A prison psychiatrist; an attendant at an institution for the criminally insane. “What a wack this dude (fellow) is; he wrote a letter to Stalin asking him to get him sprung (released). The man with the white coat dropped the net on him yesterday and put him in obso (an observation cell).”

—Dictionary of American Underworld Lingo, Hyman E. Goldin, Editor in Chief, 1950.