When I was a schoolboy we used to say "Here, cop hold of this!" if we were passing something to another boy (it was a sexist age). So the use of 'cop' as meaning to grab or seize was certainly around then.

Quinion also mentions 'Posh', which has come up for discussion here before, and is often thought to be an acronym for 'port out starboard home' and to reflect the cooler and therefore more expensive, posh, cabins on ships sailing from the UK to India. To me, given that the cooler cabins are on the north side of the ship, posh used to be a wonderful way of remembering which side of a vessel is port and which starboard.