Grift and Graft

Whenever I heard the word grift or grifter, my mind travels to an era with the likes of Charles Ponzi. It’s the era of cement sneakers and flappers, when new technology like radio was leading the way for a wild stock market bull run.

That association makes sense, because the word came into common usage around that time. There was a considerable surge in organized crime with the rise of Chicago’s gangland scene, led by Al Capone, and reporters needed a way to differentiate more petty crimes from these more organized (and brutal) endeavors.

Grift was a natural fit for this need. It wasn’t for the Al Capones of the world, but instead for the petty criminals who would sell you ten fake stock certificates before disappearing from town the next day.

It’s also notable that the Romani word grip means to take, and it’s entirely possible that this word developed first in the American criminal underworld on this basis, before being adopted by newspapers and the like. The fact that grip was alrea…