Other forms: cops, coping, coped, copping
A cop is a police officer, said informally. Call the cops, a cop show, the cops arrived.
It is chiefly American but understood everywhere, and in Britain it competes with copper and the older bobby. The claim that it stands for constable on patrol is a folk etymology with no basis. As a verb, to cop means to catch or receive — cop it, cop a plea — and cop out means to avoid a responsibility. Note copper, from the same verb meaning to catch.
1nouncopA police officer, said informally.
“The cops showed up ten minutes after the neighbours called about the noise.”
2verbcatchTo catch or receive.
“He copped a fine for parking outside the school.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
cop is a police officer.
The verb cop, to catch, is of uncertain origin, possibly from a French or Dutch word for seizing. A copper was one who cops, and cop is a shortening of that.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Old Frisian
kāpia — to buy
Dutch
kapen — to seize, hijack
Latin
capiō — to seize, grasp
Middle French
caper — to capture
Old English
copian — to plunder; pillage; steal
Middle English
*coppen
English, today
cop
unknown. Perhaps from Middle English coppen, copen, from Old English copian (“to plunder; pillage; steal”); or possibly from Middle French caper (“to capture”), from Latin capiō (“to seize, grasp”); or possibly from Dutch kapen (“to seize, hijack”), from Old Frisian kāpia (“to buy”), whence West Frisian keapje, stq koopje, frr koopi, kuupe. Compare also Middle English copen (“to buy”), from Middle Dutch copen.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA