Shaw Taylorism keeps 'em peeled

[hirez]

Two things about the bizzies, like.

i) Since when has it been BBC policy to refer to "the p'lice" rather than "the police"? Sort it out you slack-jawed estuary scum.

ii) On the other hand, "polis" is a wonderful word. However, I'm unsure of pronunciation or origin. Any clues, oh internet sages and onions?

Comments

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Since when has it been BBC policy to refer to "the p'lice" rather than "the police"?

Probably ever since David Mellor referred to being "gu'ed" in an interview, which was around 1993.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Dear lord. It took me a couple of minutes to work out what that word may have been. Bally fellow should have been horsewhipped by his English teacher.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

"Cabinet minister horsewhipped", Schlock, Horror,

Would that be in the Fulham or the Chelsea strip?

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

POHL-iss. Best spoken in the accent of Rab C. Nesbitt or Mark McManus.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

And indeed by Ronnie Corbett in "The Worm That Turned".

No, I don't know why I remember that either.

[(Anonymous)]

POHL? As in Frederick?

Pole'iss, with the P a sharp one, the 'i approximating an Hampshire 'eh'/'i' simultaneous with a glo'al stop, and a sybilant, near pantomime hiss.

As my IP suggests, it's frae Scotland.

[miss-glitch.livejournal.com]

I've only ever seen it used in Irvine Welsh novels, so assume it's a Scottish colloquialism. I'd guess it'd be pronounced 'POLL-iss' but not being Scottish I'm probably wrong.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

More "Poe-lis'" than "Poll-iss".

[quercus.livejournal.com]

Poe-lis. The division of the Fashion Police that deal with velvet and lace cuffs?

[miss-glitch.livejournal.com]

That's the problem with reading too many books and not speaking to enough people :)

[grega.livejournal.com]

Polis is Scottish, more Glaswegian/west coast than east coast though IMHO.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

This is what I mostly thought, though I came across the word first in Milligan's 'Puckoon'. Mind, that book's set on the NI border, so I guess it's all hanging together.

[bmlg.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure I read it in a John Buchan novel from the 1920s, and that it was used by the street kids who called themselves the Gorbals Die-hards. But Puckoon sounds right too.
-Barbara

[(Anonymous)]

Polis is Greek. It's ancient Greek. The Scots may have borrowed it, but not before Homer got to it. It's "polis" as in "metropolis" and "Heliopolis" and "necropolis."

Sorry for the driveby. Just had to say.

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

Another vote for poe-lis, and definitely very Taggart/Mark McManus.