[Ads-l] bunkmate

[Jonathan Lighter]

Alison K. Hoagland, _Army Architecture in the West_ (Norman: U. of Okla.
P., 2004), p. 65:

"Until after the Civil War, the army practiced double-bunking - that is,
sleeping two to a bunk. Not only were there two men to each wooden bunk,
but the bunks themselves were two-tiered. During the Civil War bunks were
often stacked in three tiers."

Hence "bunkie," in HDAS and elsewhere.

JL

On Fri, Jun 22, 2018 at 11:32 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> Bunkmate | Definition of Bunkmate by Merriam-Webster
> https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bunkmate
> Definition of bunkmate. : a person occupying the same sleeping quarters as
> oneself or as another especially in one of the armed services; especially :
> such a person occupying the next bunk or bed.
>
> This definition is a little different from my understanding of this term.
> If the bunks are double-decked, then a bunkmate is the person who sleeps in
> the other bunk above you or below you, as the case may be. If the bunks
> aren't double-decked, then you have barracksmates, who may also be your
> roommates, according to the configuration of the barracks. At one time, in
> a six-degrees-of-separation situation, one of my roommates - the bunks in
> the room were doubled-decked, but we weren't bunkmates -  was the son of
> the commanding general of the 3rd Armored "Spearhead" Division, in which
> Elvis served when he was guarding America's freedom.
>
> On Fri, Jun 22, 2018 at 8:35 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Astoundingly absent from OED.
> >
> > 1852 in GB: About two o'clock in the morning, his bunkmate was aroused by
> > his kicking and striking the air with great violence.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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