Army Slang (April 1917)

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:58 PM -0400 8/3/03, Duane Campbell wrote:
>On Sun, 3 Aug 2003 20:49:36 -0400 Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:
>
>
>>     Some people are going to be surprised, however, when they hear
>>  guardsmen referring to "ole Bill."  "Ole Bill" is not a departed
>>  comrade, merely "corned Willie" under another alias.
>
>My godfather was an early 20th century Yalie. Hanging on my study wall is
>his hazing paddle, an intricately carved piece, a work of art really. It
>is dated November 26, 1912 and presented to "Old Bill Rosenfield."  I've
>always wondered about that. Why would anyone call an 18 year old man "Old
>Bill"?
>
>I am wondering now whether this was a hangover from the Spanish American
>war. In that era nicknames were applied without a great deal of
>originality, much like "blonde bombshell" was used for any flaxen haired
>girl in the 50s. Is there any evidence of how long "Ole Bill" might have
>remained current?
>
Maybe it would have been more like "Fast Eddie" or "Easy Ed(die)",
"Sad Sam", "Big Jim", etc.--there are a bunch of similarly recycled
epithets of this type, used especially in sports contexts.