Date:    Thu, 21 May 1998 10:00:12 -0700
<br>From:    "Joseph P. McGowan" <mcgowan[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]TEETOT.ACUSD.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: Paddy wagon query
<br>
<br>On Thu, 21 May 1998, Ross Chambers wrote:
<br>
<br>> HELP!! I wrote to a journalist on Australian national radio who used the
<br>> expression "paddy wagon" when covering a strike.
<br>>
<br>> Relying on Partridge I said that the expression was pejorative to Irish
<br>> people.
<br>
<br>
<br>It is.  There may be some backtracking among lexicographers as a result of
<br>revisionist historical work regarding Ireland and Irish emigration (R.F.
<br>Foster and others) -- e.g. that NINA regulations (No Irish Need Apply)
<br>have been mythologized (they were real) and so forth-- that has
<br>dissociated `Paddy wagon' from `Paddy' (pejorative term for an Irishman <
<br>Gaelic form Padraig, like Bridie/Biddie < Bridget/Brigid for an
<br>Irishwoman).
<br>        The usually loquacious & informative (via Regional notes)
<br>_American Heritage Dictionary_ says ``origin unknown''; the _Oxford
<br>Dictionary and Thesaurus_ (1996; American Edition) lists
<br>        Paddy = derog. for Irishman
<br>        paddy = policeman
<br>        paddy wagon = police van
<br>as connected to Padraig > Paddy.  The earliest newsprint references in the
<br>U.S. seem to make clear that _paddy wagon_ is a formation analagous to
<br>scores of similar combinations _paddy X_  or _Paddy's X_, most transferred
<br>from the British Isles (a placename like Paddy's milestone, or terms like
<br>_paddy camp_).  The combination _paddy X_ is often just a stronger form of
<br>_Irish X_.  The second volume of J.E. Lighter's _Random House Historical
<br>Dictionary of American Slang_ (1997) records:
<br>
<br>Irish = fighting spirit (as BrE `Paddy' can = temper fit, rage)
<br>Irish ambulance = wheelbarrow
<br>Irish apple = potato
<br>Irish baby buggy = wheelbarrow
<br>Irish banjo = shovel
<br>Irish bouquet = `a stone or rock or any other implement suitable for
<br>        cracking skulls'
<br>Irish caviar = meat stew
<br>Irish clubhouse = jail
<br>
<br>And so on.  Lighter lists another 39 similar constructions (1785-1980s,
<br>many clustered in their first instance in the 1860s). Even more
<br>appear in BrE dialects (usually _paddy X_).
<br>
<br>The term _paddy camp_ (Irish ghetto) even made it into a Supreme Court
<br>case: the 1830s Paddy Camps Lands case (deriving from the Lowell, MA,
<br>``Paddy Camps'').  I hope to get back to a fuller investigation of these
<br>terms in AmE, which would place `paddy wagon' unequivocally in the same
<br>range as all of the other _paddy X_ formations.
<br>
<br>
<br>-Joe McGowan
<br>
<br>
<br>Dr. Joseph McGowan
<br>Department of English
<br>University of San Diego
<br>San Diego, CA 92110-2492
<br>