Peaky Blindersとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From the peaked caps that gang members wore, and from blinder (“exceptional performance”) or from the practice of pulling a victims hat over his eyes so that he could not identify his attacker. There is a folk etymology claiming the "blinder" part of the name comes from the practice of stitching razor blades or weights into the peak of the cap and using it as a weapon to blind one's opponent, but this has been shown to be apocryphal.

固有名詞

Peaky Blinders

1. (historical) A street gang based in Birmingham, England, that operated from the end of the 19th century until after the First World War. Gang members had a distinctive appearance: close-cropped hair, bell-bottomed trousers, peaked caps, and a white scarf knotted at the throat.
   • 1899, The Central Literary Magazine - Volume 14, page 72:

     In our suburban retreats, less disturbed by Peaky pranks, though now and again hedges, fences, and flower beds testify to a visit, we are too apt to think it is no concern of ours, or to assert that, as regards Peaky Blinders at any rate, " I am not my brother's keeper".

   • 1989, David M. Downes, Crime and the City: Essays in Memory of John Barron Mays, page 26:

     In other cities similar gangs were known by different names. In Birmingham they were called “Peaky Blinders' or 'Sloggers', while in Manchester and Salford they were known and feared as 'Scuttlers' and later as 'Ikes' or 'Ikey Lads'.

参考

• peaky blinder