Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. one’s father.

1838		in South West Hist. Quarterly XXX (1926) 147: Sent my packet [...] to pop in the post office in N Orleans [DA].
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 191: Mammy, where’s pap?
1888		Detroit Free Press 22 Dec. n.p.: Jerry wants a new pop right bad [F&H].
1895		E. Pugh Street in Suburbia 18: Pop’s in bed wi’ the rheumatiz.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 325: Wait for yer pop.
1914		M. Glass Abe And Mawruss 108: ‘Say, Pop,’ Sydney began, ‘how about you for twenty till Saturday night?’.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 87: My pop’s richer than you are.
1930		K. Brush Young Man of Manhattan 17: Poppa in Porland.
1934		‘Cumberland Gap’ in Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs 275: I’ve got a woman in Cumberland Gap, / She’s got a boy that calls me ‘pap’.
1937		Jennings & Madge May the Twelfth: Mass-Observation Day-Surveys 3:15: ‘Will you cook my bacon with yours pop?’ Father: ‘D’you want your eggs poached or fried?’.
1940		P. Larkin letter 9 Dec. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 3: Pop was here on Saturday [...] bearing my (official) copy of/from ‘the Listener’ & a cheque for 2 gns.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 167: The crowded flat with his mom and pop and six little brothers and sisters.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 6: My pop used to take me out on a trawler when I was just a baby.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 223: Being the daddy to someone who is the son, another, therefore, being the sonny to that pop.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 74: My moms and pops always wanted Hector and me to go to college.
1997		G. Sikes 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 210: Once upon a time I used to call him Poppy — like my dad or something.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 15: I nodded. ‘I’ll remember, Pop.’.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 36: Yo, your pop groovier-than-a-motherfucker.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 17: ‘I’m still pissed off at your father.’ [...] ‘Yeah, pop said you might be upset’.

2. an older, respected man; often as nickname.

1844		‘Julianna Johnson’ cited in AS (1965) XL:2 131: And I’ll go down to ole birginy, And marry pop Miller’s sister.
1889		Sporting Life (Philadelphia) 29 May 2/6: ‘Pop’ Chadwick is among those who are opposed to the wire [DA].
1912		Van Loan ‘The Phantom League’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 190: I want you to meet Pop Frisbee, one of my old friends.
1918		G. Bowerman diary 24 June in Carnes Compensations of War (1983) 106: I was still awake when ‘Pop’ Campbell came down.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 204: Old Pop Kipling never said a truer word than when he made that crack about the f. of the s. being more d. than the m.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 1: A dark boy aged fourteen was peering through the side window [...] trying to make out the bowed figure of ‘Pop’ Bradon, Clarrie’s assistant.
1954		B. Appel Sweet Money Girl 63: The Pop of our crew.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 158: The front door, Stilton, old dance partner, is what one presumes Pop Steppings has in mind [...] Correct, Steppings?
1969		P. Theroux Murder in Mount Holly (1999) 16: Want to know what the Jerries were really like? Ask Pop Gibbon.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 61: It’s like that old pop wrote about it being the best of times and the worst of times.

3. a term of address to an old(er) man.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 12/2: Young Wiggins: ‘See here, pop, I be too little to lick you, and you be too big to lick me. Let’s call it a day.’.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 243: See here, pop; what date is to-day?
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 144: ‘Does she mean the young un’s really hers?’ he said. ‘Sure, pop [...] Hers for keeps.’.
1922–24		O.O. McIntyre White Light Nights 138: ‘Well, Pop, what they got you for?’ asked a youthful alcoholic.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 290: Aw, pop, why dontcha spill it?
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 232: I’m sorry I disturbed ya, pop.
1954		Oh Boy! No. 20 9: I’ll take your gold Pop – and keep your hands away from your guns if you want to stay healthy.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 24: ‘Pop’ was not a family endearment. The name had become fastened to Papaseppe Garveli by the neighborhood [...] he had been ‘Pop’ from almost the first day he opened for business.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene xi: Ain’ worth it, pop.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 115: OK, pop. You come down when you can.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 62: ‘Dis-disorderly?’ ‘Aye, pop, drunk and disorderly.’.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 147: More like a doll’s house from now on, Pop.
1992		A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 90: How’re ya, Pop?

4. (US gay/prison) a masculine lesbian.

1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 32: Big Bertha [...] She was head pop. Not very pretty. [...] But she would’ve been a swell-looking boy. [Ibid.] 254: pop The girl who takes the male role in a lesbian relationship.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 82: The bulldykes’re called ‘pops’ at Hudson – and the social workers can’t stop the pops from anything.