potsyn.
/ˈpɒtsi/, U.S. /ˈpɑtsi/ U.S. colloquial.
1. In New York City and other eastern U.S. cities: a children's game similar to hopscotch. Also: the crushed tin can (or occasionally a rock or stone) used in the game.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > children's game > other children's games > [noun] > hopscotch
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Scotch hoppersa1672
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Scotch hob1823
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potsy1905
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > children's game > other children's games > [noun] > hopscotch > stone or piece of pottery
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ghoen1913
1905 Pedagogical Seminary Dec. 503 Potsie—a primitive kind of hop scotch.
1932 Sun (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.
1955 P. M. Evans Hopscotch 5 Then you feel around and pick up your potsie without opening your eyes.
1963 T. Pynchon V. v. 117 ‘What are you guys doing,’ Profane said, ‘playing potsy?’
1994 P. Hamill Drinking Life i. iv. 14 We played cards... We went roller skating. The girls skipped rope or played potsy, and sometimes we joined them.
2. The badge worn by a police officer or firefighter.
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society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > police insignia
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1932 Sun (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.
1936 Baltimore News-Post 18 Apr. 18/2 Most detectives in town never polish their gold badges (yellow potsys).
1948 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 750 Potsy, a fireman's badge.
1970 L. Sanders Anderson Tapes xiii. 39 Ernie goes in the lobby and flashes his potsy.
1990 Larry King Live (transcription of TV programme) (Nexis) 23 Oct. I don't have my potsie with me. I'm now a civilian.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1905