"leatherhead"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/1/2010 11:04 AM, George Thompson wrote:
> > First, George:  I'm wondering how you decided upon the sense "watchman".
>
>Because the boy was being tried for an assault upon watchmen.

I had asked because that sense was not in the OED, the only source I
have readily at hand.  (And the lad could have been calling a
constable a "blockhead".  I've wanted to at times myself.)  From
Victor Steinbeck's posting, I learn it is in Farmer (1896), and
Victor gives additional quotations, from 1838 and later.  I agree
your quotation is "watchman".

Victor also found "leatherhead" with, apparently, the sense of
"blockhead' from 1800, "browsing HAN at BPL", two years earlier than
my find, searching "EAN", a part of "AHN".  A momentary minor
puzzlement why my search didn't turn up the 1800.  I had forgotten
that EAN searches for complete words, not strings, and had not also
searched for "leatherheadS"!  (I also did not remember to try with
and without a hyphen, which EAN also does not ignore.)

More on "leatherhead" as "watchman, constable, policeman" in a moment.

Joel

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