The Lady In Red
…and the gentleman with a hat. Code for Charlee and Russ are slobs again on a Friday! A Red tattered U.B.C. (never been there) sweatshirt for me. A Huatulco (been in that bar) in Mexico, ball cap for Russ!
Apparently I was stylin’ though. Clear listener Don from Maple Ridge e-mailed to tell us about Red Fridays. ’Support Our Troops’ items in red, including sweats, ball caps and more, are available on-line at www.redfridays.ca and at Sears stores. When I’m out shopping for my spring wardrobe, I’ll paint the mall Red for our troops!
Today our phrase of the week was ‘Cop An Attitude’.
Meaning
Adopt an aggressive or antagonistic bearing.
Origin
This follows on from previous ‘cop’ phrases:
Copped it - to be caught or be in trouble, recorded from 1884.
Cop a feel - to fondle sexually, recorded from 1935.
Cop on with - associate with, recorded from 1940.
Cop here is the slang term meaning ‘to catch, take hold of, pick up’. This is the most probable source of cop as the slang term for police officer incidentally, i.e. copper is ‘one who cops’.
*** Clear listener Jeff, former officer, suggests it’s as simple as an acronym. Constable On Patrol. ***
With both ‘cop’ and ‘attitude’ being heavily used slang terms in the 1980s, it’s no big surprise that the first printed citation of ‘cop an attitude’ is from the Oakland Tribune, February 1976, advertising platform shoes:
“Cop an attitude, with altitude - dressy slip-ons… “
The nature of that reference implies the reader would already be familiar with the term. As street slang, it may well have been in circulation for some time before 1976.
~Source ~ cut & pasted from The Phrase Finder
Enjoy the last weekend of March, and hopefully the last of the snow!
Charlee
“Your confession, in the time of confusion, determines your conclusion. Be a positive confessor.”
— Author Unknown —— Nigeria