Heist

As I edit a lot of crime fiction, today’s word is one that I come across regularly. The villains commit an armed robbery, make off with huge sums of money or valuable objects, maybe leave behind a dead body or two. It’s up to the sleuth or detectives to follow the clues and bring those who have carried out the crime to justice. To describe the robbery as a “heist” is linguistically acceptable for modern fiction, but what about in a historical context?

“Heist” is actually a variation of “hoist”, “representing U.S. local pronunciation” of the word according to the OED, and it was, therefore, originally American slang. The term was first coined by writer E.D. Sullivan in his 1931 novel Chicago Surrenders and was recorded in the journal of the American Dialect Society, American Speech, that same year, with the meaning of holding someone up or robbing at gunpoint.

So beware, armed robbers prior to 1931: you can’t carry out a heist! You’ll just have to make do with an armed robbery or a hold-up, the latter term having been in existence since 1878. Whatever crime you commit, though, you can be sure that you’ll have been caught by the end of the book.