The Sanas of Ceap, Cop, and Copper

[Daniel Cassidy]

The Sanas of Ceap and Cop and Copper

A Chairde:

The traditional etymologies of "cop," as both verb and a noun, and "copper" 
in American and English standard reference works all differ as to their source 
and origin. 

The Dictionary of American Slang (Wentworth and Flexner) states that the noun 
"cop" it is from the "copper" badges of the police and that the verb "to cop" 
is from the Yiddish "chop;" the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology states 
"cop" is from an "obscure" Old English word "cap," from  Old French. caper 
seize - Latin, capere.

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Dictionary of American Slang


Cop n. A policeman. ; DAE, 1902: "De Cops cast o'er de edifice/ Protectin' 
care (if you puts up de price)." Coley, " The Rubiyat of the Lower East Side, " 
49 ff. )

"From the copper buttons once used on police uniforms... Orig. derogatory, 
implying the speaker's superiority to law and order; now by far the most common 
word for a policeman."   

Cop. v.t. :1. To steal; to obtain; to deprive. 1949: "Don't buy it; I'll cop 
it for you." Oral. From Yiddish "chop" = to grab. 

2. To win, carry off a prize. 1941. "‘Green Pastures' copped the Pulitzer 
Prize..." T.M. Pryar in NYT, Sept. 3, X3/8.

3. To understand, perceive, comprehend; to consider.

Copper n. 1. A Policeman; esp. a tough policeman...1848: S.I. DAE. 1900: 
"Look at the copper watchin'."  Dreiser, Carrie, 431.

2. An informer, a stool pigeon. 

(Dictionary of American Slang, Wentworth, Flexner, p. 122, NY, 1960.) 

The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology

Cop, v. Slang. capture, catch, nab, steal. 1704, perhaps a variant of 
obsolete cap to arrest (1589); borrowed from Middle French caper seize...The informal 
phrase cop out to escape, withdraw, drop out appeared in Amercian English 
(about 1967), probably from earlier slang meaning to plead guilty, esp. to a 
lesser charge in order to avoid a trial, chiefly in the phrase cop a plea (about 
1925).

Cop n. Informal. policeman. 1859, prob. a shortening of earlier copper 
policeman (1846), from cop, v. to capture + -er.   

(Barnhart, p. 219)



Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology

Cop (sl.) Catch; capture. XVIII. Of north. dial. origin; prob. variant of cap 
arrest, seize (VVI) - OF. caper seize - L. capere (see Capture) Hence cop and 
copper policeman, XIX. (Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, p. 213, 
Oxford, 1978.)

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Now please see the various definitions of the Irish word ceap     (pron.k'ap 
(FP), in both O'Donaill's (1995) and Dineen's (1926) Irish-English 
Dictionaries, which fit the definitions given to both the verb "cop" and the noun  "cop" 
in the various English "slang" dictionaries. 


Ceap, (pron. k'ap) v.t. & i. (pp. ~tha; vn. ceapadh): 
1. Stop, catch, seize, control; 
2. block path of; 
3. think, compose, invent, imagine, resolve, determine on; 

4. form, fashion.
ceapaim m'aigne chuige, I make up my mind to it
cheapas im aigne go, 
I imagined that; 
5. build up, bring about, cause, effect.

Ceapadh, (pron. k'apawh), -ptha, vl., m., 
act of seizing, controlling, stopping; 
thinking; thought, idea, notion; 
ní raibh aon ceapadh agam go; 
I did not in the least imagine that (Con.); 
suspicion; act of forming...

(Dineen,  p.178; OD, p. 209)

Ceapadh, (k'apawh) vt. & i.  : Block path of; stop, catch. 

Ainmhí a cheapadh, to head off an animal. 
Lathroid a cheapadh, to field a ball. 
Cheap  se/  e/  fe/in, he checked, restrained himself. 
Cheap an abhainn sinn, the river blocked our path.   

(OD p.209)  

Ceap seems to ceap top honors as a  doozer (duaiseoir, prize winner)  of a 
candidate for the post 18th century source of cop, in all its guises and 
meanings, from a cop coppin' a plea  to assault over a bag of steak fajitas in San 
Francisco, or a cop copping a prize for valor in NYC, on September 11, 2001.

Hopefully, "The Academy" will finally cop to the fact that the Irish language 
has had an enormous hidden influence on the language and "slang" of America 
and the Atlantic world. 



Sanas: a hint, a suggestion; special knowledge; occult knowledge; a glossary; 
etymology.  Sanas Cormaic, a famous early medieval work of Irish Sanas.

Peace and Sanas,

Daniel Cassidy
Director
The Irish Studies Program
New College of California
San Francisco
7.20.03