DICTIONARY OF CRIME 1
The first - but not the last - edition
Over the years, reading around our subject, I’ve picked up some vocabulary of the sort that is usually called ‘colourful’. I’ve never been convinced by that term. Words are sounds: rather than colourful, they are ‘percussive’; ‘jazzy’; ‘resonant’. I’ve always liked the word ‘euphonic’. But however we describe them, here’s a collection you might enjoy. Some of them are a blast.
More to come soon.
All terms are from the UK unless otherwise specified.
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A
Above snakes
Old West term meaning ‘still alive’, i.e., not yet buried.
Agitprop
Propaganda, especially Communist, in the form of ‘art’ of ‘literature’. The inverted commas are really necessary. ‘Agitator’ and ‘propagandist’ are apparently the same words in Russian.
All day
Life sentence. ‘All day and a night’ – life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Ambush
Excellent old-timey Western slang for scales used by crooked merchants. It refers to the way they ‘lie in weight’.
April
Cockney rhyming slang for ‘weapon’, by way of ‘April fool’ – ‘tool’.
B
Bacon head
Prison slang for paedophile.
Badgers
According to the New Universal English Dictionary of 1760, this is a ‘crew of desperate villains’ who threw the corpses of murder victims into a lake.
Barnaby
Cockney rhyming slang for ‘judge’, by way of the Charles Dickens novel, Barnaby Rudge. As in ‘The Barnaby’s the geezer what’s got a syrup on his barnet’ – literally, ‘The judge is the gentleman with the wig atop his head’.
Baron Samedi
Perhaps the best known loa in voodoo. Baron Samedi is usually depicted dressed all in black, with a top hat, and often dark glasses. He sometimes has a skull for a face. Included here because he’s known as the father of the underworld, who provides guidance in matters of life and death. He chooses who will live and who will die and makes sure that the line between life and death is never crossed.
Bear-garden discourse
According to the New Universal English Dictionary of 1760, this meant common, nasty, filthy talk.
Bird
Cockney rhyming slang for ‘time’ in prison, by way of ‘bird lime’.
Black hat
A ‘bad’ hacker, who gets unauthorised access to computer systems, presumably with ignoble intentions. Cf white hat
Black Strap
Sack dyed black so as to be more or less invisible at night, used by Light-Horsemen to carry sugar off Game-Ships.
Blind tiger
Illegal drinking establishment, or speakeasy, of the sort that flourished during American Prohibition.
Blue wall of silence
Notorious police-department code. It means not ratting out one’s colleagues, even if they probably deserve it.
Bluesnarf
Joining of the words ‘bluetooth’ and ‘snarf’ (meaning ‘steal’). It simply means to get data though some sort of unauthorised or illegal connection. Cf wardrive.
Bobby
Colloquial and rather affectionate name for police officers. The London Metropolitan Police was established by Sir Robert Peel, and the term derived from his name. See also Peeler
Bootleg
Noun - contraband material which has been illegally created, transported, or sold. Derives from smugglers’ habits of concealing bottles or flasks of liquor in the legs of their boots. Often used now in reference to music. Can also be used as an adjective, as in ‘Would you care to try this bootleg whisky?’ As a verb – to smuggle or otherwise deal in bootleg merchandise.
Bridle-cull
Flash term for highwayman.
Brothel-creepers
Thick-soled shoes, often with suede uppers, at one time very popular with Teddy Boys. The term probably originated with Second World War soldiers fighting in North Africa. When adopted by Russian youths, brothel-creepers became known as ‘shoes on semolina’.
Buccaneer
English name for pirates who worked around the Caribbean in the Golden Age of Piracy, especially around Haiti and Tortuga. It’s a corruption of the French word boucanier, which simply means ‘someone who uses a barbecue’. What a disappointing etymology that is.
Buck 50
US gang and prison slang, meaning Glasgow smile. The wound needs 150 stitches, hence the name. To real-estate and Wall Street types, it means $150 000; to fast drivers, 150 miles per hour.
Bumboo
Tasty-sounding beverage made of rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg, ubiquitous in the West Indies of the 17th and 18th centuries – a favourite of freebooters.
Bumpology
Derisive term used by modern psychologists to refer to phrenology, a pseudo-science used for centuries in an attempt to identify criminals by the bumps on their heads (among other things).
Bundle the cull of the ken
Flash term meaning to tie up the man of the house by neck and heels.
Bush ranger
Australia’s answer to the highwayman or footpad. The bush ranger generally worked on foot, rather than on horseback, and was sometimes treated, in that nation of admirable rebels, as something of an example to be followed.
Buttock
Flash term for street-walker. Buttock and file – a street-walker who is also a pickpocket.
C
Case
A verb meaning to watch a place extensively before committing to a robbery. Mostly commonly used in phrases like ‘case the joint’, where the ‘joint’ in question is a jug. See also git.
Cat road
Minor road of the sort used by Jazz Age yeggs to make their getaways. They were used extensively by Herman K ‘The Baron’ Lamm, the expert bank robber who never stuck up a joint he hadn’t thoroughly cased.
Chapbook
A small, cheaply-printed street publication, particularly common in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were usually made of a single sheet of paper folded numerous times. Although all kinds of literature could be printed as chapbooks – from ballads to children’s stories - they were often rather lurid in content, and found a big audience at executions. Some give them partial credit for disseminating the legends of highwaymen, among other semi-romantic criminal types. Chapbooks were so called because they were sold by chapmen, whom today we would call travelling salesmen.
Chib
As a noun, a bladed weapon; or, as a verb, to use such a weapon on a victim. Glasgow slang.
Chicago typewriter
One of the more poetical terms invented during the era of Al Capone. Lawmen were using the Thompson semi-automatic, and so were bandits and mobsters. The term refers to the sound the gun made: the repetitious rattle of metal on metal.
Cigar-store battery
Shop set up in the southern parts of Manhattan during the nineteenth century. They did not really sell cigars, no matter what your uncle told you he was nipping out for. Cigar-store batteries were fronts for small-scale brothels.
Clocker
Can refer to i) a car dealer who winds back the mileometer to make it look as if the car is newer than it really is, or ii) someone who times racehorses to try to work out their speed, or, iii) US street dealer in crack cocaine or heroin, who works around the clock, immortalised in Richard Price’s classic novel Clockers.
Clue-puzzle
The kind of murder-mystery fiction sometimes produced by Golden Age crime writers, in which the detective has to piece together the clues to finish the puzzle. There is little blood in such stories, but a lot of ‘little grey cells’.
Cockchafer
A noun that leaves little to the imagination. A treadmill was installed inside ‘Houses of Correction’. Prisoners were forced to climb 8,640 feet every day. The punishment did no earthly good whatever, and that was the point.
Community violence
A public act which causes harm: the perpetrator and the victim are strangers.
Conjo
Or, in voodoo, mojo. A small bag that contains the ingredients needed to cast a spell. Commonly it will involve such items as hair, coins, herbs, and so on.
Courts of Miracles (cours de miracles)
Hideouts of 17th or 18th-century Parisian criminals of every stripe, from prostitutes to pickpockets. So called because professional beggars who had been afflicted with all kinds of disabilities suddenly recovered their full health as soon as they arrived.
Crime corridor
The geography between Minnesota and Texas, that proved remarkably vulnerable to bank robberies, especially during the period 1925-32.
Crossing
In voodoo, calling on a spirit to bring bad luck or actual harm to one’s enemies. See also gris-gris.
D
Day plunderer
A man who would often help unload a ship for free, in the hope of making off with as much plunder as possible, often concealed in the crown of the hat or down the trousers. Also known as Heavy-horsemen. Cf Light-horseman.
Death-hunter
Late 18th and also 19th-century slang meaning, originally, an undertaker, and then, later, a journalist who wrote about murder.
Dechristianisation
A term invented during the French Revolution, meaning exactly what it sounds like: removing religion from the citizens’ lives. Churches were closed and priests forced to marry.
Deuce, The
Nickname for 42nd Street in Manhattan, once New York City’s pit of iniquity. ‘Deuce’ also, of course, means ‘devil’. Make of that what you will.
Diesel
Tea served in UK prisons.
Driving award
See paperwork.
Dub-lay
Obsolete slang for pickpocketing.
E
E-man
A person seeking lawful status who has tried to escape from prison.
Ecological validity
Jargon word used in Psychology and other, related, sciences, to mean the extent to which one’s findings apply in ‘the real world’, outside the laboratory.
Eye
Often used in hard-boiled fiction as a shortening of the phrase ‘private eye’. Used indelibly in Marc Behm’s novel, The Eye of the Beholder.
F
Fact
Once used in English law as a synonym for ‘crime’. The word derives from Roman law, which was concerned with the factum, meaning the deed, or crime. Once an English jury agreed on a fact, no one was allowed to argue. We use the word in the same way even now. Facts leave no room for argument.
Fanny Adams
Expression used colloquially to mean ‘nothing’ or ‘something of no value’. The macabre derivation is from a young girl who was the victim, it seems, or a man called Frederick Baker, who literally tore her body apart. Looking at their rations, sailors complained that they looked ‘just like Fanny Adams’.
Fetish
In voodoo or hoodoo, any object invested with magical powers. It might be a string with knots in it, an alligator tooth, graveyard dirt, or whatever else works.
Feux follet
In the American Deep South, lights in the sky that make travellers get lost. They may represent the souls of unbaptised children, or, alternatively, a soul banished from Hell.
File
Flash term for pickpocket.
Fish
Prison newbie
Flash
18th century English thieves’ cant or argot. It’s mostly obsolete now, but its influence can be felt in the language of English-speaking underworld in the UK and US, as well as in fantasy role-playing games. Also known as Peddlers’ French.
Footpad
Low-class highwayman who worked on foot, rather than on horseback. Cf. Bush ranger.
Foot scamperer
Another term for a footpad.
Freebooter
Cooler term for a pirate or other plunderer.
G
G-man
Name for FBI agents, apparently bestowed on them without their knowledge by American criminals of the 30s. FBI agents were apparently surprised when George ‘Machine-Gun’ Kelly surrendered to them (1933) shouting, ’Don’t shoot, G-men!’ They didn’t quite know who he was talking to. Reputedly, the ‘G’ stands for ‘government’. Even so, some place the origin of the term in Ireland, where it meant any sort of plainclothes detective. They claim that that the ‘G’ never stood for anything at all. The ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly story is better.
Game-ship
One targeted by Light-Horsemen.
Gammon
Flash term. Two or more people may be involved in pickpocketing. The file steals the victim’s wallet while others jostled them about, so that they don’t notice. Those who do the jostling were known as Gammons.
Gauldry
In Scotland, a row of houses leading up to the gallows. The Gauldry (with the definite article) is a small town in Fife. That ‘d’ has been present in the name only for a couple of hundred years.
Git
Getaway map as used by Jazz Age bank robbers and other yeggs. Like cat roads, gits were championed by Herman K ‘The Baron’ Lamm, one of the greatest of the yeggs.
Glasgow kiss
Headbutt in the face. Cf Liverpool kiss. See also: Glasgow smile
Glasgow smile
Scarring left behind by a knife-wound to the face, running from the corners of the mouth towards the ears. Also known as a ‘buck 50’.
Golden Age fiction
Mostly-British school of crime fiction, usually dates to about 1913. Golden Age fiction dealt in clues and puzzles and sometimes clue-puzzles. Authors include Marjorie Allingham, Dorothy L Sayers, and Agatha Christie.
Grass-eater
Cop (particularly in the NYPD) who takes part in minor corruption. Cf meat-eater.
Gris-gris
Usually a bag filled with stuff like nail clippings or herbs, used in voodoo to ward off bad luck, perhaps from crossing.
H
Hard-boiled fiction
School that grew up in the USA in the early decades of the 20th century, in reaction to Golden Age fiction. The work was more intense and realistic than anything that had appeared in crime fiction before. Writers like Hammett, Chandler, and James M Cain wrote about what it was like to fight, blackmail, or kill, or to investigate the crimes.
Harman
Flash term for police constable. See also Bobby and Peeler.
Heave a booth
Flash term for burgling a house.
Hoover flag
Pocket turned inside out. The idea is to show that you have no money and are therefore an unpromising target for thieves. Named after the American President who presided over the Great Depression. Cf. Hooverville
Hooverville
American version of a shantytown, erected during the Great Depression. Cf. Hoover flag
Hot-sheet motel
One usually paid for by the hour, used by sex workers and their clients.
I
Ice
Almost no word has more criminal associations: i) diamonds, particularly ones taken in a heist, given the resemblance of diamonds to ice cubes ii) to kill someone, especially when it is a gangland hit iii) either of the drugs, ecstasy or crystal meth iv) money taken off the gross before it is officially counted (or skim) v) (archaic) to escape quickly from the scene of a crime.
J
J-cat
American prison slang for an inmate who is suffering some form of psychological disorder.
Jack Ketch
Inept executioner of the 17th century. His name was used after his death to refer to executioners in general. ‘Jack Ketch’s necklace’ came to mean the noose.
Jackrabbit parole
American term meaning a runaway escape from the clutches of the law.
Jam sandwich
Now-outdated UK colloquialism for a police car, derived from the distinctive appearance: white with a horizontal red stripe.
Jug
Jazz-Age term for a bank.
Jug marker
Member of a gang of yeggs whose job was to case a jug before the robbery.
K
Kanga
Cockney rhyming slang for prison officer, by way of ‘kangaroo’ – screw.
Keister
Verb: a less-than-hygienic way of smuggling contraband into prison.
KG
‘Known Gambler’. This phrase seems to be used especially to refer to corrupt American cops.
Kite
Prisoner’s note passed to others by surreptitious means.
Knight of the High Toby
Highwayman.
L
L-WOP
American prison slang: Life WithOut Possibility of Parole. Cf all day.
Lane of shame
In Italy – home of speedsters - the part of the motorway where people drive if they want to stick to the legal speed limit.
Lead poisoning
Old West euphemism meaning shot, as in, ‘The saloon had three men for breakfast today. They all died of lead poisoning’.
Leather slapping
The drawing of a handgun from a holster, usually applied with reference to gunmen of the Old West.
Legend
Term used by the CIA. It means the cover for an operation, or the operation itself. Likely to refer to a ‘false biography’ of a spy or other agent in the field. Edward Jay Epstein used the word for the title of his book about Lee Harvey Oswald.
Light-Horseman
Man who worked as part of a gang at the London docks. They would bribe the watchmen to let them on board Game Ships, usually from the West Indies, and stole sugar. They usually resealed the casks so that the crime would not be noticed straight away.
Liverpool kiss
Appears to be an earlier, English, version of the Glasgow kiss.
Loa
Also known as the ‘invisibles’. They are the thousands of spirits in voodoo who mediate between human beings and Bondye (or God). The first Christians to encounter voodoo misunderstood loa, and suspected that they were equivalent to the demons from their own religion. The best known of the loa is Baron Samedi.
LOB
Abbreviation sometimes written by police officers on transcripts of testimony that does not appear to be necessarily wholly truthful. Stands for Load Of Bollocks.
Longrider
Wild West outlaw or bandit, so called because they spent a lot of time escaping on horseback from the law, perhaps in order to avoid a necktie party.
Lot lizard
Sex workers or prostitutes who make a living in America’s huge truck-stops. Murder is said to be the leading cause of death for American sex workers. You can probably double or triple the risk when it comes to lot lizards.
Lumper
Labourer in London who worked at unloading ships. There were so many stages to this process that there were multiple opportunities for theft, most of which seem to have been taken.
M
Man for breakfast
Term used by settlers in the Old West for a murdered body found at dawn. One could rate the safety of various drinking establishments in the early days of, say, Los Angeles, by saying how many men they had for breakfast this week.
Meat-eater
Cop (particularly in the NYPD) who is exceptionally corrupt. Cf. grass-eater.
Mill ken
Flash term for housebreaker.
Missouri toothpick
A long sharp knife.
Molly whop
American prison slang. A beating, either given or received.
Mugger money
Small quantity of cash carried in a readily-accessible pocket to hand to muggers in the hope they might go away without investigating whether you also have a wallet, purse, money belt, etc.
N
Necktie party
Hanging or lynching in the Wild West.
Ninja turtle
American term referring to a correctional officer wearing riot gear.
O
OG
Respectful term for experienced criminal or prisoner. Acronym for Original Gangster.
Oil
Obsolete American bank robbers’ term for nitro-glycerine.
Old Nick; Old Scratch
The devil.
On the shoot
Cowboy term meaning ‘looking for trouble’.
Out, The
The world outside prison.
Owl Hoot Trail
Wild-West outlaw lifestyle.
P
Pad
Regular, systematic pay-off to police. I haven’t seen this term used except with reference to the NYPD.
Padmate
The person in the same prison cell as you.
Paperwork
US trucker slang for a speeding ticket.
Peddlers’ French
Another word for flash.
Peeler
Colloquial term name for police officer, rarely heard nowadays. For derivation, see Bobby.
Pennyweighter
Someone who stole small amounts of gold from a mine in he American West.
Person seeking lawful status
Euphemism for prisoner.
Petite maison
Literally ‘small house’. Property used by financially-unembarrassed French noblemen for meeting mistresses and prostitutes.
Pocket advantage
Small gun carried half-cocked in the coat pocket so that it can be drawn and fired before one’s opponent has time to react. Term from the Wild West.
Pop
Verb, meaning to use oil or other explosives to open a bank vault door without express permission of the manager.
Q
Quality of life crimes
Those that are not necessarily all that dangerous or even feared, but which do exactly what the name implies – spoil citizens’ everyday experience of the world. They include public urination, vandalism, and graffiti-spraying.
R
Rakehell
Obsolete 16th century term for a wealthy or fashionable gentleman whose habits were less than upright or respectable.
Resurrection Man
Grave-robber of the same approximate era as Burke and Hare. Not nearly as nice as it sounds.
Ring faller
Criminal of the 16th century, who would drop worthless rings in front of impressionable folk and file them when they bent over to pick the rings up.
Roadman
More modern than it sounds. A street-smart fellow (at least, he knows what street he lives on).
Rookery
Common term for a slum in (especially) Victorian London, known as a breeding-ground for crime and an inexhaustible labyrinth for criminals fleeing the law.
RTFL
A reminder among police officers to familiarise themselves with events since their last shift: ‘Read The Fucking Log’.
Rumfustian
A hot drink reputedly popular among Caribbean pirates. The indiscriminate list of ingredients includes beer, gin, and sherry; eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and probably the ship’s cat and some gunpowder too.
Running Smabble
Flash term for an unsophisticated crime, whereby a thief would run into a shop at night, blow out the candle, and steal anything he or she could get their hands on.
S
Satan’s Circus
40th Street south to 24th, between Fifth and Seventh Avenues in Manhattan, once notorious for its brothels.
Screw
Slang for prison warder. The term derives from the crank that prisoners used to have in their cells. They had to turn the crank a certain number of times in order to get fed (‘If a man will not work,’ it was said, ‘neither shall he eat’). The handle just dragged a paddle through some gravel. As the prisoner grew stronger, the warder could tighten the ‘screw’ on the outside of the wall to make the job more difficult. Cf Kanga
Scuffle-hunter
Type of portside manual labourer in London who tended to be engaged in actively stealing merchandise rather than loading it off or onto merchant ships. A scuffle-hunter would wear a large apron in which to conceal stolen goods. They were tremendously effective and expensive in the years before the River Police.
Shitbird
Originally a colloquial military term for a useless and ignorant person, now spread to civilian life. The term may have been used more frequently by the crime novelist James Ellroy than by everyone else added together.
Skim
Noun: money taken off the gross before anyone sees it, or, verb, to take money off the top. See also ice.
Slammer
Prison
Slum jewellery
Fake Rolex watches, imitation-gold chains, etc.
Slum the ken
Flash term meaning break into the house
Smoke wagon
Revolver of the kind used in the Wild West.
Smokey bear
CB-radio speak for police officer. Gives us the following: Bear bite – speeding ticket Bear cave – Police station Bear in the air – police helicopter
Snakehead
People smuggler, often Chinese, who specialises in routes to the West.
Social bandit
Criminal identified by Marxist historians, who view certain crimes as micro-mutinies against the state. Social bandits are as much legend as flesh and blood. They have certain powers - such as invisibility - and a promise to return after death to save their agrarian communities from the unjustified encroachments of modern, capitalistic, power. Examples include Scotland’s Rob Roy, India’s Rangine, and America’s Jesse James.
Swedish Desperado, The
John Yegg. The Swedish Desperado was perhaps the first to extract nitro-glycerine – or oil – from dynamite for the purpose of safe-cracking. Alcohol led him into bank robbery and alcohol kept him there.
T
Tail Drawer
Flash term for man who steals your sword while you are actually wearing it.
Thieftaking
Practice perfected by the London criminal, Jonathan Wild, who made himself rich turning criminals in and collecting the reward for crime that (often) he himself had conceived and plotted.
Time to feed the warden
American prison slang – the need to urinate.
Triggernometry
The art of gunmanship, especially in the Old West. Gunfighters were experts in leather slapping.
Trollfolk
Norse word originally meaning ‘witches’, but which came to mean something closer to ‘those who live in the forest’, or, in English, ‘trolls’.
Trunk music
A corpse put into the back of a car. The corpse probably belonged to someone who got on the wrong side of organised criminals. The term seems to refer to the gurgling noise that the corpse makes when it has been left for a long time.
Truther
Conspiracy theorist who wants to reveal the ‘truth’ behind some large event that certain forces have tried to cover up. The term is closely associated with ‘moon truthers’, who believe that human beings have never landed on the Moon. There are also ‘9/11 truthers’.
Twocer
Someone who Takes Without Owner’s Consent. Generally refers to car crime.
U
Undies
Undercover police officers, of course.
V
Vakabon
Much like English ‘vagabond’. This Creole word means something like ‘rascal’ or ‘troublemaker’.
W
Wardrive
Sounds much more exciting than it is. It just means to drive around looking for vulnerabilities in wifi, in order to steal passwords and such.
White hat
A ‘good’ hacker, who tests out the security of computer system. Cf black hat
Whizzer
Pickpocket – one who could get away quickly.
Wife-beater
Short-sleeved, often dirty, undershirt, properly known as A-style. There are various stories about how the shirt got its name. One, from 1947, refers to a Detroit man named James Hartford who beat his wife to death and was photographed wearing an A-style shirt as he emerged from their home. Even before that, Hollywood had started to use the A-shirt as a shorthand way of conveying certain of a character’s traits to the audience, however. Hollywood again – Bruce Willis wears one almost the whole way through the movie Die Hard.
‘With great power comes great responsibility’
In the case of most authors who have had a decided and notable effect on the culture, on can quote a few lines. In the case of Stan Lee, the man who – to a much-debated extent – was behind Marvel’s caped crimefighters, that is not the case. If pushed, most comics fans could only come up with this phrase, which will forever be linked to Spider-Man. It’s not what Stan Lee wrote, though. He wrote: ‘[…] in this world, with great power must also come – great responsibility!’ The phrase, or versions of it, appeared, before Stan Lee, in a decree from the French National Convention (1793) as well as in the works of Churchill (1906) and Roosevelt (1945).
X
X’d out
American, gang-related. Comes from the term ‘crossed out’ – like the name of a rival gang member that someone has been authorised to murder.
Y
Yegg (sometimes ‘yeggman’)
American bank-robber or robber of some other large financial institution, especially during the 1920s. The most famous yegg was John Dillinger. Given lots of public support and a degree of hero worship, they were the social bandits of their era. Probably named for ‘the Swedish Desperado’ John Yegg, who was one of the first Western bank-robbers. Yegg was an engineer who perfected the use of oil in blowing safes.
Yellow journalism
Sensationalist and poorly-researched; focussed on crime and other spectacular subjects; designed to sell newspapers.
Yo ho ho
A phrase that pirates didn’t use. It was invented by the great writer Robert Louis Stevenson especially for his novel, Treasure Island, which is responsible for a lot of our mistaken pirate lore. He just liked the sound.
Z
Zombi
Not quite what you think - Zombi is identified by one expert as a ‘voodoo snake deity in the Southern United States’ (Bodin, Ron: Voodoo – Past & present)
Zombie
A police officer who is either lazy, close to retirement, or both.