{"id":13721,"date":"2017-03-14T18:35:50","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T18:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=13721"},"modified":"2017-03-14T18:35:50","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T18:35:50","slug":"mug-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=13721","title":{"rendered":"Mug shots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/uglymugshot.gif\" width=\"185\" height=\"203\" style=\"float:right; margin:0 0 20px 50px;\" alt=\"An ugly mug on a mug\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When listening to the <a href=\"https:\/\/answermethis.wordpress.com\/2017\/02\/02\/episode347\/\">Answer Me This<\/a> podcast today I heard some discussion of mug shots, which got me thinking about the origins of that name.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/mug_shot\">Wiktionary<\/a>, a <strong>mug shot<\/strong> (or <strong>mugshot<\/strong>) is: <\/p>\n<p>1. A photograph taken of the head and shoulders, often from the front and in profile, usually taken in conjunction with somebody&#8217;s arrest.<\/p>\n<p>2. An unflattering photograph of a person&#8217;s face (<em>Britain slang<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>The police mug shot is also known as a police photograph or booking photograph. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mug_shot\">Wikipedia<\/a>, &#8220;Photographing of criminals began in the 1840s only a few years after the invention of photography, but it was not until 1888 that French police officer Alphonse Bertillon standardized the process.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mug<\/strong> is a slang word for face and <strong>shot<\/strong> comes from snapshot, another word for photograph, especially one taken quickly.<\/p>\n<p>The origins of the word mug are uncertain, but its use as a slang word for face possibly comes from the grotesque faces on some drinking vessels.<\/p>\n<p>Are there other interesting words for face in English or other languages?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When listening to the Answer Me This podcast today I heard some discussion of mug shots, which got me thinking about the origins of that name. According to Wiktionary, a mug shot (or mugshot) is: 1. A photograph taken of the head and shoulders, often from the front and in profile, usually taken in conjunction [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}