The Green Zone and Related Terms

[Jonathan Lighter]

Evidently "Maggie's drawers" was inspired by the title of a bawdy song on that very subject.

  A complete miss on a rifle range was formerly signaled by the waving of an indicator flag, to which the name was jocularly applied.  It was well known during World War II and after, and may still have some currency even thiough I believe that flags are no longer used.

  If the slang term "Maggie's drawers" was in use during World War I, the reference was probably too indelicate for many printed examples to exist.  I certainly never saw one during an extensive search for World War I slang many years ago.

  JL

"hpst at earthlink.net" <hpst at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "hpst at earthlink.net"
Subject: Re: The Green Zone and Related Terms
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When I taught rifle on a 22 the commands were:

Ready on the right.

Ready on the left.

All ready on the firing line.

Commence Firing.

The most important command which came later if something unexpected came up
was:

Cease firing!!!!!!!!

As a rifle instructor at a Boy Scout camp I only once had to give this
command when a kid suddenly showed up behind the target area, and you could
probably have heard me screaming Cease firing!!!!!!!! at the top of my
lungs for probably a mile or two.

I just talked with an old friend of mine who served in the marines in WWII
who told me that the lock, lock and load commands were used back in his
days only for high powered rifles such as the M1.

Anyone out there know the origin of Maggie's Drawers which meant that you
had missed the target.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Page Stephens


> [Original Message]
> From: Wilson Gray
> To:
> Date: 3/31/2006 10:47:00 AM
> Subject: Re: The Green Zone and Related Terms
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: The Green Zone and Related Terms
>
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>
> The most-recent rifle model that I had occasion to deal with was the
> M-14. With this model and the ones that preceded it, "locked" meant
> that the safety was on, thereby preventing the rifle from being fired.
> Hence, strictly speaking, a "locked-and-loaded" rifle was *not*
> ready to be fired.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 3/31/06, Baker, John wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "Baker, John"
> > Subject: The Green Zone and Related Terms
> >
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> >
> > The 4/6/2006 issue of The New York Review of Books includes a
> > brief discussion, on page 65, of Baghdad's Green Zone and some related
> > terms:
> >
> >
> > <> > from military parlance: when a soldier clears the chamber of his M-16,
> > he is said to have his weapon "on green," while "red" means that a rifle
> > is "locked and loaded" and ready to fire. Hence, this relatively safe
> > zone occupied by American "liberators" came to be known as the Green
> > Zone, while everything else outside, where weapons were ubiquitous and
> > gunfire was almost incessant, came to be known as the Red Zone.
> >
> > When one first lands "inside the wire," as the world inside the
> > Green Zone is known, one has the feeling of having gained access to some
> > large resort in which soldiers have been turned into staff.>>
> >
> >
> > The Review of Books, in spite of its intellectual credentials,
> > historically has not been a reliable guide to etymology. (For example,
> > "jazz" does not derive from the jasmine perfume worn by prostitutes.)
> > Can some of our members, more knowledgeable than I about the military,
> > confirm or rebut this information?
> >
> >
> > John Baker
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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