AWOL

[Dave Wilton]

> This story appears in Barnhart and Metcalf, "America in So
> Many Words". I just now checked the electronic version, and
> I don't see a footnote but there may be supporting material
> in the real book. Both Barnhart and Metcalf appear on this
> mailing list, I think.
>
> The story does NOT suggest that the true acronym pronounced
> /eiwOl/ or so was used in 1863: only the initialism or
> abbreviation, as I read the story. It is stated that the
> acronymic pronunciation was first used around WW II,
> IIRC. However the acronymic pronunciation apparently was used
> earlier, in the 1920's at latest, according to Mencken quoting
> somebody else quoting Krapp (Mencken, "American Language:
> Supp. II", 1948, p. 379).
>
> M-W claims 1918 for AWOL. HDAS shows a joke-variant from 1920.

Thanks. David Barnhart emailed me in response to my question. He could
provide no evidence of the 1860s use. I'll check his book when I hit the
library this afternoon.

He did point me to a c.1919 animated film in the LOC's American Memory
database, "AWOL--All Wrong Old Laddiebuck." (It's about the consequences of
going AWOL and joyriding with a flapper in a flivver. Of course, it is a
silent film so there is no definitive pronunciation. Although the flapper's
calling card reads "Miss Awol," so it hints that the term was pronounced as
a word.)