Brian Lawrence askes where the term "hard-boiled" came
form.
I don't expect this to be the last word, but Donald Westlake,
in a talk given at Bouchercon some years ago, suggested that
the first time hard-boiled was used as a synomnym for tough
was areound the time the US entered WW1. It was used to
describe the tough, harsh professional non-coms who trained
recruits in boot camp, turning them from citizens into
citizen-soldiers.
Westalake further suggested that "dick," as a slang
expression for detectives, came from Canadians who smuggled
hooch into the US during Prohibition. Put 'em together and
you've got "hard-boiled dicks."
JIM DOHERTY
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