Sunday, March 6, 2011

Woop Woop! It's Da Sound of Da Police!

KRS-ONE, period. Not only has this guy been rocking microphones and crowds for the past three decades, but he has literally secured his position as the de facto rap scholar / ambassador of record, defining hip hop culture both in theory and in practice, from the offices of the United Nations, to the lecture halls of Harvard University. (Here's a video of him at the latter discussing the "9 Elements of Hip Hop).


In any case, when it comes to hip hop music, you can't throw a peace sign without hitting a KRS lyric embedded as a loop or sample in the songs of his peers, so catchy are his phrases.


One classic example of KRS , sampled by Jay-Z in "Takeover," is "Sound of Da Police"--- a song that I've always appreciated for its biting social commentary, not to mention its fine wordplay.


In this song, KRS drops some meta-linguistic science on us:

"Take the word 'overseer,' like a sample
Repeat it very quickly in a crew for example
Overseer-Overseer-Overseer-Overseer
Officer, Officer, Officer, Officer!
Yeah, 'officer' from 'overseer.'
You need a little clarity?
Check the similarity!
The overseer rode around the plantation
The officer is off patrolling all the nation..."
©1993 KRS-ONE

Until recently, I had just sort of accepted this highly-plausible description of the origin of the word "officer." Etymologically speaking, it is not at all uncommon for a word or phrase to derive from an alternate pronunciation of another word. Examples abound in the English language, but one of my favorites is the name "Shakespeare," which may be an Anglicized pronunciation of the name "Jacques-Pierre." (Just as in the song above, if you repeat these words very quickly, you can almost feel the pronunciation change.) It's also not that unbelievable that the word "overseer" would have historically been used in English to denote that which is associated with the word "officer" today.

As it turns out, however, KRS's analysis wasn't exactly right. 


The Anglo-Norman word "officer" has been in use in English since the late 14th century, represented in Middle English by any of a dozen variations in spelling: offessere, offesour, officiere. This likely came to England in 1044AD with the Normans of modern-day France, whose language was heavily rooted in Latin. In fact, the root for this word comes directly from the Latin officium (office) and the suffix -arius, corresponding to the suffix -er in Modern English. The meaning then, as now, referes to someone who holds a particular office (according to the OED).


The word "overseer," on the other hand, whose roots are decidedly Indo-European, came into use around the same time as "officer," and referred to someone who served as a superintendant or manager of a labor force. Both the prefix over- and the root see have cognates in other Germanic languages, including German, Dutch, and Icelandic. 


Although we can easily discern a possible semantic overlap in these two words, each has its own unique history in the English language, and neither was derived from the other. It is interesting to note, though, that the word "sheriff" was, in fact, formed through a change in pronunciation from the original word, scirgerefa, or shire reeve. In defense of KRS, the word "sheriff" is much harder to work into a rap than the word "officer."  Despite his less-than-successful foray into historical linguistic analysis, KRS remains a master of contemporary English, and for that, I forgive him!








4 comments:

  1. I thought krs, being influenced by Jamaican and rasta philosophy, primarily was interested in phonetics and connotative issues and the psychological effects of continuing to use words that sound like others. Like downpression vs oppression (which doesn't actually have 'up' in it etymologically). So maybe what looks like an incompetent folk etymology is actually something else, under the surface? :)

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  2. Thank you for sharing this, I'm listening to the song as I type this, and I was quite shook when I noticed that lyric.

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  3. "...KRS's analysis wasn't exactly right."

    No. It was entirely incorrect as is your implication here that his "analysis" was somehow close or almost right.

    We shouldn't be glorifying those who sow division, such as KRS-ONE, particularly when they do so through disinformation.

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