the.com/paddy wagon
A police van used to transport people who have been arrested, often in groups.
means A police vehicle used to transport people who've been arrested, especially in groups.
from Most likely tied to 'Paddy,' a slang shorthand for 'Patrick' used as a derogatory catch-all for Irish men in 19th-century America, during a period when Irish immigrants were stereotyped as drunk, brawling, or criminal — and disproportionately arrested by city police. The slur stuck to the vehicle. A softer, unproven theory claims it referenced the many Irish cops who drove the wagons, but that account is generally treated as a later, kinder gloss rather than the documented root.
- origin theory
- Mocked Irish immigrant cops or Irish drunk arrests
- real name
- Officially a patrol wagon or police transport van
- first recorded
- Slang dates to late 1800s America
- irony
- Many early patrolmen hauling drunks were themselves Irish