With alarm, the Daily Mail's Correspondent G. Ward Price reported that the horrid word "spiv" was "on every lip." He thought that it had something to do with people observed carrying large sums of cash, presumably to dodge taxes. A gentleman sardonically signing himself Sam Johnson asked in the Daily Telegraph: "Is 'spiv' . . . an abbreviation; if so, of what? Is it an importation; if so, from whence? Or is it perchance compounded from initials—'Social Parasites in Vehicles' . . . or the 'Society for the Promotion of Illegal Ventures'?"
Another Telegraph correspondent suggested that it was merely VIPS...
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