Hairbag

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notmartha
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Hairbag

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The Online Slang Dictionary

http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meanin ... of/hairbag hairbag
hairbag

noun - a disliked person; "loser"; "dirtbag".

"Get away from us you hairbag!"
Urban Dictionary

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hairbag
Hairbag

1. Upstate NY word for people who listen to Hair-Bands of the 1980’s.
2. A New York City Police Department slang term for a veteran cop who is a bitter and burned-out complainer, usually an old beat cop who is a shirker.
3. New York City Fireman who doesn't do nothing except, come to work, read the paper, eat meals he didn't help prepare, shit , sleep, wake up and then go home. Usually a fat slob who complains about everything, everybody else is doing. Not reliable when it comes to performing at a fire. Probably is hiding somewhere while everyone else is breaking their ass. And never works on holidays.
4. a person who is always complaining about anything and nothing.
5. hairbag- an individual who complains about work when they had just started their day. A individual who complains 24/7.
"Police (Cops?) Have Slanguage of Own", David Burnham, Feb. 15, 1970

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/15/arch ... ule=inline
Hairbag—A veteran patrol man, also a patrolman with backbone.
“New York City Police Argot," 1958
Hairbag - “a veteran policeman.”
The New Yorker, 1998, Edward Conlon
Hairbag - “A bitter and burned-out complainer”

Generally speaking, the word "hairbag" has negative connotations. Will the NYPD, who is being sued for $7 mil by a veteran cop who feels disrespected, be able to prove that it is a positive term?

From HERE:
For as long as anyone can remember, younger officers in the New York Police Department have referred to their elders as “hairbags” — usually behind their backs.

It’s an archaic bit of slang with obscure origins. In police parlance, “the bag” means “the uniform.” So some officers believe “hairbag” is a riff on a longtime officer’s uniform — so old it has become hairy — and describes veterans who know what the police call “The Job” inside out.

Others think the phrase is an insult that comes from the practice, perhaps apocryphal, of officers using a haircut as an excuse for leaving their posts. This theory holds that sergeants used to demand a bag of hair trimmings as proof, and eventually burned-out officers who shirked work came to be known as “hairbags.”

Now, generations after the word entered the police lexicon, it has emerged at the center of a court battle in Manhattan, where a federal judge has been asked to pin down its precise meaning. A fair amount of taxpayer money — more than enough to buy haircuts for the entire patrol force — may end up riding on the outcome.
...
“A hairbag is an older cop, a burned-out cop, who doesn’t want to do anything and doesn’t care anymore,” Mr. Dietrich said in an interview, adding a few expletives.
...
Lawyers for the city have argued that the “hairbag” remark “can be deemed to indicate his superiors’ assessment of the plaintiff and his work ethic, and have nothing to do with his age.”

But in May, a federal judge in Manhattan, Colleen McMahon, rejected that argument, concluding instead that the comment “suggests a negative perception of plaintiff’s attitude and abilities because of his age.”
...
Mr. Dietrich’s lawsuit is a reminder that police slang is very much alive today. To officers these words offer a powerful language for communicating what happens on the streets or at Police Headquarters.
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