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dentistshatehim t1_j21ohnp wrote

Reply to comment by ladyeclectic79 in TIL The "Semolina Pilchard" mentioned in "I Am the Walrus" is a reference to Scotland Yard drug squad detective Norman "Nobby" Pilcher, who led a midnight drug raid on John Lennon's London flat in October 1968. He'd targeted musicians Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Eric Clapton and Donovan prior to that. by 54_actual

Nobby was a common nickname for law enforcement types, it came from British Soldiers who served in India in offices/admin. Nobi is Hindu for clerk.

Those officers would come back and get jobs in law enforcement and so the nickname transferred over. I’m not saying Pratchett didn’t name the character after Piltcher, but there was precedent already for police, particularly those more interested in bureaucracy and formality being called Nobby.

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CoffeeFox t1_j22fzth wrote

Pratchett's Nobby was definitely not the desk job type... nor the job type... nor was he certainly 100% human.

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ksdkjlf t1_j22lb8w wrote

Do you have a source for any of that? I can't find anything resembling the supposed Hindu word, nor any use of "nobby" for cops.

Perhaps you are thinking of the association of the nickname Nobby with the name Clark (which is derived from clerk)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobby

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