Hinky Dinky

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Second lieutenant" was indeed  the standard designation.

JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: Hinky Dinky
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I wonder: why "sous-lieutenant"? Wouldn't "second lieutenant" fit OK?
Wasn't "second lieutenant" the name of this rank in the US in WW I times?
This stanza presents the 77th as a very small or under-strength unit
consisting of exactly two enlisted men and one officer of the very lowest
rank; maybe "sous-lieutenant" was a conventional jocular term for "[second]
lieutenant" (maybe because it sounds like "sou-lieutenant" and the French
sou of the time apparently was a very small coin, approx. one cent).

Here are a bunch of stanzas:

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=2385

-- Doug Wilson

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