detective, a. and n.
(dɪˈtɛktɪv)
[f. L. dētect- ppl. stem: see detect v. and -ive. (The n. has been adopted in mod.F. from English.)]
A. adj. Having the character or function of detecting; serving to detect; employed for the purpose of detection. detective camera, a term formerly used for a hand camera adapted for taking instantaneous photographs.
| 1843 Chamb. Jrnl. XII. 54 Intelligent men have been recently selected to form a body called the ‘detective police’..at times the detective policeman attires himself in the dress of ordinary individuals. 1862 Shirley Nugæ Crit. vii. 303 Every author now looks after his mind, as if he were a member of the detective police. 1881 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 28 Jan. 44/2 A form of the detective camera, in which the finding arrangement and the stock of slides are omitted, is in progress. 1882 E. P. Hood in Leisure Hour Apr. 227 Instances of the detective power of ridicule. 1882 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxxii. 1 [It] is detective as to our character. 1882 Year Bk. Photogr. 27 Among novel apparatus we may mention..Mr. Bolas' so-called ‘Detective Camera’. 1888 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 18 May 305 The subject of detective cameras is capable of considerable subdivision. 1893 T. Bent Ethiopia 62 Regardless of..strangers, and my wife's detective camera. |
B. n. One whose occupation it is to discover matters artfully concealed; particularly (and in the original application as short for
detective policeman, or the like) a member of the police force employed to investigate specific cases, or to watch particular suspected individuals or classes of offenders.
private detective, one not belonging to the police force, who in his private capacity, or as attached to a Detective Agency or Bureau, undertakes similar services for persons employing him. Also
attrib., as
detective agency,
detective anecdote,
detective fiction,
detective film,
detective force,
detective-inspector,
detective novel,
detective novelist,
detective-sergeant,
detective service,
detective story.
| 1850 Dickens in Househ. Words 13 July 368/1 To each division of the Force is attached two officers, who are denominated ‘detectives’. Ibid. 369/1 The two Detectives of the X division. 1852 ― Bleak Ho. xxv. 251 Detective Mr. Bucket. 1856 Ann. Reg. 185 Some London detectives were despatched, to give their keen wits to the search. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. Pref. 12 There are critical detectives on the track of every author. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 39 The criminal turned detective is wonderfully suspicious and cautious. 1876 D. R. Fearon School Inspection §59. 90 If the inspector is to be anything more than a mere detective of faults. |
| 1872 E. Crapsey Nether Side N.Y. 56 All the large commercial cities are now liberally provided with ‘Detective Agencies’, as they are called. 1959 Encounter XII. v. 30 The detective agency girls. |
| 1850 Dickens in Househ. Words 14 Sept. 577/1 (title) Three ‘detective’ anecdotes. |
| 1922 ‘Sapper’ Black Gang ii. 28 What I'm going to tell you now..may seem extraordinary and what one would expect in detective fiction. 1928 R. A. Knox Footsteps at Lock iii. 26 The Muse of detective fiction..cannot tell a plain unvarnished tale. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 June 316/5 This is one of the tales in which M. Simenon indulges his characteristic inquisitiveness about people while preserving the ‘puzzle’ convention of detective-fiction. |
| 1911 C. N. Bennett et al. Handbk. Kinematography xiii. 100 Moreover, the bulk of modern motion picture detective films are of the Nick Carter and Sexton Blake variety. |
| 1849 Alta California (San Francisco) 24 Dec. 3/3 The badge is of such a character that, when it becomes necessary to employ any of them [sc. policemen], as a detective force, they can be removed. 1850 Dickens Repr. Pieces in Wks. (1858) VIII. 307 I'm an Officer in the Detective Force. 1888 A. C. Gunter Mr. Potter of Texas xx, Sergeant Brackett, of the British detective force. |
| 1898 Westm. Gaz. 17 Nov. 7/2 Detective-inspector Egan said that he arrested the prisoner upon the charge. 1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Oct. 649/2 Some long-suffering detective-inspector at Scotland Yard. |
| 1924 19th Cent. May 718 We note that the plot of a detective novel is, in effect, an argument conducted under the guise of fiction. 1942 ‘N. Blake’ in H. Haycraft Murder for Pleasure p. xxii, The detective-novel proper is read almost exclusively by the upper and professional classes. |
| 1926 E. M. Wrong Crime & Detection p. xx, One temptation the detective novelist does well to avoid. |
| 1850 Dickens in Househ. Words 13 July 369/2 The Detective sergeant..fairly owned..that he could afford no hope of elucidating the mystery. 1969 Listener 24 Apr. 583/2 Interest centres on the man sent in to investigate, Detective-Sergeant Demosthenes de Goede. |
| 1848 Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton II. iii. 31 A well-known officer in the Detective Service. |
| 1883 A. K. Green (title) XYS, a Detective Story. 1905 G. K. Chesterton Club of Queer Trades iii. 96 The detectives in the detective stories. 1911 F. Swinnerton Casement ii. 75 ‘Douse the glim’..that old phrase in the detective stories he had read. 1963 Auden Dyer's Hand 153 The detective-story society is a society of apparently innocent individuals. |
Hence
deˈtectiveship, the office or function of a detective;
deˈtectivist,
nonce-wd., one who professedly treats of detectives.
| 1877 J. Hawthorne Garth III. ix. lxxv. 184 In my amateur detectiveship. 1892 W. Wallace in Academy 24 Sept. 261/1 It may be hoped that Dick Donovan is the last of the detectivists in fiction. |