The railroad cop is 100% wrong about “cop”. “Cop” is an English colloquialism for “catch”, deried from West Frisian kāpia, “to take away”, and is related to German kaufen, “to buy”. A copper is someone who cops a criminal, and the word was informally shortened back to “cop”.Almost any time a word is supposed to derive from an acronym, that etymology is probably wrong. There are some genuine modern examples, like laser, sonar, radar and scuba, but most older words sometimes said to come from acronyms do not. Some examples:“for unlawful carnal knowledge”“gentlemen only, ladies forbidden”“port out, starboard home”“special high-intensity training”“store high in transit”
The railroad cop is 100% wrong about “cop”. “Cop” is an English colloquialism for “catch”, deried from West Frisian kāpia, “to take away”, and is related to German kaufen, “to buy”. A copper is someone who cops a criminal, and the word was informally shortened back to “cop”.Almost any time a word is supposed to derive from an acronym, that etymology is probably wrong. There are some genuine modern examples, like laser, sonar, radar and scuba, but most older words sometimes said to come from acronyms do not. Some examples:“for unlawful carnal knowledge”“gentlemen only, ladies forbidden”“port out, starboard home”“special high-intensity training”“store high in transit”