News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by kbutler on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @10:50AM (#35614760)
Wondered about "rap" in this context:

From Collins dictionary of British English

""" Rap: 2 (verb) in the sense of reprimand

Definition to rebuke or criticize sharply """

Other interpretations would have been too good to be true.

Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by a4isms on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @11:30AM (#35615323)
US-flavoured English has this type of "rap" as well, as in Raganwald faced the rap for making too many reddit-esque puns on Hacker News. The mods reviewed his rap sheet and determined that permanent expulsion was warranted for this transgression.

I believe both descend from "rap" as a form of rebuke, in one case synonymous with criticism, in the other synonymous with a conviction in a court of law.

Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by OJFord on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @11:51AM (#35615675)
The rebuke sense is surely is figurative from physical rap ('rap on the knuckes', 'rapping on the door'), via 'take the rap' etc.
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by a4isms on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @12:17PM (#35616027)
I agree that they are derived from the physical "rap."

I am curious about is the origin of 'rap' as an informal discussion: I want to rap to you today—lyric spoken by Maurice White of "Earth, Wind, and Fire."

I believe that's the origin of the noun Rap as a music genre, which is now mostly known as Hip-Hop.

Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by pessimizer on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @02:17PM (#35617731)
It's probably from the "rap on the door" sense, carrying the metaphor of visiting someone to talk. "Calling" on someone is a (somewhat anachronistic) similar idea.

I'm pretty sure it's jazz talk, so I'd look at urban black culture of the early 20c.

Could have ended up being knock music or call music?

edit: your "rap" is (usually) how you talk to women, and going "calling" was once the same sort of euphemism.

Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by OJFord on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @08:38PM (#35622618)
> "Calling" on someone is a (somewhat anachronistic)

Way to make us feel old! I was at school when children started to have phones, through to MSN and early smart phones, but 'calling on' people was at least the bridge between that and RL interaction. (I'm sure we texted things like 'call on you later'.) Is it not still? Whatever the technology isn't there a need for that?

Obviously language can fade independently of technology, but it was quite funny to note some of the same weird school playground phrases familiar to both me and my father at the same school(s) 30y apart.

Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by karaterobot on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @01:08PM (#35616770)
Surely "faced the rap" comes from a rap sheet, the Record of Arrests and Prosecutions, aka the documents inside the manilla folder you see in movies, in the scene where the detective whistles and says "looks like our guy's been busy..."
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by zerocrates on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @01:29PM (#35617047)
I bet "record of arrests and prosecutions" is a false etymology for "rap sheet."

OED attests "rap" in this sense of punishment back to the 1860s at least, and "face the rap," "beat the rap," etc., to the early 1900s. "Rap sheet," the 50s.

Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by karaterobot on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @02:02PM (#35617494)
I mean it might be. It does feel a bit like "port out, starboard home" or "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden". Wikipedia uses it, but without citation.
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by badcppdev on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @11:28AM (#35615280)
I feel "The Register" specialises in headlines that can be parsed in more than one way.
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by pjdesno on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @12:03PM (#35615842)
They hold to the best traditions of British tabloid journalism. My favorite is Every! Single! Headline! About! Yahoo!
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by gadders on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @11:31AM (#35615356)
It's one of those words that only gets used in headlines to save space. See also "slams".
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by jaclaz on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @11:05AM (#35614951)
Yep, I expected a link to a TikTok or Youtube video with the officers singing and dancing ...
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by ip_addr on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @10:59AM (#35614872)
F the police?
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by twic on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @11:10AM (#35615022)
Re:Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls by bheadmaster on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @12:03PM (#35615839)
Help the Police, coming straight from the downtown! Young cop eating donuts, so he's round.