American Language Supplement 2 (163 page)

6
Scab
is traced to 1806 by the DAE and marked an Americanism.

7
George P. Peter says in
Sit-Down, American Speech
, Feb., 1937, pp. 31–33, that the term was first proposed in 1911, but that it did not come into general use until 1936.

8
Strike-Struck
, by Hugh Sebastian,
American Speech
, Oct., 1937, p. 235.

9
Organized in Chicago, 1905. An attempt at the etymology of the term is in How
Wobbly
Originated, by Richard W. Hogue,
Nation
, Sept. 5, 1923, p. 242.

10
Yellow-dog
as a general symbol of worthlessness is an Americanism, traced by the DAE to 1895. It is probably much older.

11
Called a
red-cap
by the English.

1
Supplement I, p. 598.

2
The Word
Commando
, by Elliott V. K. Dobbie,
American Speech
, April, 1944, pp. 81–90.

3
Army Talk, second edition; Princeton (N.J.), 1943, p. 230.

4
Snafu
(pronounced as a word) produced a numerous progeny,
e.g., susfu
, situation unchanged: still
fu; fubar, fu
beyond all recognition;
janfu
, joint Army and Navy
fu
, and
tarfu
, things are really
fu
, but Jeffrey A. Fleece says in Words in -
fu, American Speech
, Feb., 1946, pp. 70–72, that none of them ever “really became part of Army language.” Morroe Berger, in Army Language, the same, Dec., 1945, p. 262, adds
G. F. U
., a soldier who never does anything correctly;
F. O
., to avoid work, and various others. In
F. O. off
takes the place of the usual
up
.

5
It came originally from the French, and the NED says that it got into English as a euphemism. It is to be found in nearly all the standard writers before the Eighteenth Century.

6
Pronounced
arse
in England, but
ass
in this country. It has cognates in all the Germanic languages. It lies defectively hidden in
BAM
, the Navy name for a lady marine,
i.e., broad-assed marine
. During the war a naval officer of rank and fancy suggested that
leatherteat
be substituted, but this stroke of genius was frowned upon by the High Command. The lady marines were known officially as the
Women’s Reserve of the Marine Corps
. Their heroic record is given in the
Congressional Record
, Dec. 18, 1945, pp. A6042–43. That of their comrades-in-arms, the
WAVES
of the Navy proper, is in the same, Feb. 11, 1946, p. A685. That of the
SPARS
, who fought with the Coast Guard, is in the same, Jan. 25, 1946, pp. A237–38.
SPARS
was coined by the commander of the outfit, Captain Dorothy G. Stratton. She got it from the Coast Guard motto,
Semper paratus
, always ready.

7
Says Frederick Elkin in The Soldier’s Language,
American Journal of Sociology
, March, 1946, pp. 414–22: “Such terms, used by themselves or in combination phrases, are in almost every sentence a soldier says.” Elkin adds that “this constant and crude use of obscenity” often shocks recruits, but that “with constant exposure the shock lessens,” and “eventually, to a greater or less degree, practically all soldiers adopt it.… Violating the taboos of language gives feelings of courage and freedom,… strength and virility.” In the same issue of the same journal, p. 411, Henry Elkin (not the same writer), says: “By pronouncing those ‘dirty words,’ which he never dared to utter in the presence of Mom or his old-maid schoolteachers, the GI symbolically throws off the shackles of the matriarchy in which he grew up.” Testimony to their prevalence in the Army is to be found in many other discussions of soldiers’ argot,
e.g
., Warriors’ Slang, by Robert L. Wheeler, Providence (R.I.)
Sunday Journal
, Feb. 4, 1945, Section VI, p. 1, and American Army Speech in the European Theatre by Joseph W. Bishop, Jr.,
American Speech
, Dec., 1946, pp. 241–52.

1
Dave Breger claimed in
Time
, Feb. 26, 1945, p. 7, that he was the first to use
GI Joe
, to wit, in
Yank
, June 17, 1942. “I decided on
GI
,” he said, “because of its prevalence in Army talk … and
Joe
for the alliterative effect.”

1
A writer in the Baltimore
Evening Sun – GI
and Other Army Terms, editorial page, March 14, 1945 – reported that it was resented as much as the English
Sammy
had been resented in World War I. Said Wheeler, before cited: “The
GI
doesn’t mind being called a
GI
or a
Joe
by other soldiers … but there are standard four-letter words for what he thinks about being tagged
GI Joe
by, say, a guy like me.” Westbrook Pegler predicted in his column, Jan. 17, 1945, that
GI
would also soon fade, but the
GI Bill of Rights
apparently gave it a new lease of life.

2
By James F. Bender in Thirty Thousand New Words, New York
Times Magazine
, Dec. 2, p. 22.

3
Jargon by Command,
Saturday Review of Literature
, Nov. 24, p. 14.

4
The favorite of American headline-writers was the innocuous
nazi
, which almost completely displaced
kraut, jerry, heinie
and the
hun
of World War I.

5
War Words in England, by H. L. Mencken,
American Speech
, Feb., 1944, pp. 9 and 10.

6
Among the New Words, by I. Willis Russell,
American Speech
, April, 1946, p. 140.

1
Stateside
, Feb., 1947, p. 170.

2
He added that it was used by Walter Karig and Welbourn Kelley in Battle Report, Vol. I; New York, 1944. See also
Stateside
, by Harold A. Welch,
American Notes & Queries
, Sept., 1945, p. 88.

5
Pin-up Girl, American Notes & Queries
, July, 1946, pp. 55–56. He says that “at the outset of World War II” he offered General Powell, then in command at Fort Dix, a collection of 5000 photographs typifying “not the usual glamorous, show-girl type, but the girl back home, wholesome, sweet and vivacious.”

4
M. D. C. says in
American Notes & Queries
, Oct., 1945, p. 108, that it was first used in
Yank
, April 30, 1943. “Prior to that date,” he adds, “
Yank
had been fumbling for a tag-line with such commonplaces as
dream girl
.”

5
Said Fred Backhouse in Pre-War
Mae West, Newsweek
, Sept. 4, 1944: “[It] was thought up by an unknown Royal Air Force man before the war and was in common usage when I joined the slang-loving body in 1940. From being slang it moved up into official documents.… The
Mae West
is a bulky canvas and rubber affair, and when worn gives you a bust measurement like that attributed to the actress.”

6
War Words in England, before cited, p. 7.

7
On June 19, 1941 the Edinburgh
Evening Dispatch
headed an editorial
Blitz
Comes to Stay, and said: “After all, the word does express something that is not adequately expressed by any English word. And it has doubled its hold by becoming adjective and verb as well as noun.”
American Speech
, Feb., 1940, p. 110, shows that it had come into use in the United States in 1939.

8
Global Darkness,
American Notes & Queries
, Oct., 1942, pp. 99–100.

1
In Among the New Words,
American Speech
, April, 1946, p. 145, I. Willis Russell traces
V-day
to March 16, 1942,
VE-day
to Sept. 18, 1944, and
VJ-day
to the same day. See also Russell’s paper in the same, Oct., 1946, pp. 220–222.

2
Amgot
(soon shortened to
AMG
) seems to have been an English invention. In
Amgot
(editorial), July 19, 1943, the London
Daily Sketch
described it as “a new word” and said: “It stands for the
Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory
, which is headed by Major-General Lord Rennell.”

3
From
CB
, construction battalion. The New Practical Standard Dictionary says that the
seabees
were “given this name in 1942, soon after they were inaugurated to handle all construction for the Navy in combat zones abroad, such as air bases and landing places.”

4
A writer in
American Notes & Queries
, May, 1946, p. 30, said that it then seemed to be “on the way to becoming a permanent speech figure.” He cited its use in
Operation Dixie
, the CIO’s name for its attempt to organize Southern labor.

5
Let’s be Honest Again,
Tit-Bits
(London), Dec. 14, 1945: “In the services
scrounging
(or
liberating
, in the current slang) is not generally frowned on.”

6
War Words in England, before cited, p. 6. For the use of
quisling
see
Quisling, Life
, May 6, 1940. Major Vidkun
Quisling
was executed Oct. 24, 1945. Said the London
Times
, quoted by
Life: “Quisling
 … has the supreme merit of beginning with a
q
, which (with one august exception) has long seemed to the British mind to be a crooked, uncertain and slightly disreputable letter, suggestive of the questionable, the querulous, the quavering of quaking quagmires and quivering quicksands, of quibbles and quarrels, of queasiness, quackery, qualms and quilp.” The “august exception,” of course, is to be found in
queen
.

1
This application was filed on Jan. 23, 1939. The patent, No. 21,195,432, was issued on April 2, 1940.

2
Docket No. 4959, May 6, 1943. More details are given in Hail to the
Jeep
, by A. Wode Wells; New York, 1946. See also Whose
Jeep?, Tide
, Feb. 15, 1944, pp. 21–22.

3
PM
reported, March 28, 1944, that the sole survivor of this first batch, affectionately called
Gramps
, was deposited in the Smithsonian Institution a short while before. I take this from
American Notes & Queries
, April, 1944, p. 12.

1
J. K. Layton in
Life
, Aug. 10, 1942, p. 6.

2
Colby, before cited, p. 116.

3
I am indebted here to Mr. Ward Greene, editor and general manager of the King Features Syndicate, and to A Word-Creator, by Jeffrey A. Fleece,
American Speech
, Feb., 1943, pp. 68–69.

4
Repaired
Jeep
in ’37, Moline Mechanics Say, St. Paul
Pioneer Press
, June 6, 1944, and
Jeep, American Notes & Queries
, Jan., 1944, p. 155.

5
American Notes & Queries
, May. 1944, pp. 26–27.

6
Jeep
, by P. Burwell Rogers,
American Notes & Queries
, March, 1944, p. 189.

1
The Jerk,
Saturday Evening Post
, July 16. I take this from
American Speech
, Oct., 1938, p. 235.

2
What Happens When the Finance Adjuster Steps In, editorial page, Oct. 8.

3
Service Slang, by J. L. Hunt and A. G. Pringle; London, 1943, p. 41.

4
Time
, Sept. 22, p. 20.

5
Jeep
, by Richard Gordon McClosky,
American Notes & Queries
, Dec., 1943, pp. 136–37.

6
But Maurice Hindus reported in a Moscow dispatch in the New York
Herald Tribune
, March 28, 1944, that the Russians used
Willys
. Sc did
Tide
, Feb. 15, 1944, p. 22. I am indebted here to Col. R. G. Howie, Col. Francis V. Fitzgerald, Major Eugene C. Merrill, Lieut. W. C. Alcock, and Messrs. Nick M. Carey, F. H. Fenn, W. J. Konicek and M. A. White.

1
New York, 1942.