AWOL

[Dave Wilton]

> "America in So Many Words" (by Barnhart & Metcalf, Houghton
> Mifflin 1997) arbitrarily placed "AWOL" in 1863 not because
> of a specific citation for that date but because Mencken
> among others told the story of the Civil War use.

I'm suspicious about the Confederate sandwich board story. It is markedly
similar to other false folkloric etymologies like "for unlawful carnal
knowledge," "prisoner of mother England," and "working on government
service" where prisoners are forced to wear abbreviations denoting their
crimes.

It is a common feature of urban folklore for stories to be repeated with
details varying with the telling. It happened in New York, no Las Vegas, no
New Orleans. It was Reggie Jackson, no it was Lionel Richie, no it was Eddie
Murphy. In this case it looks like the basic story is prisoners wearing
letters denoting their crime, with the variables being the acronym in
question and the time and place of imprisonment. Perhaps the tale is
inspired by Hawthorne?

I did miss Mencken's mention of a Civil War origin, though. Throughout most
of "American Language" he attributes a WWI origin to it. It is only at the
end of Supplement II that he dates it to the Civil War. Unfortunately, he
doesn't provide any evidence for this early date.