subject: Hard-boiled Lingo From The 1930s And 1940s [print this page] In the 1930s and 1940s, to combat the criminal elements of the day, fiction writers conjured up larger-than-life characters-such as the first genuine superhero of the twentieth century, Walter B. Gibson's "The Shadow." Clad in black, with a secret identity, superpowers and sidekicks, The Shadow had ample supervillains to slay and subdue. Then there was Doc Savage, the crime-fighting adventurer who was to inspire the Indiana Jones franchise, and the very first tough private eye, Race Williams, who also emerged to immediate fame in the 1930s.
These and other famous crime-fighters were born in the pages of the pulp fiction magazines that were devoured by millions of Americans each month, including Detective Fiction Weekly, Thrilling Detective, Popular Detective and Black Mask.
It was in the pages of these rough, inexpensive pulps that now-famous names were first able to display the mastery of their craft-Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, Norvell W. Page and L. Ron Hubbard.
If you have a yearning to walk the walk, or talk the talk of a hard-boiled hero, here is some lingo you should know:
Hard-Boiled Lingo from the 1930S AND 1940S
- be hanged: used to express exasperation or disgust.
- Black Maria: patrol wagon; an enclosed truck or van used by the police to transport prisoners.
- blackjack: a short, leather-covered club, consisting of a heavy head on a flexible handle, used as a weapon.
- bloodhounding: relentlessly pursuing someone or something.
- bluecoats: policemen.
- bo: pal; buster; fellow.
- bulls: cops; police officers.
- bumping off: killing, especially by murder.
- bracelets: a pair of handcuffs.
- calaboose: a jail.
- dead to rights: to have enough proof to show that someone has done something wrong.
- Colt: an automatic pistol manufactured by the Colt Firearms Company, founded in 1847 by Samuel Colt (1814-1862) who revolutionized the firearms industry with his inventions.
- degree rooms: third-degree rooms; interrogation rooms; rooms of mental or physical torture used to obtain information or a confession from a prisoner.
- drill: shoot.
- fire-eaters: firemen; firefighters.
- flatfoot: a police officer; cop; a patrolman walking a regular beat.
- flophouse: a cheap, run-down hotel or rooming house.
- gat: a gun.
- gink: a fellow.
- hard-boiled: tough and cynical, unsentimental.
- harness bull: a uniformed police officer.
- haymaker: a powerful blow with the fist.
- hop: drugs, especially opium.
- jack: money.
- jig's up, the: it's all over; usually referring to a scam, trick or plot that has been found out and foiled before it could come to fruition.
- moll: a female companion of a gangster.
- mouthpiece: a lawyer, especially a criminal lawyer.
- mugs: hoodlums; thugs; criminals.
- nailers: the police in general; police officers.
- numbers racket: an illegal daily lottery.
- powder, take a: to make a speedy departure; run away.
- ride, take for a: to take out in a car intending to murder.
- rod: a pistol or revolver.
- sapped: knocked out with a blackjack.
- shivved: knifed; stabbed with a shiv (knife).
- singing soprano: being vocal about informing on someone else or confessing to the police.
- slug: a bullet.
- speakeasy: a bar for the illegal sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks.
- trick: shift; the portion of the day scheduled for working.
