Re: RARA-AVIS: RE: RARA-AVIS "Stacked Deck"


Duane Spurlock (dspurlock@earthlink.net)
Sat, 26 Jun 1999 09:38:10 -0400


>I was reading Bill Pronzini's short story "Stacked Deck" last night,
and>there's a sentence in there about being able to "loid" the lock on a
window.
>It's obviously from context that he's referring to breaking in, but I was
>wondering about the etymology of this word. Or was it a misprint, maybe?

Hi CHris: LOID isn't a misprint (nor is it the twin brother of Lloyd Hopkins, one of Ellroy's early characters).

As I understand it, "loid" is slang shortened from "celluloid" -- perps (or self-motivated PIs) would slide a piece of celluloid (sometimes a credit card) through the gap in a door jamb or window to push open the latch. Thus, noun celluloid becomes verb loid.
-- Duane

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