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A.Word.A.Day--bobby

bobby (BOB-ee) noun

British: A policeman.

[After Sir Robert Peel, who was Great Britain's Home Secretary when the 1828 Metropolitan Police Act was passed. His last name also resulted in a nickname for a policeman: peeler.]

"The fish and chip shop may be as 'Truly British' as the bobbies patrolling in their pointed black helmets, but the tidy streets, royalist sentiments, and low crime rate hark back to an era that faded away decades ago in Britain."
Emma Daly; Gibraltar Residents Fight for Identity; The New York Times; Apr 30, 2002.

This week's theme: What's in a name?

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