Black Maria

Unknown, though such vans were traditionally painted black. First attested in the 1830s.

• IPA^(key): /blæk məˈɹaɪə/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪə

Black Maria (plural Black Marias)

1. (slang) A police van for transporting prisoners.
   • 1867, Tony Pastor, “The Upper and Lower Ten Thousand”, in Tony Pastor’s Book of Six Hundred Comic Songs and Speeches:

     The Upper Ten Thousand have plenty of cash—
     At the Central Park, on the “Drive,” cut a dash;
     They have their light wagons, fast horses beside;
     In the free “Black Maria” the Lower Ten ride.

• paddy wagon

• Michael Quinion (2004), “Black Maria”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.