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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