Why is a police informant called a grass?
Etymology. The first known use of “grass” in that context is Arthur Gardner’s crime novel Tinker’s Kitchen, published in 1932, in which a “grass” is defined as “an informer”. The origin derives from rhyming slang: grasshopper – copper; a “grass” or “grasser” tells the “copper” or policeman.
Are grass snakes protected in the UK?
Grass snakes are protected by law in Great Britain. It is illegal to deliberately kill, injure or sell grass snakes.
Why do they called snitches grasses?
If you watch British police procedurals, you’ll likely come across the term to grass someone, meaning “to inform on someone” or “to rat someone out.” It’s a bit of British rhyming slang that originated with the 19th-century phrase to shop on someone.
What is a grass snitch?
The use of “grass” as British slang for a police informer dates back to the 1930s, and is apparently a short form of the slang term “grasshopper,” meaning the same thing.
Are grass snake protected?
Grass snakes are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act making it illegal to injure or kill them. The barred grass snake is normally found in lowland regions in the south of England. The snakes can be more than a metre (3ft) long, are found near water and eat mainly amphibians like frogs and newts.
Will a grass snake bite you?
Predators include badgers, red foxes, domestic cats, hedgehogs and a number of birds; when caught, grass snakes hiss and release a foul-smelling substance from their anal gland. Although they may also strike with the head, they do not bite and are harmless to humans.
What to do if you find a snake in your garden UK?
Most British snakes are completely harmless. “A native snake that doesn’t move away when approached may be injured or sick, and we’d urge people to contact our 24-hour emergency line on 0300 1234 999.
Why do the Brits say grass?
To grass in British slang is indeed to inform on a person to the authorities; a grass is an informer. We’ve since had grasser in the same sense; in the 1970s supergrass appeared for a police informer who implicated a large number of people at one go.
Where did the British term grass come from?
British Slang to Grass Someone . It’s a bit of British rhyming slang that originated with the 19th-century phrase to shop on someone. That gave us the noun shopper, which became grasshopper, and then got shortened to grass.
What does shopped mean in Britain?
If you shop someone, you report them to the police for doing something illegal. [British, informal] His appalled family shopped him to the police. [ VERB noun + to]