clinker = "jail"

[Laurence Horn]

Reminds me--I was going to check, after visiting "The Clink" on the
South Bank in London a few years ago, to see if it really is the
origin of the generic slang term for prisons the way the tour claims.
Just checking the OED and HDAS now, I see they do endorse this
story--restores one's faith in tourist hucksterism.  (Although
according to Grose, it seems like the nickname of that particular
prison in turn derives from the clinking sound of the prisoners'
chains.)  "The clinker" would be one more link on the etymological
chain.

LH

At 10:39 AM -0700 8/24/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>HDAS encountered only two exx. of this variant of  "[the] clink,"
>one from 1935 and an oral example in 1983.  Here's a third:
>
>   2007 _Fox News Live_ (FNC TV) (Aug. 24): Lindsay Lohan is headed
>to the clinker after reaching a plea deal on drunken driving and
>cocaine charges.
>
>   Google Groups offers one app. from Singapore:
>
>   2005 _Usenet: soc.culture.singapore_
>[http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.singapore/msg/3e1ce47fa7ed13a4]
>(Feb. 1): High Court Judge's son goes to the clinker.
>
>   And from a prominent dramatist:
>
>   1941 Tennessee Williams in _The Selected Letters of Tennessee
>Williams_  I (ed. Devlin & Tischler) (New Directions) 310: They
>would pick me up for vagrancy and Langner would have to bail me out
>of the clinker.
>
>   JL
>
>
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