Live data from Hacker News

Untitled topic

news.ycombinator.com

1–4 of 4 posts

Re: undefined

#3

> The fence is down. Most threat actors just haven’t copped on yet. cop on : https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cop_on#English

Never realized that this wasn’t a common expression in the US till now.

> “(Ireland, informal, UK, dialect) To come to understand; twig, cotton on.”

Re: undefined

#4
post #3

> The fence is down. Most threat actors just haven’t copped on yet. cop on : https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cop_on#English

Never realized that this wasn’t a common expression in the US till now. > “(Ireland, informal, UK, dialect) To come to understand; twig, cotton on.”

At first I thought that it must have been dictated as "caught on" and simply mistranscribed. TIL!

I like the first sense:

> (Ireland, informal, idiomatic) To stop behaving immaturely; behave, grow up. > You'll get in trouble with the boss if you don't cop on.

Irish is on my list of languages to learn, and I wonder if by chance this expression has roots in the Irish language.

---

Later edit: OED does not give the phrase "cop on" under cop (although perhaps it's in one of the supplements, which I don't have yet). But one of the general senses is "to catch", so I guess it's just a variation of the phrase.