Hippiies---1960s How did police man become FUZZ. What does FUZZ acronim mean?? I was their and I don't know?

Cops were known as "Bears" and bears are fuzzy!

Just like many slang words, this one had a reason. Back in the 60's there were many young police officers with peach fuzz on their faces. Just like "flat foot", "pig", "cop"-- fuzz is another slang term for police officers.

You'd THINK that tracing this one would be easy, given that the term is fairly modern (since the 1930's).

But, while it is modern, it is somewhat rare. In ordinary conversation among plain old folks like you and me, we call 'em cops. "Fuzz" comes up more in detective stories then it does in everyday life.

Except for ONE place, and that is in a kind of dictionary of "underworld slang" published in the '30's. Its listed THERE, in "American Tramp and Underworld Slang," as a reference to the cops (er, I mean, the police). The theory was that when the cops came, there would be a "fuss." And so, when a gang of small-time drugs dealers was about to be raided by the police, they would refer to this as a "fuss," which became fuzz. And likewise, the word, "fuzz" stuck, so to speak, to law enforcement officers as individuals.

Well, maybe.

The "Word Detective," who is quoted by other authorities, thinks that "fuzz" meant soft -like peach fuzz, maybe- and was a deliberate term of contempt for guys who were supposed to be tough lawmen. Sort of like calling them, "sissies," perhaps.

See this:

http://www.word-detective.com/052598.html

Sorry.

(While we're at it, the term "cop" does not come from copper star, at least not according to people who study this stuff. "Cop" is short for "copper," and has been in use for at least 150 years, referring to the act of "copping," meaning taking, impounding. The ones who did that were therefore "coppers, or cops. No kidding).

Meaning "the police" is Amer.Eng. 1929, underworld slang, origin and connection to the older word unknown. Perhaps a variant of 'fuss', with a notion of "hard to please."

Calling Highway Patrolmen "Bears" didn't come into wider use until after CB Radio and Wildcat Trucking became popular after that C.W. McCall song, "Convoy" came out in 1976.

I thought they were called pigs backs then. The term cop comes from the copper star they wore in the 1800s