where did this originate? I know it is short for private detective but why shorten it to 'dick'?
Didn't anyone think it was an odd term at the time? Or did 'dick' not mean the same thing in the 40s/50s? The same way that 'gay' means something different then as to now.
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sharehttps://www.quora.com/How-did-the-term-private-dick-for-a-private-investigator-originate
The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang [1], however, suggests an entirely different origin for "dick," one that I find very plausible. They trace the noun "dick" in the "detective" sense to the 19th century (around 1864) criminal underworld slang verb "to dick," meaning "to watch." This "dick" came in turn from the Romany (the language of the Gypsies) word "dik," meaning "to look, to see." This is significant because the Gypsies, originally from northern India, played a prominent role in the British underworld in the 18th and 19th centuries, and several Romany words (including "posh") percolated into general English usage during that period. One can easily imagine "dick" meaning "to watch" being transformed into a noun that means "one who watches, a police detective, etc." It is even possible that the popularity of Dick Donovan tales at the time contributed to the spread of the term "dick" among the law-abiding (and mystery-reading) public.
Since the name Richard was often shortened to Dick one can assume that the dick as slang didn't appear until the 60's-70's.
I love reading history and have read several books on President Richard Millhouse Nixon.
He has had a long political career, I am fairly sure that the nickname 'Tricky Dick' did not occur until Watergate.
> I am fairly sure that the nickname 'Tricky Dick' did not occur until Watergate.
No, I think it goes back to one of his runs for the Senate.
A few years ago I went to England for the first time. (I'm from the USA.) While at a restaurant with some friends I saw this on the menu:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick
I had never heard of it until that moment. My British friends were quite amused at my reaction.
Also interesting that 'pudding' means dessert, not just what Americans think of pudding (a mousse like dessert).
shareI remember someone telling me about an American guy studying with a British girl and she asked him if he had a rubber (eraser).
shareThere was some show on British TV a few years ago, I can't remember the name. This was after my trip to the UK, and I had discovered that I could watch the BBC from here (USA) using a VPN. Anyway, this particular show was about bizarre individuals. I suspect the people portrayed weren't real but actors doing scripted parts, but that made it no less fun.
One was an 18 year old gal who liked to use a baby's pacifier. Apparently the British call a pacifier a "dummy." So here's this young woman, quite attractive and dressed as such, shown walking around, going about her daily affairs with a pacifier in her mouth. Meanwhile she's narrating, saying over and over how she loves to "suck a dummy." My American ears couldn't believe what they were hearing. I could only think, "somewhere in the UK there's a very lucky idiot."
It went beyond film noir. In 1969, an Adam-12 episode was titled "Log 131: Reed, the Dicks Have Their Jobs, and We Have Ours" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0505300/
Now I'm wondering ... was there ever such a thing as a "public dick?"
Not that the term would have been used but to me a "Public Dick" would be a Police Detective as opposed to a Private Detective/P.I.
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