[Ads-l] "unass" = 'leave', 'cause to leave' (military)

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Thu Sep 28 01:54:09 UTC 2017


New to (nonmilitary) me, but apparently well established for at least 50 years.  Jon, do you have anything in the HDAS files for this that indicates how far back it goes? Wilson et al., can you push it back beyond Vietnam?  

Here’s Grant’s entry from 2004 (https://www.waywordradio.org/unass/):

unass v. to dismount or disembark (a vehicle); to get off of (something); to unseat (someone); to leave (somewhere). Editorial Note: This term dates back to at least the 1960s and the Vietnam War. It is especially associated with the military, from where it has spread to politics and aeronautics.

LH
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list