Why is an informer called a "stool pigeon?"

During the early 1800s, American hunters, in the not-so-subtle process of blasting billions of passenger pigeons into extinction, would attract their quarry with decoy pigeons.

(Trigger alert: Gruesome detail revealing cruelty of 19th Century America coming up).

Sometimes hunters would sew shut the eyelids of a live pigeon, tie its feet to a bush or tree, and wait for its cries of distress to attract other birds.

These decoys were called "stool pigeons," a term that entered American English in 1826. But where did the "stool" come from?

Some dictionaries will tell you the decoys were tied to some sort of stool, though it's pretty hard to imagine hunters carrying tiny pieces of furniture with them into the field. "Rufus, you tote the shotgun, and I'll carry this here little stool."

In fact, most lexicographers believe the term "stool" is actually a variant of "stale," which once meant any person or thing that lures or snares. In "The Tempest," for instance, William Shakespeare used "stale" to mean burglar bait: "The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither for stale to catch these thieves."

According to H. L. Mencken, "stool pigeon" was being used as early as 1836 to describe a human lure — someone who infiltrated gangs of criminals and then informed on them to the police. The abbreviation "stoolie" first appeared during the 1920s.

When a "stoolie" drops a dime into a pay phone to call the police and rat someone out, he's said to "drop a dime" on that person. (If you're old enough to know what a pay phone is, please call me with your memories of passenger pigeons.)

As William Safire once noted in The New York Times, the verb "dime" alone can mean "to inform on." He cited this Philadelphia Daily News subhead about a mum suspect: "Won't Dime Drug-Using Pals, Feds Say."

A similar phrase, "the dime dropped," meaning "to suddenly understand something," apparently originated from hearing the hum of the dial tone when the dime falls in a pay phone.

And one of Safire's readers reported another meaning for "drop a dime on" — to sentence someone to a 10-year prison term. So, if a crook turned in by a stoolie receives a 10-year sentence, he's had TWO dimes dropped on him.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to [email protected] or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.