释义 |
potsy, n. Northeast U.S.|ˈpɒtsɪ| Also potsie. [Etym. obscure, but cf. pot n.1 11.] 1. a. The object thrown in the game of the same name. b. The name of a children's game similar to hopscotch.
1931Recreation Mar. 672/2 Potsy is an adaptation of Hop Scotch, which now rivals its progenitor in popularity. The ‘potsy’ is a piece of tin, a rock or a puck. 1932Sun (N.Y.) 26 Mar. 18/3 As any New Yorker will recognize, the potsy refers to the piece of tin can, doubled and redoubled and stamped flat with the heel, which is kicked from flagstone to flagstone of the sidewalk by the hopping, juvenile player of the game potsy. 1943B. Smith Tree grows in Brooklyn xiii. 100 Potsy was a game that the boys started and the girls finished. A couple of boys would put a tin can on the car track and sit along the curb and watch with a professional eye as the trolley wheels flattened the can... Numbered squares were marked off on the sidewalk and the game was turned over to the girls who hopped on one foot pushing the potsy from square to square. 1955P. M. Evans Hopscotch 5 Then you feel around and pick up your potsie without opening your eyes. 1956S. Bellow Seize the Day iii. 61, I sat down for a while in a playground..to watch the kids play potsy and skiprope. 1963T. Pynchon V. v. 117 ‘What are you guys doing,’ Profane said, ‘playing potsy?’ 2. The badge worn by a policeman or fireman.
1932Sun (N.Y.) 26 Mar. 18/3, I recently bought a Sun which gave a vocabulary of firemen's slang, in which ‘potsy’ was the word for ‘badge’. I have also found policemen and detectives who referred to their badges in this manner. 1936Baltimore News-Post 18 Apr. 18/2 Most detectives in town never polish their gold badges (yellow potsys). 1948Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 750 Potsy, a fireman's badge. 1952N.Y. Herald Tribune 24 Jan. 27/1 This boniface has been wearing his potsy as house dick for only a brief time. 1970L. Sanders Anderson Tapes xiii. 39 Ernie goes in the lobby and flashes his potsy. |