Irony

[Jonathan Lighter]

Both "D Day" and "H Hour" were originally used in U.S. Army
communications and were evidently first applied in preceding days to the
start of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Sept. 24, 1918.

The date of the Okinawa landing (April 1, 1945) was for some reason
designated "L Day."

JL

On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 11:11 AM, George Thompson
<george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Irony
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > A historian I am reading remarks of a British attack on Louisbourg
> > (Nova Scotia) during the Seven Year's War that "On D-Day, ironically
> > June 6, three divisions of invaders made their way toward three
> > landing beaches ..."
> >
> > How can a date in 1758 be an "ironic" choice when the date that is
> > commonly associated with the name "D-Day" was nearly two centuries later?
> >
> > Joel
>
> Since the current meaning of irony/ironic is "marked by a slightly amusing
> trivial coincidence", as I noted earlier this month, then the fact that an
> incident in the Seven Year's War took place on June 6 can be ironic.
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at att.net>
> Date: Monday, June 21, 2010 9:04 pm
> Subject: Irony
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>  > A historian I am reading remarks of a British attack on Louisbourg
> > (Nova Scotia) during the Seven Year's War that "On D-Day, ironically
> > June 6, three divisions of invaders made their way toward three
> > landing beaches ..."
> >
> > How can a date in 1758 be an "ironic" choice when the date that is
> > commonly associated with the name "D-Day" was nearly two centuries later?
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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