[Ads-l] Antedatings of "friendly fire"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Another WW2 example:

1944 Cleveland Plain Dealer (June 24) 1: Two of the even bigger Douglas
Skymasters have been brought down by mistaken "friendly" fire. ...[T]he
wonder is more "mistakes" are not made.

While overlooking the occasional earlier occurrences of _friendly fire_,
Earl R. Anderson concludes (as did I, supra) that Bryan's book did more
than anything else to lexicalize the phrase in the fratricidal nuance:

2017 E. R. Anderson _Friendly Fire in  the Literature of War_  (Jefferson,
N.C.: McFarland)  4: "It was a nameless transgression until 1976, when
journalist C.D.B. Bryan published _Friendly Fire_, an expose' of  an
administrative cover-up after the accidental death of Private. Michael
Mullen by misplaced artillery on feb. 18, 1970. "Friendly fire" progressed
from a book-title to a household word [sic] on Apr. 22, 1979, when 64
million viewers watched _Friendly Fire_, an ABC-televised movie...."

JL

On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 7:27 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Antedatings of "friendly fire"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Friendly" being the usual antonym of "hostile," it's hard to imagine any
> other word coming naturally to mind, then or before then.
>
> I'd suggest, however, that the phrase became lexicalized and familiar
> through the title of C.D.B. Bryan's post-Vietnam book (1976).
>
> JL
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 3:50 AM, Hugo <hugovk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Hugo <hugovk at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Antedatings of "friendly fire"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > "friendly fire" n. (OED: 1918)
> > "friendly" adj. (OED 2f: 1903)
> >
> > Here's two "friendly fire" antedatings, one also antedates the military
> > adjective.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > First, the captain is concerned the proposed gun invention is too close
> to
> > their own defensive brushwood barricade (abbatis) and will be destroyed
> by
> > their own gun's fire.
> >
> > 1867 June 3, Captain Jasper Selwyn R.N., =E2=80=9CFurther Particulars
> > Regar=
> > ding
> > Moncrieff's Protected Barbette System=E2=80=9D, Journal of the Royal
> > United=
> >  Service
> > Institution, volume XI, number XLIV, page 256:
> >
> > [Begin]
> > It is clear that the firing of very heavy guns, or the enemy's fire in
> > return, would very seriously interfere with an abbatis, or anything of
> that
> > kind, and it will only be something of the lightest character, or
> something
> > that is placed at a considerable distance from the friendly fire, the
> fire
> > of the gun itself, that would remain.
> > [End]
> >
> >
> >
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3DqS4wAQAAMAAJ&pg=3DPA256&dq=3D%22friend=
> > ly+fire%22
> >
> > ---
> >
> > And a 1910 about firing on one's own soldiers in a review of a book about
> > the Franco-German war (1870 =E2=80=93 1871).
> >
> > May-June 1910, P.E.T., =E2=80=9CThe Franco-German War=E2=80=9D, Journal
> of
> > =
> > the Military
> > Service Institution of the United States, volume XLVI, number CLXV, page
> > 552:
> >
> > [Begin]
> > The slaughter of one's own troops by being fired into by their friends in
> > rear. We are very much concerned over the question of avoiding loss from
> > the enemy's bullets while passing through the danger zone, but what have
> we
> > done to avoid our bravest fellows, the survival of the fittest, those who
> > have gotten to the front and have held on to hard-won
> > positions=E2=80=94wha=
> > t have
> > we done to avoid their being shot to pieces by friendly fire? Absolutely
> > nothing that we have ever heard of=E2=80=94and yet this is one of the
> most
> > =
> > serious
> > problems that confronts the leader of troops. Courage before the enemy
> will
> > quail before a fire from the rear.
> > [End]
> >
> >
> >
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3DqS4wAQAAMAAJ&pg=3DPA256&dq=3D%22friend=
> > ly+fire%22
> >
> > ---
> >
> > Hugo
> >
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> >
>
>
>
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