Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls

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..."

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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.

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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.

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