Does anyone know why the police were called the 'fuzz'?

[nini]

This is a slang term from way back but I can't find anything on how that came about. Strange things come up in conversation and this is one of them that none of us knew the answer to.

Does anyone have an idea?


thanks

[tridim]

1. Googling..

From http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-fuz1.htm

FUZZ

From Kelly Harney: “I have been challenged with finding the origin of the word fuzz in referring to the police. Haven’t had any luck.”

I’m not surprised. Nobody knows for sure. But, as usual, that hasn’t stopped lots of people coming up with ideas. We are sure that it was originally an American expression, first recorded in the 1920s, and very popular especially in the 1930s, though it never quite took over from cop. In Britain, it was popular in the sixties, though it would now be regarded as dated slang.
One suggestion is that it’s a variant pronunciation of fuss, this being something that policemen are prone to do over matters that fussees may consider trifling. It’s also been said that it comes from a mispronunciation or mishearing of “Feds”, that is, federal agents, which hardly seems probable.
Yet a third suggestion has been put forward by David Dalby, a specialist in West African languages, who argues that it comes from the Wolof word fas for a horse, which was taken over in a much modified form into the American slang expression fuzzy tail for a sure bet at a horse race (not to be confused with another usage of that phrase to refer to the very lowest category of vagrant or tramp), from there to a mounted policemen, and so to police in general.

and http://www.word-detective.com/052598.html

Cheezit, here come the fussy guys.

Dear Word Detective: Please, what is the origin of "fuzz" (in the sense of "police")? -- Sidney Allinson, via the internet.

That's a good question, but before we begin I have a question of my own. Where in the world are you hearing people refer to the police as "fuzz"? I know it's supposed to be perennial youth (or as we say in New York, "yout") slang for cops, but I have never heard a real person use it, unless you want to count Jack Webb on the old "Dragnet." When I was growing up in the 1960's, we called police officers many things, but mostly we just called them "cops" and we never, ever, called them "the fuzz." As a matter of fact, anybody calling the cops "the fuzz" would have been instantly suspected of being a cop. It would have been a faux pas right up there with ironing your blue jeans.

Then again, "fuzz" apparently was genuine slang among drug users and other underworld types in the 1930's, since it is listed in several glossaries of criminal slang compiled at that time. Unfortunately, no one, even back then, has ever been able to pin down exactly where "fuzz" came from. One hypothesis in American Tramp and Underworld Slang, published in 1931, was that "fuzz" was derived from "fuss," meaning that the cops were "fussy" or "hard to please." This theory seems a bit overly genteel.

Other theories aren't much better. Etymologist Eric Partridge ventured that "fuzz" might have been rooted in the beards of early police officers, or perhaps in the idea of "mold" as a derogatory metaphor for the police. Yet another theory was that "fuzz" arose as a slurred pronunciation of the warning "Feds!" (Federal narcotics agents). None of these theories seems very likely.

My own hunch is that "fuzz" arose as a term of contempt for police based on the use of "fuzz" or "fuzzy" in other items of derogatory criminal slang of the period. To be "fuzzy" was to be unmanly, incompetent and soft. How better to insult the police, after all, than to mock them as ineffectual?

[nini]

4. Thanks.. I was googling too and couldn't find anything definitive

wierd.... all I know my dad (who was a police officer) HATED that term. My mom says she thought it started in San Quentin, but I can't find anything about that.


Thanks for looking that up.

Gina

[mrboba1]

2. It has apparently been hard to trace

from http://www.etymonline.com/f5etym.htm :

fuzz - 1601, fusse, first attested in fusball "puff ball of tiny spores," of uncertain origin. Meaning "the police" is Amer.Eng. 1929, underworld slang, origin and connection to the older word unknown. Perhaps a variant of fuss, with a notion of "hard to please." Fuzzy is 1616 as "soft, spongy;" 1713 as "covered with fuzz;" 1778 as "blurred;" and 1937 as "imprecise," with ref. to thought, etc.

and from http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorf.htm :

Fuzz

This term for the police dates to 1929, origin unknown.

It is unrelated to Fuzzy Wuzzy the poetic bear. Bear, meaning cop, appears in 1975 and is a reference to the "Smokey the Bear" hats that state troopers often wear.

[Guy Fawkes]

3. Origin:

This slang term came into use during the American Prohibition era as a slurred pronounciation of "the Feds".

[skypilot]

5. Probably because...

...they appeared "fuzzy" or blurry as perps fled from them.:)

[dsewell]

6. I don't know, but a special prize

to anyone who remembers an off-color joke that ended

"Uh-oh, fuzz!"

"What did you expect, feathers?"

[olddem43]

8. Remember the off-color joke about Pastor Fuzz?

[The Spirit of JFK]

7. "Fuzzy" origins...

http://www.word-detective.com/052598.html

"..."fuzz" apparently was genuine slang among drug users and other underworld types in the 1930's, since it is listed in several glossaries of criminal slang compiled at that time. Unfortunately, no one, even back then, has ever been able to pin down exactly where "fuzz" came from. One hypothesis in American Tramp and Underworld Slang, published in 1931, was that "fuzz" was derived from "fuss," meaning that the cops were "fussy" or "hard to please." This theory seems a bit overly genteel.

Other theories aren't much better. Etymologist Eric Partridge ventured that "fuzz" might have been rooted in the beards of early police officers, or perhaps in the idea of "mold" as a derogatory metaphor for the police. Yet another theory was that "fuzz" arose as a slurred pronunciation of the warning "Feds!" (Federal narcotics agents). None of these theories seems very likely."

From WordOrigins.org...

"This term for the police dates to 1929, origin unknown.

It is unrelated to Fuzzy Wuzzy the poetic bear. Bear, meaning cop, appears in 1975 and is a reference to the "Smokey the Bear" hats that state troopers often wear."


The American Heritage Dictionary has "unknown" next to it's entry.

[nini]

9. Thanks Everyone....

if my dad was still alive he'd probably know.. but I'd get the 'ol lecture' if I asked :-)



very strange though that it can't be tracked down specifically.


thanks again.

[Festivito]

10. ..with no malice toward police officers,,

I always thought it was a reference to fuzz that sticks to clothing, hard to shake off, sticking around unexpectedly in usual places, and a useless no-value irritation -- to a less-than-upright citizen that is. If overheard, by "the fuzz," one could always hand brush ones shoulders with a look of blank innocence.

That's how I remember it.

I live in a place called Copper Canyon, due to the many cops who live around here who no longer wear those exposed copper tipped bullets pointing upward neatly spaced all around their gun belt.

Good old days -- my eye!