British "geezer" = American "gangster"?

[Joel S. Berson]

It wasn't clear to me, as the dialog on Midsomer
Murders flashed by, whether "Diamond Geezers" was
a reference to the title of the film that the
murdered actor had appeared in, or to the members
of the gang.  But the context clearly was that
crime was associated with that film, so I thought it was worth posting.

Thanks for the information that "diamond geezer"
means "good fella"*, but can someone tell me what
the character of the DVD's "Diamond Geezer"
is?  And while I don't want to "require" Jonathon
G. to do anything, I am curious about its appearance in MM.

Joel

* Just a pun; I'm not (re-)claiming any mob connotation for "geezer."

At 2/12/2007 04:06 AM, Jonathon Green wrote:
>Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the
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>>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 1950s­60s) 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
>
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