According to the oh-so-reliable Urban Dictionary, G-man is short for Government-man. Ahhhh... It all makes sense now. Here I was all along thinking it was something related to aliens. I have no idea why.
Though Urban Dictionary offers some pretty interesting definitions, Wiki offers more interesting details of the history of the term G-man. The term possibly derived from Ireland during the Irish Civil War when the G-division of plainclothes officers existed within the Dublin Metro Police.
FBI legend claims that the term was first used when the gangster George "Machine Gun" Kelly found himself unarmed and surrounded by agents and he shouted, "Don't shoot, G-men! Don't shoot!"
"G-man" is such an accepted slang that even Time magazine published an article titled, "Nation: Blasting a G-Man Myth."
G-Men is apparently also a movie from 1935.
All I really wanted to know was what the G stood for. I guess I got that covered.
*opens mouth... closes it* I got nothin'
ReplyDelete