Sunday Quiz: Where did the cops come from?

The word cops has this derivation:

(1) It is an acronym for the Committee on Public Safety in France during the French Revolution.
(2) It refers to the copper badges worn by the first New York City policemen.
(3) It is based on a noun inversion of the popular slang word cop meaning "steal" (as in "cop a feel").
(4) The singular form is one half of an anagram of police, the other half being lie.

The winning answer will either or not, being all too human, allow for repetition, and may account for the twilight of idols that once were gods, in vino veritas, as in the "Filthy Lucre" chapter of Norman O. Brown's Life Against Death.

But you must also explain the relevance to this exercise of the illustration at the left. -- DL

Comments

[Laura Orem]

None of the above. It is an abbreviation of Constable On Patrol.

[Laura Orem]

Oops, forgot part 2. Poe invented the detective story.

[bill]

actually it derives from the "congress of poetics" that was convened in the 5th century BC in an attempt to settle the the hotly contested dispute between the greeks and the romans as to the author of the phrase "in vino veritas" or as it was known in greek, "en oino aletheia"...(the participants came to be known as "cops") both sides in the dispute laying claim to originating the phrase and of the other side stealing from them...

and indeed, there was a "committee on public" safety formed during the french revolution to address this continuing question that was intially foremost on the minds of the royalty...but in the end due to the high price of wine taxes everyone "coped out" and became fixated on marie atoinette's cake recipes.....

the image in your post is the only extant copy of a packaging layout for a popular brand of cigarette that were produced in honor of edgar poe..called "poe smokes"...the lettering was originally to say "poet" but when poe suddenly turned from verse to prose, they decided to just go with his name (another cop-out if you will)

"poe smokes" were know to have certain hallucinogenic qualities and it is a well known fact that when nietzsche was writing "the twilight of the idols"....he once again sparked the original greek/roman debate by giving precedence to roman philosophy and thinking over greek philosophy...

and then there was the "communion of the penitents" during the "inquisition"...but that's another story..

[Laura Orem]

Sez you!

[The Best American Poetry]

Brilliant. -- DL

[Stacey]

Bill, your comment deserves a post of its own. Stay tuned.