- shamus (n.)
- "police officer, detective," 1920, apparently first in "The Shamus," a detective story published that year by Harry J. Loose (1880-1943), a Chicago police detective and crime writer; the book was marketed as "a true tale of thiefdom and an expose of the real system in crime." The word is said to be probably from Yiddish, literally "sexton of a synagogue," from Hebrew shamash "servant;" influenced by Celt. Seamus "James," as a typical name for an Irish cop.