Is it true that the word police is actually an abbreviation?

Question

i remember reading that each of the letters stands for a word ,with the first letters chosen to make "police"

Answer 1

The word police more likely comes from the french word 'policer' meaning 'to restore order' which itself comes from the greek word 'politeia', which refers to an administration or state.

If there is a phrase that it supposedly stands for, it is most likely a 'backronym' (a definition phrase assigned to a word that already exists).

Answer 2

It´s an abbreviation of coppers which is an abbreviation of Bow Street Runners which is......

Answer 3

I don't believe so.  The word Police is derived from the latin word "polÄ«tÄ«a".

There is a German word Polizeiwissenschaft that means Science of Police.

The word "Gestapo" is an abbreviation, of sorts. Gestapo stands for 'Geheimne Staatspolizei', which means 'Secret State Police', if translated literally. It was founded in 1933, and by about 1936 the word had come to denote the entire n**i terror apparatus

The word "Cop" may be short for Constable On Patrol (England)

Answer 4

It's possible that someone retroactively created an interpretation of the letters, but it is actually a French word, based on the Latin "politia" -- "civil administration", which comes from the Greek "polis", for "city".

Just re-quoting Wikipedia here...

Answer 5

c.1530, at first essentially the same word as policy (1); from M.Fr. police (1477), from L. politia "civil administration," from Gk. polis "city" (see policy (1)). Still used in Eng. for "civil administration" until mid-19c.; application to "administration of public order" (1716) is from Fr., and originally referred to France or other foreign nations. The first force so-named in Eng. was the Marine Police, set up 1798 to protect merchandise at the Port of London. The verb "to keep order by means of police" is from 1841; policeman is from 1829. Police state "state regulated by means of national police" first recorded 1865, with ref. to Austria.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term...

From Middle French police, from Latin politia (“‘state, government’”), from Ancient Greek πόλις (polis), “‘city’”).

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Police

Etymology:

    in sense 1, from Middle French policier, from police conduct of public affairs; in other senses, from 2police

Date:

    1589

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/d...

Answer 6

The first few answers are highly correct. However, after some research, I have found that the words POLICE stand for Polite, Obedient, Loyal, Intelligent, Courageous, Efficient.

Maybe some teacher or parent created it and declared that the kids should be like that? :) lol