billy

[prettygoodword]

billy or billy club (BIL-ee) - n., a short rounded wooden club; esp., a police officer's club or baton.


There's many other meanings for billy, but this is club week so I'm only running this sense. For all of them, however, the origin is obscure but speculated to each derived (separately) from the male given name Billy, diminutive of William, though exactly how/why is entirely unclear.


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.

Comments

[lilysea]

In 1860 William was slang for a penis - and the club is roughly penis shaped - could this have been the mechanism?

[prettygoodword]

I haven't seen any suggestion of that in the dictionaries. For some senses, the Scots billie = comrade/friend seems a likely connection, though probably not for this one.

[movingfinger]

More likely from billet, I think.

[prettygoodword]

Huh. I've not seen any such suggestion.

[full_metal_ox]

Here’s a discussion on a Guardian forum on the etymology of the term “Old Bill” for the London Metropolitan Police; a couple commenters mention Cockney rhyming slang vectoring it off into “bill and coo” and “billet-doux.” Vernacular linguistic evolution often refuses to provide One True Answer.

https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-23636,00.html#:~:text=The%20term%20refers%20only%20to,where%20approriate%20for%20many%20years.

[prettygoodword]

Figures.