Wars and ConflictsΒ permalink
Famous Military Jargon
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Message 1.Β
Posted by vesturiiis (U13688567) on Thursday, 12th February 2009
I came across a saying in the Royal Canadian Navy
"Slice the main Brace" which I believe refers to a generous tot of rum for the crew, any other special "orders" you know? -
Message 2
Posted by LairigGhru (U5452625) on Thursday, 12th February 2009
Surely you must mean "Splice the mainbrace".
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Message 3
Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Thursday, 12th February 2009
The one that always springs to mind is "Fill your boots", which is still around, but has its roots at least as far back as the C17th, and is a reference to cavalrymen finding a way of carrying loot.
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Message 4
Posted by vesturiiis (U13688567) on Thursday, 12th February 2009
LairigGhru
Splice would make more sense but any idea the origin or what it literally means
I don't think it is a true Canuck saying??
Vesturiis -
Message 5
Posted by Backtothedarkplace (U2955180) on Thursday, 12th February 2009
Hi
The expression is "splice the mainbrace" its a RN expression thats spread to other navies that have based themselves or taken their traditions from the Royal Navy.
The mainbrace was one of the thickest cables on a sailing ship, it ran from the bow sprit, the front of the ship to the stern, the back. via every mast head. So it was also one of the longest. Replacing it was arduous work and could take most of the day. so as a reward the crew would be issued an extra tot of rum.
As steam took over the expression fixed itself to the extra issue of sprits.
When the bastards did away with the daily rum issue, last tot July 31st 1970. It was still allowed that the skipper could in celebration, or to mark extra effort by the crew order an issue of spirits, the order fro this is still "splice the mainbrace" -
Message 6
Posted by NICK (U1182021) on Thursday, 12th February 2009
Well were ever it came from it was certainly
a good idea because I have been in a situation
during WW2in a Malta convoy after being attacked
by enemy dive bombers on and off all day' we had
the unpleasant task of towing one of our own
Destroyers just be'fore night'fall and as we were
sitting ducks for the dive bombers the Skipper
said that if we could keep these planes off till
it got dark he would splice the main brace
, and Jack would walk on water for that Tot of
rum and I am here today to prove it -
Message 7
Posted by Nickiow (U13798335) on Friday, 13th February 2009
A quick selection or more or less related things.
"Getting down to the nitty gritty"
Term used in Trans Atlantic slave trade, cheapest bread had the most grit and would be used, females kept in the hold as sex pets would be covered in nits, so the term referss to being allowed access to the females as a sailers perk.
"Between the devil and the deep blue sea"
The last board put into the ship was the known as the devil board because it had to be warped and shaped to fit into the prow, and was done from the seward side, hence betwenn the devil and the deep blue sea, which was oft times where teh carpenter ended up!.
"A Hair braned scheme"
In the days of wigs, cavalry officers would havea scrappy hair cut and an expensive wig, which when a charge was in the offing they put into their sdaddle bags, resulting in the officers looking like hairy brained things, and everyone knowsa cav charge was not going to bea walk in the park either.
"Keep it under your hat"
Where you kept you bow string to keep it handy for use withnout loss of tension. -
Message 8
Posted by Nickiow (U13798335) on Friday, 13th February 2009
Origins of why ranks are called what they are is oft times of intrest, UK adoption of corporals in the Napoelonic period for instance, which you can read in books dealling with the history of the UK Army, but there is planty online as well. -
Message 9
Posted by suvorovetz (U12273591) on Friday, 13th February 2009
For what's it worth, you could say that it's kind of military: the legend has it that French Bistros have their origins in the Russian occupation of Paris in 1815, when the troops shouted "bystro" (quickly in Russian) when ordering drinks.
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Message 10
Posted by LairigGhru (U5452625) on Friday, 13th February 2009
NICK,
Thanks for your testimony from those grim times. Good to hear from someone like you. -
Message 11
Posted by Nickiow (U13798335) on Friday, 13th February 2009
Your all welcome stuff not shared oftimes becomes stuff lost.....
Worth your salt, comes from the salt ration that kept you alive in some climates.
Whats your talent etc, talant was a weight a porter or slave carried, the cheque was the Ottoman term for making sure at delivery the poprter slave had the nsame weight of talent as he started out with.
Threshold, cross the threshhold etc, comes from the times when a board was put down across the entrance to keep the wheat and the chaff seperate when the women threshed the cerial crop inside, and doubled up as a draught exluder. -
Message 12
Posted by Nickiow (U13798335) on Friday, 13th February 2009
To go Do lally.
Uk on service in India, would wait for a berth back to the Uk at this place and would get drunk and wench untill the ship was in place, sometimes this resulted in a very drunk and disease ridden retunering soldier.
Lots of Indian words came back from India, Blighty for instance. -
Message 13
Posted by flipacross (U9997641) on Friday, 13th February 2009
Nickiow
UK adoption of corporals in the Napoelonic period for instanceΒ
A slight correction is due here. The rank of Corporal had been in use in the British army for more than a hundred years before then, as shown by the Duke of Marlborough's soldiers nicknaming him Corporal John.
What happened during the Napoleonic wars was that chevrons were adopted as the symbol of rank for NCOs. -
Message 14
Posted by ambi (U13776277) on Friday, 13th February 2009
SNAFU was always my favourite, with lots of contemporary applications.
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Message 15
Posted by Nickiow (U13798335) on Saturday, 14th February 2009
Thanks for the clarification, what i ment was that "chosen men" ala as seen in Tv`s sharpe, became lance corporal in teh officail scheme.
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Message 16
Posted by 2295wynberglad (U7761102) on Saturday, 14th February 2009
There must be many terms that have come from the forces, this depends on how far back you wish to go. Just a few that come to mind.
Flash in the Pan or going off a half cock from the days of muskets.
Stand to or stand fast (Army) Holdfast (RN)
Swing the lead (RN) Shooting a line (Army)
Square Meal (RN)
As For words that came back from India.
Shampoo
Pantaloons/Jodpurs
Bungalow
Pyjamas
Buckshees
As for Do Lally From Dio Lahl Li (the place of the red devil I think) Also refers to one who goes nuts hence dolally tap. Once upon a time there was a British army camp there. -
Message 17
Posted by LairigGhru (U5452625) on Saturday, 14th February 2009
Does anyone know where "mufti" comes from?
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Message 18
Posted by Nickiow (U13798335) on Saturday, 14th February 2009
Miniumum use of force, tactical intervention, but its not called that anymore.
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Message 19
Posted by flipacross (U9997641) on Saturday, 14th February 2009
LairigGhru
Does anyone know where "mufti" comes from?Β
Ultimately it derives from the Arabic word for a senior cleric entitled to deliver a fatwa (e.g. the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem) but passed into English via India. It acquired its English meaning of military personnel wearing civilian dress from the habit off duty officers had of wearing eastern looking casual attire.
The fount of all that is true, Wikipaedia, quotes the Hobson-Jobson dictionary of Anglo-Indian usage as saying it was "perhaps originally applied to the attire of dressing-gown, smoking-cap, and slippers, which was like the Oriental dress of the Mufti" -
Message 20
Posted by 2295wynberglad (U7761102) on Saturday, 14th February 2009
Thats true, I can remember folks saying be glad to be in mufti again, thats going back to 1945,
mind you I weas just a wee sprog then.
Should have picked that up before. -
Message 21
Posted by Triceratops (U3420301) on Saturday, 14th February 2009
"Deadline", a fence which ran inside the main stockade at Andersonville prisoner of war camp. Anyone crossing the fence would be shot without warning by the sentries, hence deadline.
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Message 22
Posted by White Camry (U2321601) on Monday, 16th February 2009
"The Bitter End" - the other end of an anchor line; the end attached to the ship. Why it would be so bitter remains a mystery to me.
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Message 23
Posted by White Camry (U2321601) on Monday, 16th February 2009
"In the rear with the beer" was a saying among US grunts in Vietnam. It referred to someone with a desk job.
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Message 24
Posted by Mani (U1821129) on Friday, 20th February 2009
I think 'The full nine yards' is the most obvious, from the nine yard machine gun belt...
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Message 25
Posted by Nickiow (U13798335) on Friday, 20th February 2009
Before we had machine guns, we had bespoke garmnents, a full suit took 9 yards of material, if you had a cheaper of the rack one, you got it not from the whole 9 continuous yards cloth, but an asortement of pieces that could be used.
REMF, Rear erea mother in one generation become PONTI in another, People of no taqcticvale importance.
Just as the 9 yards of the tailor become used in ww2 for air craft munitions, iirc its also a naval term for a set of sail. -
Message 26
Posted by OUNUPA (U2078829) on Saturday, 21st February 2009
I like the expression from the Naval slang- 'show a leg'. There were times when women were allowed to sleep on board, they were permitted to lie in and the call 'show a leg' was made to see that it really was a woman who was enjoying this privilege. Brits themselves sometimes don't find it strange to talk about very interesting things for any foreigner who comes to Britain.. Say a 'double-decker' bus in the middle of a crowded city, when they replenish their wardrobes, they can speak of a new 'rig-out', a small boy may be referred to as a 'nipper', a man without any money is ' on his beam-ends', another can be worried by events that he says he is being 'driving round the bend'. But ALL these, and hundreds of other familiar expressions, are OLD nautical terms !
And even the centre aisle of a church is called the NAVE . But it derives from the Latin word....for a SHIP !!!!
+ Brits were inclined to adopt words from other nations in the course of their wars and their commerce.
'Skinner' and 'schooner' are Dutch, 'admiral' is Arabic, 'galleon' is Spanish.
As for 'jollyboat'. It can be traced in Danish, Swedish and Dutch.
The list is endless.
P.S,Suvorovetz, there are two words in the KGB jargon - 'otdel' and 'upravleniye' which don't appear to go with the same meanings in the original Russian translation- I mean the word 'otdel' , which means 'section' ( in the Russian for civilians ) and which is closely followed by the word 'uptavleniye' , meaning 'directorate'or even 'senior division'. Have you a guess about the real meanings of these two KGB idioms within the KGB jargon ? -
Message 27
Posted by delrick53 (U13797078) on Saturday, 21st February 2009
As an ex Marine, much of the terminology was Naval.
So perhaps you can answer this one? A morning visit to the "heads" for a number 2 was always called a "morning George". Any ideas? -
Message 28
Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Saturday, 21st February 2009
George the Third. And very disrespectful for a "Royal" Corps.
One that is still current in all three services, and has drifted into the wider world; "interview without coffee", meaning an officer getting a reprimand from a superior officer. -
Message 29
Posted by delrick53 (U13797078) on Saturday, 21st February 2009
Thanks LW,
Seems so obvious now. I was a Republican even then, and had I known of the Royal connection would have enjoyed it even more. I know that my Scottish Puritan Grandfather called the same act "giving birth to an Englishman", something I believe originated with one of the Royal Scots battalions during the Great War. -
Message 30
Posted by Nickiow (U13798335) on Saturday, 21st February 2009
George the III, in cockny ryming slang, is a turd.
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Message 31
Posted by JB on a slippery slope to the thin end ofdabiscuit (U13805036) on Saturday, 21st February 2009
During the postwar garrisoning of the Falkland Islands before the completion of the Mount Pleasant 'Death-Star,' troops were accomodated amongst the local civillians who were quickly christened Bennies after the wooly-hatted halfwit in Crossroads.
An order went out that this was to cease forthwith. And so the locals were then referred to as the 'stills'. -
Message 32
Posted by OUNUPA (U2078829) on Sunday, 22nd February 2009
George the III, in cockney rhyming slang, is a turd.'- yes, such 'secret' word combination- the George the Third belongs to the same raw as the Richard the Third which goes with the double meaning-turd+ bird=girl .
The word 'girl' is also associated in cockney's 'language' with the Pall Mall= rob my pal= twist and twirl = the mother of pearl.
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There's a word 'goon' which among British POWs in Germany and Italy was humorously denoted a German guard .
Webster explains 'goon' correctly as having been adopted from a comic strip by the cartoonist E.C.Segar, who, the creator of Popeye and other creatures , died in 1938. Segar invented the Goons , a sub-human race , and derived the name 'probably from gorilla and baboon'. Segar's goons had been known , from before the war, to many Brits, but the term 'goon' was hardly used by then before 1940.
Then, in 1942 ( if not already in 1941 ) came on stage the word 'jeep'. Very interesting but 'jeep' also derives from a Segar comic strip. 'Popeye' contained a wonder worker , a rat-like creature named Eugene , whose basic contribution to the world's speech consisted of the sound 'jeep'. Hardly less of a wonder worker was the American van ..or..'multipurpose cross-country vehicle' as Webster defines it- which, precisely because it was a general purpose, or G.P,, vehicle, came to be associated with the 'jeep'-uttering Eugene. -
Message 33
Posted by Mark (U2073932) on Sunday, 22nd February 2009
FUBAR
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Message 34
Posted by OUNUPA (U2078829) on Sunday, 22nd February 2009
S.N.E.F.U., RedCoat. It's time for R and R ...
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