The word paddy wagon is of American origin. The precise origin of the term is uncertain and disputed, though its use dates back to at least the beginning of the 1900s. There are at least two theories as how the phrase originated.
- The most prevalent theory is based on the term "Paddy" (a common Irish shortening of Patrick, as in the Irish language Patrick is Padraig), which was used ( often as derogatory slang) to refer to Irish people. Irishmen made up a large percentage of the officers of early police forces in many American cities. Thus, this theory suggests that the concentration of Irish in the police forces led to the term "paddy wagon" being used to describe the vehicles driven by police.
- An alternative theory is similarly based on the term "Paddy" but states that the term arose due to the high crime level among Irish immigrants.
Read more about this topic: Police Van, Etymology
Famous quotes containing the words paddy and/or wagon:
“O Paddy dear, an’ did ye hear the news that’s goin’ round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground!
No more Saint Patrick’s Day we’ll keep, his colour can’t be seen,
For there’s a cruel law agin the wearin’ o’ the Green!”
—Unknown. The Wearing of the Green (l. 37–40)
“Worn down by the hoofs of millions of half-wild Texas cattle driven along it to the railheads in Kansas, the trail was a bare, brown, dusty strip hundreds of miles long, lined with the bleaching bones of longhorns and cow ponies. Here and there a broken-down chuck wagon or a small mound marking the grave of some cowhand buried by his partners “on the lone prairie” gave evidence to the hardships of the journey.”
—For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)