Word: argot
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...deputy port warden in the U.S., Joellen Natow, 29, patrols Los Angeles harbor, checks the handling of flammable cargoes, and keeps an eye out for thieves, drug smugglers and illegal aliens. She has mastered the use of the .38-cal. revolver she carries, as well as such mysterious port argot as: "There's a camel loose in the channel; get a sea gull to pick it up." Translation: "A wharf pile is afloat; get a refuse boat to pick...
...find their sensibilities offended by that most unstable adjunct of police work, the informer. Trained from childhood to disparage tattletales, Americans have hardly a decent word for those who give information to authorities. The glossary runs to such pejorative nouns as fink, stoolie, rat, canary, squealer. In some police argot they are snitches. Yet no major police force can operate without some of the shady types who will go where cops seldom can, perhaps to a meeting of conspirators, or do what cops won't, for example, shoot heroin before a cautious pusher will make a sale. Informers have...
...with the numerous contenders. Simmons Fentress, Dean Fischer and John Austin of our Washington bureau were in the state for the final campaigning. Atlanta Bureau Chief Joseph Kane feels that he had the best assignment. "George Wallace," he says, "is the most exciting of the lot. His back-country argot and his challenges to the Establishment produce more fun than the position papers and maneuverings of his opponents. And once you get to him, he is the most accessible and talkative man in the field." The Governor's deafness in one ear seems an obstacle in interviewing him. Says...
Picnics and Wet Stuff THOUGH operatives of the CIA are cautioned not to use professional slang lest they be identified as spies, the argot of espionage has become part of the language around the world. Herewith a glossary of current spy terms, most of them used in the West but some international: BAG JOB: In the U.S., an illegal search of a suspected spy's residence to obtain incriminating information. Also, sending secret data back home through the diplomatic pouch. BLACK BAGGING: Delivery of funds to an undercover agent or network by a courier...
...jobs easier, Striker and Magazine still encounter calamities. Sunspots adversely affect radio circuits, and fishing trawlers periodically slice transoceanic cables. Heavy September rains in the New York area drowned out most of our private teleprinter lines. Sometimes the gap is bridged by switching to conventional telegraph ("overheading," in our argot). On those rare occasions when all lines fail, we fall back on manpower. The communications crush during the Attica prison riot got so bad at one point that some material for last week's cover story had to be flown in from Buffalo by courier...