Date:  Sat, 15 Nov 1997 16:15:35 -0500
From:  Beverly Flanigan <FLANIGAN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
Subject: Re: stay and live

  A more likely, and older, origin of "stay"="live" is the use of 'stay'
  as a progressive marker in English-based creoles, as in "He stay
  walk"=He is/was walking," "He bin stay walk"=He had been walking," etc.
  The transfer of the English sense of continuousness first to creole
  verb aspect and later back again to the single lexical item meaning
  continuous residence is well motivated. This assumes at least a
  partial creole influence on American Black English, of course.

  On 'cop': I always heard it came from "civilian on patrol" (Brit.,
  something like a neighborhood crime watch?). Is this completely
  apocryphal? To assume 'cop' comes from 'catch' seems farfetched; but I
  suppose we should check our Old and Middle English dictionaries. On
  "cop a plea": As I recall, Roger Abrahams traced this in the 70s to
  Black English street plea-bargaining, but I haven't got my citation
  handy.