[Ads-l] Antedating of "G-man"

[Baker, John]

The OED has 1930 for the earliest use of "G-man," a U.S. federal law enforcement agent, and Dave Wilton yesterday posted an example from October 28, 1928, on wordorigins.org.  (Both note that there was earlier use for police detectives in Ireland.)  Here is an example a few months earlier, from the Chicago Daily Tribune, at 8, col. 1 (Feb. 16, 1928) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers), in an article captioned "The "G" Men":

"It is such cases as this that have given the agents of the federal department of justice and the federal postal inspectors their deserved reputations as officers who always get their men, reputations that have made the "G" men [government men] feared by criminals who thumb their noses at ordinary policemen."

The bracketed "[government men]" is in the article and provides further support for the view that this is the term's etymon, although the earlier and then still current use of the same term in Ireland naturally suggests an alternative origin (which, according to Dave, derives from the G Division, the detective division, of the Dublin Metropolitan Police).


John Baker





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