British "geezer" = American "gangster"?

[Jonathon Green]

Mike Speriosu wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mike Speriosu <speriosu at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      British "geezer" = American "gangster"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> While listening to a song by a recent British rap group called The
> Streets, I came across an instance of the word "geezer" that does not
> seem to mean "old man" in any way. Here are some lyrics from the song
> "Geezers Need Excitement":
>
>     Geezers need excitement
>     If their lives don't provide them this they incite violence
>     Common sense, simple common sense
>     ...
>     Geezers looking ordinary and a few looking leary
>     Chips fly round the sound of the latest chart entry
>
> And here are some lyrics from another song of theirs, "Who Got the Funk?":
>
>     Geezers geezers geezers
>     Who got the funk?
>     Original pirate material
>     Day in the life of a geezer
>     Crispy, rosco, England's glory
>     Uniq, locked on, Andy Lewis
>
>     All Birmingham geezers
>     All London heads
>     Barnet, Brixton, Beckenham
>     You're listening to The Streets
>     Original pirate material
>
> It seems to me (and the American friend who showed me these songs
> agreed) that "geezer" is used here to mean what we call a "gangster".
> Has anyone ever heard of this usage?
>
> I looked up "geezer" in the OED and found that it does not necessarily
> always mean "old man". Some of the examples even suggest this "gangster"
> usage:
>
>     "A geezer can't have an alibi for every minute of the day." (Greene,
> 1938)
>     "There's a geezer I know named Twisty Dodds, kind of a small-time
> crook you might call him." (Symons, 1958)
>
> It also seems possible that the term might sometimes be used in a much
> broader sense, along the lines of "chap" or "bloke", or perhaps "dude"
> in the American sense.
>
> Ideas?
>
> Mike Speriosu
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
No, a geezer is not a gangster. The Streets (one person rather than a
group, as it happens) is very much into charting the life of . .. a
geezer, in other words, an ordinary bloke. A gangster might be also be a
geezer, and quite possible referred to as such by by his fellow geezers,
and indeed gangsters (hence the OED cites), but geezer doesn't mean
gangster as such. As you suggest in your final par, it means a 'chap' or
'bloke'. The image is usually working-class, probably London or the
Cockney colonies of Essex, and could be, but doesn't have to be a bit of
a Jack the Lad. For echt-geezer-dom I recommend the lyrics of the late
and quite irreplacable Ian Dury. Those of 'Billericay Dickie' being
especially indicative of the type. So, there you are. Orright, my son?
As geezers are wont to say amongst themselves.

JG

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org