[Ads-l] ten-shun; ten-hut

[Wilson Gray]

> Movies say otherwise.

Ain't that the sad - and incredibly annoying - truth? Basic training
doesn't need to
be made even more difficult as a consequence of having to unlearn all that
movie
crap.

On Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 8:30 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Movies say otherwise. ; )
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 10:50 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > He's going up the barracks steps, that guy whose shoulders bear the
> > bright
> > > gold bars. He's entering the door. Inside some one yells, "Atten-HUT!"
> >
> > Either the writer doesn't really know or the protocol has changed since
> > 1943. Second
> > lieutenants randomly entering the barracks, for no particular reason, is
> a
> > common occurrence.
> > The first person aware of the entrance of an officer shouts "At ease!",
> > which means, "cease talk
> > or action of any kind." The officer replies with the countermand, "Carry
> > on!", meaning, "go back
> > to whatever you were doing."
> >
> > The pronunciation, "tench-HUT" is also used.
> >
> > On Fri, Mar 5, 2021 at 11:53 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > On Fri, Mar 5, 2021 at 10:20 AM Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > 1943 _News-Chronicle_ (Shippensburg, Pa.) (Dec. 3) 5: Camp Crowder,
> > > > Mo....The GI pronunciation is something like "Ten-HUT!" Almost every
> > > > command for execution of drill orders is made with the letter "h,"
> > > > regardless of what it may have been originally. "March" becomes
> "harch"
> > > and
> > > > "face" becomes "hace"and so on.  Believe it or not, there really is a
> > > > logical reason for it. The reason is that the "h" sound can be
> started
> > > out
> > > > with a powerful stab of the diaphram [sic]...which gives body and
> > > carrying
> > > > quality to the command. Any word used as a command of execution in
> > drill
> > > > and which is not needed for understanding the order becomes simply
> > "Hut"
> > > or
> > > > Hoo!" "Hut!" is a very powerful word.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Slightly earlier for "atten-hut":
> > >
> > > ---
> > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.nytimes.com/1943/02/14/archives/shavetail-tells-all-he-describes-with-an-eye-on-the-sergeant-his.html
> > > New York Times, Feb. 14, 1943, Sunday Magazine, p. 10, col. 1
> > > Second Lieutenant George Bristol, Camp Rucker, Ala.
> > > He's going up the barracks steps, that guy whose shoulders bear the
> > bright
> > > gold bars. He's entering the door. Inside some one yells, "Atten-HUT!"
> > > ---
> > >
> > > --bgz
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > 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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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
>


-- 
- 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

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