Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 29 views

    COP (Verb, Noun)

    Uploaded by

    Anna San José
    This document defines and provides context around the word "cop" and its various meanings. It can mean to seize or get something, to back out of a responsibility, or refer informally to a police officer. In UK slang, it can mean capture or refer to something not being very good. The word originated from northern English dialects meaning to seize or catch and dates back to the early 18th century.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    COP (Verb, Noun)

    Uploaded by

    Anna San José
    29 views8 pages
    This document defines and provides context around the word "cop" and its various meanings. It can mean to seize or get something, to back out of a responsibility, or refer informally to a police officer. In UK slang, it can mean capture or refer to something not being very good. The word originated from northern English dialects meaning to seize or catch and dates back to the early 18th century.

    Original Description:

    Lexical analysis COP

    Original Title

    Cop

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document defines and provides context around the word "cop" and its various meanings. It can mean to seize or get something, to back out of a responsibility, or refer informally to a police officer. In UK slang, it can mean capture or refer to something not being very good. The word originated from northern English dialects meaning to seize or catch and dates back to the early 18th century.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    29 views8 pages

    COP (Verb, Noun)

    Uploaded by

    Anna San José
    This document defines and provides context around the word "cop" and its various meanings. It can mean to seize or get something, to back out of a responsibility, or refer informally to a police officer. In UK slang, it can mean capture or refer to something not being very good. The word originated from northern English dialects meaning to seize or catch and dates back to the early 18th century.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 8

    COP (verb, noun)

    /kɑp/
    Meanings
    • To cop means ‘to seize’ or ‘get’.
    • Followed by out, it means ‘to avoid a
    responsibility’ or ‘to back out of a promise.”
    • Unrelatedly, you might have heard that cop is an
    informal word for a police officer and, in this
    sense, the word is sometimes used figuratively
    about a person who wants to regulate an activity
    or behavior.
    • In UK slang, often in the expression “a fair cop,” it
    means capture and, always in the negative (most
    often in the expression “not much cop”), it means
    that something isn’t much good or isn’t of much
    value.
    Example sentences
    • Gillian was furious to discover that Andy had copped the
    promotion she wanted.
    • You promised you'd do it; you can't cop out now.
    • Brad was speeding and got pulled over by a cop.
    • What are you wearing? Someone should call the
    fashion cops about that outfit!
    • The police caught the burglar with the stolen goods on him,
    so he can't say it's not a fair cop.
    • I don't know why there was so much *hype about that film;
    personally, I didn't think it was much cop.

    • */haɪp/exaggerated publicity, advertising, or promotion


    Words often used with cop
    • cop a plea (mainly US, informal): to plead guilty in
    order to get a lighter sentence or to plead guilty to a
    lesser charge in an attempt to have more serious
    charges dropped. Example: “The police had too much
    evidence on the gang boss, so he decided to cop a
    plea.”
    • cop a squat (US, slang, dated): take a seat. Example:
    “Come on in and cop a squat!”
    • cop it (UK, slang): get in trouble. Example: “When Mum
    finds out you’ve broken the window, you’re really going
    to cop it!”
    • cop off with someone (UK, slang): to begin an amorous
    relationship with someone. Example: “Apparently, Liz
    copped off with Dan at the party on Saturday night.”
    In pop culture

    • There are lots of TV shows featuring cops and


    you may be familiar with the expression good
    cop, bad cop. It refers to an interview
    technique where one police officer is kind and
    friendly to the suspect and the other is very
    hard on them. Of course, the technique does
    depend on both cops agreeing which of them
    is good cop and which is bad cop.
    Did you know?

    • Now archaic, although you might find it in the


    names of some places or in some dialects, in
    UK English, cop used to mean the top or
    summit of anything and, by extension, the
    head or the crest of a bird’s head. From this
    meaning developed a related meaning, which
    is still used, as a conical mass of yarn wound
    on a spindle.
    Origin
    • Cop dates back to the very early 18th century. It comes
    from a northern English dialect, where it meant ‘to seize or
    catch,’ much like the Scots verb cap means ‘to seize,’ and an
    obsolete northern English word, cap, meant ‘to arrest.’ Its
    origin is uncertain, but some linguists think it came from
    the Old French caper (to take), from the Latin capere (to
    take) and the Proto-Indo-European root kap– (to grasp).
    Others think it may have come from the Dutch kapen (to
    take), which itself can be traced back to the Old
    Frisian capia (to buy), and is related to the Old
    English ceapian (cheap). The noun cop, as slang for a police
    officer, dates back to the mid-19th century. It is a shorter
    form of copper, which appeared a few years earlier, and
    comes from the verb. The expression cop out dates back to
    the mid-20th century, and was originally US slang. It
    probably evolved from cop a plea, which dates back to the
    1920s, and uses the verbcop with its original meaning, as
    well as being related to the police sense.

    You might also like