German Words 1939-45

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 4/23/2003 10:49:55 PM Eastern Standard Time,
rayrocky7 at HOTMAIL.COM writes:

>      I am writing a paper on German Words used in WWII and are now used in
> American English.

the following are actually from the 1930's:

flak (anti-aircraft)
gestapo
stormtrooper

I think I have somewhere a 1946 citation for "volkswagen" (with a small "v")

Notes:  "flak" has created some German-English hybrids such as "flak jacket"
and "taking flak".

Does anyone have an etymology for "flack" (meaning a spokesperson)?  I can't
help wondering if the derivation is that a flack takes a lot of flak, or
perhaps puts a lot of dangerous words into the air.

"Stormtrooper" is originally from World War I, where it was used to mean a
particular type of infantry soldier.  The German original is something like
"stossentruper".  These infantry were used by the Germans in their Western
Front attacks in the 1918 and the word may also have been used by the
Austrians in the Battle of Caparetto in 1917.

           - James A. Landau