Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗A short bar used by thieves to wrench doors open; a jimmy. · A picklock, skeleton key; a tool for opening locks. · A man who performs tasks that traditionally belong to a woman; (originally) an effeminate or gay man. · A pear-shaped bottle covered with straw, in which olive oil is sometimes brought from Italy; a Florence flask.
To pick a lock, to open with a betty. · To be overly attentive to someone or something.
From Betty (nickname for “Elizabeth”). In thieves’ cant a tool for wrenching locked doors is also called a Bess (from “Elizabeth”) or a Jenny. The “attractive woman” sense may relate to the character Betty Rubble in the cartoon The Flintstones.
This page abbreviates 2 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [],
"links": [
[
"Betty",
"Betty#English"
],
[
"cant",
"cant"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A short bar used by thieves to wrench doors open; a jimmy.",
"A picklock, skeleton key; a tool for opening locks.",
"A man who performs tasks that traditionally belong to a woman; (originally) an effeminate or gay man.",
"A pear-shaped bottle covered with straw, in which olive oil is sometimes brought from Italy; a Florence flask."
],
"tags": [
"slang",
"archaic",
"derogatory",
"US"
],
"recordId": "35fb56d810b41e21dd80d88fab199249b651aebaa9af819b5a409a626cb09add",
"rawRecordSha256": "323761da2a1593908592f5e9054eafa194bcd76ec02fe73d3cf7b9fc9ad85370",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 317022
},
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To pick a lock, to open with a betty.",
"To be overly attentive to someone or something."
],
"tags": [
"archaic"
],
"recordId": "7594fb2981f3aab3d5d0ed6b7255a13b30455ba8946e1c66a7142babd31177c4",
"rawRecordSha256": "75ebc14966e5ca927513ef5034f734aa643870fabed6912df69f035f8205866d",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 317023
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 2,
"glosses": 0
}
}