British "geezer" = American "gangster"?

[Jonathon Green]

Joel S. Berson wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: British "geezer" = American "gangster"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Some support for the "gangster" sense:
>
> On this evening's Biography channel repeat of the Midsomer Murders'
> episode "A Tale of Two Hamlets", the first (so far) murder victim, an
> actor, was known for a role in a film or series about East End
> gangsters called  "The Diamond Geezers".
>
>
I'm sorry, but the title 'diamond geezers' offers no support whatsoever
for the geezer = gangster hypothesis. It is, on the other hand, no more
than a pun - I assume diamond smuggling or some such plot lies behind it
- for the popular, cliched even, phrase 'diamond geezer' in which
'geezer' means, as usual 'bloke' and 'diamond' is used adjectivally to
mean ' first-rate', 'excellent' or, to use something more East End,
'top'. It does _not_ mean, as I assume you are suggesting, a gangster
involved with diamonds. So I doubt very much that it is an 'inside
joke', merely, as I say, a pun on a cliche. (Though, as regards the
possible joke, I could, if required, ask a friend who writes MM episodes
- and long before that _Minder_, for those who enjoyed that slang-heavy
series - and who might have done this one.)

A couple of examples, there are many others.

1989 (context 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett _Little Legs_ 133: Jack
Alexander was a diamond of a geezer

2004 Noel 'Razor' Smith _A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun_ 478: There
goes Razor Smith, he’s a diamond geezer

JG

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