution the police got a lot of nicknames which are different in different countries. Sometimes they are related to national peculiarities, sometimes they can be explained by some historical events or associated with historical figures.

We can suppose that police nicknames reflect some features of national way of thinking or translate some nationally accepted attitudes towards police forces. This paper aims to identify national varieties of police nicknames looking at the history of police authorities in different countries.

First of all, we can provide a list of the most popular names of police officers in different countries of the world:

USA - flatty, busy, constable, cop, copper, policeman, patrolman, officer.

UK and Canada - bobby, mountie, policeman, police officer. Italy - carabiniere; della polizia, poliziesco.

France - gendarme; agent, policier, de police.

Germany - Polizei-; polizeilich, polizist.

Spain - poli; policia, policiaco (in both words, the stress on the letter I).

South America - agente, alguacil, comisario, guardian, municipal, paco, policia, policiaco, policial, policiano, polizonte, tira.

Poland - glina, policjant, policyjny, przodownik (with the rank of sergeant in Poland).

Norway - konstabel, politikonstabel.

Portugal - policial, da policia, policia.

We can say that nicknames used in various countries transfer different national attitudes towards police. For example, in Germany police are called “bulls” (Bulle). It is believed that this is because of their strength. In contrast, in Spain policemen are called by affectionate diminutive name “poli” (diminutive of police).

In some countries police nicknames come back to rather old origins. For example, in Italy the police are called “sbirro”. The word has Latin roots, “birrum” meaning ‘red cloak’. The nickname can be explained by the fact that initially the police wore a red uniform.

In Holland police nicknames have Jewish roots. So, in quiet residential areas of Amsterdam, the police are commonly called “smeris” (the word came from ancient Hebrew and means ‘to watch’) while in less prosperous areas the nickname “klabak” is mostly used (meaning ‘a dog’ in Yiddish). By this way the most commonly accepted attitude towards the police is translated in their nicknames.

The most common Russian nickname “ment” which is used in the jargon of the Russian underworld was known before the revolution. In the “List of words of the thieves' language known to the police ranks of the Rostov-on-Don district” (1914) we read: “MENT is an officer of the neighborhood, a police officer, a guard or a policeman.” The word “ment” is of Hungarian origin. In Hungarian “mente” means "a cloak, cape."

Among having the widest range of nicknames are French guardians of the law. So many people call police “flic”. Few people know the origin of this word, but some pretend that the policemen were originally called “flies” (mouche), but then the word “fliege” came from the Dutch language and finally it was transformed into “flic”. The nickname got accustomed because the French invented the decoding of this word: “Fédération Légale des Idiots Casques” (literally "Legal Federation of idiots in helmets").

French policemen are also called “poule” (hen) but not because of some attitudes. This name is related neither to their belligerent character nor the image of the Gallic cock. It is due to the fact that the Paris police department is located in the place where the bird market used to be. By the way, the most common name for police officers in France is the agent being neutral.

Having a close look at police nicknames in the US and the UK, we should note that the most famous nickname is “a cop”. According to the compilers of the Webster dictionary, the most authoritative explanatory dictionary of the English language in the United States, this word in the sense of “police officer” appeared in 1859. There are several versions of how this word appeared. The most common is that the cop is shortened from “copper” because the first American policemen had eight-pointed copper stars. Otherwise “cop” is just seen as an abbreviation of the expression “Constable on Patrol”.

Being engaged in the etymology of this nickname, we found another version. It turns out that its roots originate from the Middle Ages, moreover, they are much deeper than a simple abbreviation. According to the English etymology dictionary, it is derived from the verb “cop” meaning ‘to capture or arrest as a prisoner’. It is said to be originally thieves’ slang and abbreviation from earlier “coppers”. Some experts argue that the word comes from the old French "caper" (capture). By the middle of the 16th century, the verb appeared in English in the “cap” form with the same meaning. By the beginning of the 19th century, the word changed its form to “cop” but the meaning remained the same. This word is often used to describe police raids and the police themselves began to be called “coppers”.

As for the etymology of the most commonly known nickname of the British policeman “bobby”, there are no such differences. It is associated with Sir Robert Peel who created the British police (Bobby - diminutive of Robert). In 1829 Robert Peel, a British politician who held both the position of the Secretary of the Interior and the Prime Minister, ordered the creation of the first British professional police force. For some time, Londoners called the police “Bobbies” and “Peelers”, but the latter went out of use while the former remained and became one of the most wide-spread nicknames of the British police. But after the Second World War it gradually began to be forced out by the American word “cop”.

To sum up, we can say that the difference between police nicknames in different countries can be explained by a number of reasons. They are not only related to the national history of law enforcement, they sometimes translate some national attitudes towards police forces, but they also are woven into the development of the language.

REFERENCES

1) Джеки, бобби, флики и просто копы // Коммерсантъ. – 2010. – № 32. – 16 августа. – [Электронный ресурс] http://www.kommersant.ru/ Doc/1485683.

2) How policemen are called in different countries and why? [Электронный ресурс]http://www.bolshoyvopros.ru/questions/496748-kak-nazyvajut-policejskih-v-raznyh-stranah-i-pochemu-imenno-tak.html

3) Why are British police officers called “Bobbies”? [Электронный ресурс] https://www.history.com/news/why-are-british-police-officers-called-bobbies

Код для цитирования: Скопировать