po-po

See also: popo, Popo, popó, pópo, popò, popô, pöpö, and Appendix:Variations of "po"

English

Etymology 1

Shortening and reduplication.

From reduplication of the abbreviation PO (“police officer”), originally in reference to partnered bike officers in Southern California whose paired shirts would read POPO.

POPO originated in Pontiac Michigan during Detroit's heaviest crime wave during the 1960s and 1970s and into the 1980s. People of the time migrated out and into other major cities, popularizing that term in other parts of the country.

The "posterior" sense may be reduplication of the initial syllable of that word, with modification of the vowel according to its spelling. Compare German Popo (“bottom”) from Latin pōdex (“anus”).

Alternative forms

• popo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpoʊˈpoʊ/

Noun

po-po (plural po-pos or po-po)

1. (colloquial, derogatory, US) The police; a police officer.
   • 1997, Rik ‘G’ (lyrics and music), “Runnin’ From the Po Po” (0:23 from the start), in Rik ‘G’, Oakland, CA: Del Paso Heights:

     Runnin’ from the po-po
     Runnin’
     Just got my cash on
     Now I gotta get my dash on

   • 2006 September 10, David Simon & al., “Boys of Summer” (00:23:44 from the start), in The Wire, season 4, episode 1:

     Yo, po-po, man. Shut it down.

   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 134:

     The cops had busted us for selling hot designer bags up on Utica Avenue for some cat who figured we was too young to get knocked if we got caught, but two fat white po-pos said fuck how young we was, and threw us in a cell for damn near three days until they could contact Noojie to come get us out.

   • 2012, Liz Talley, Under the Autumn Sky, page 151:

     “Shit,” Brian breathed. “Who called the po-po?”

2. (by extension) A prison officer, corrections officer, prison guard.
3. (informal, US) One's posterior, bottom, buttocks.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks

   • 1952, Bob Merrill (lyrics and music), “Feet Up (Pat Him on the Po-po)”:

     Feet up, pat him on the po-po
     Let’s hear him laugh
     Ain’t seen a babe like this before
     He’s so good-lookin’, gonna have some more
     Feet up, pat him on the po-po

   • 1953, Gramophone Record Review, page 564:

     [He] gets jelly on his head, jelly on his po-po, jelly on his.... well, you know what rhymes with jelly. If your Junior starts singing this in public he’ll show you up.

   • 2014, Michael Hotchkiss, Preparation Breeds Success, page 61:

     He once asked me how a particular customer was doing, sometime after I had executed a sale. […] Then he added, so as not to appear to be admonishing me, “Go and give them a pat on the po-po and see what is going on.”

4. (childish) Genitals, especially the vulva.
   • 1962, Phillip Roth, Letting Go, page 269:

     “Actually I prefer kids referring to their po-pos rather than their outer labias. Maybe I’m just old fashioned.”

   • 1991, Kevin McGovern, “Was there really child sexual abuse or is there another explanation?”, in Michael Robin, editor, Assessing Child Maltreatment Reports: The Problem of False Allegations, page 123:

     On one Monday morning, one of the two children, Becky, complained about irritation around her “po-po.” […] This child indicated that Daddy had touched her there and she cried when he pushed on her sore spot.

   • 1992, Richard Green, Sexual Science and the Law, page 163:

     By contrast, a North Carolina court upheld the conviction of a father after a four-year-old, who had told relatives and authorities that her father had put his “ding dong” into her “po po,” pointed to a doll vagina and a doll penis and used the same terms to describe the alleged event.

   • 2011, Tara Overzat, Reverse Psychology, pages 8-9:

     “If you tell anyone what happens in this house, HRS will take you away. Do you understand? They’ll put you with people that will hurt your po-po.”
     I broke out in a sweat. Po-po was Mom’s word for between my legs.

Usage notes

• Originally chiefly urban American slang, this term for “police” has now spread to UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. It also spread to Hong Kong during the protests in 2019.

Descendants

• → Dutch: popo

Etymology 2

See po po

Noun

po-po (plural po-pos)

1. Alternative form of po po (“mother-in-law; grandmother”)

Anagrams

• oppo, poop