Maricopa County Sheriff's Office controversies. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) is a law enforcement agency in Maricopa County, Arizona that has been involved in many controversies since 1995.
It was then used to mean 'a sudden state of activity (or inactivity) or state of mind', as in this early example, taken from William Warner's Albion's England, 1586: His seruants fear his solemn fittes.. The phrase 'fits and starts' is somewhat tautological, as both allude to sporadic activity.
I wonder if the insubstantial Mr Joyce was an attempt by writers to remove any suspicion that there was indeed a sexual element in the choice of term. Some writers on word history have certainly claimed that the shape of the stick and its position between the (always male) pilotâs legs led to the term.