Military jargon

[Wilson Gray]

On Aug 19, 2004, at 11:54 AM, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Military jargon
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> He borrowed me a pen but only after he learned me to spell.
>
> dInIs

I'm sure that I've heard "borrow" used with its meaning reversed more
than once. But "learn" for "teach" is as familiar to me as "lightbread"
and "sweetmilk" in glass bottles, with the "top cream" floating
redundantly on top of it. Of course, that was "du'in' th' waw," before
everything got "homuh-gene-ized."

BTW, dInIs, shouldn't that be "learnt," as the Brits also say?

-Wilson Gray

>
>
>
>> Q: Am I losing it or did I once know a guy (in the late '70s) who
>> used "borrow" in a similarly "reversed" way to mean "lend" or "loan".
>>
>> "Could you borrow me that pen for a minute?"
>>
>> A: I am losing it, but I did know him, and I'm pretty sure he used
>> to say this.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>> Subject: Re: Military jargon
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---------
>>
>> On Aug 18, 2004, at 6:32 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>  Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>>>  Subject: Re: Military jargon
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>>  --------
>>>
>>>  Seems to me that the usual actions designated by "selling" and
>>>  "buying" are here reversed.
>>>
>>>  JL
>>
>> Yes. That's probably why it got weird for Doug when he started to
>> think
>> about it.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>>>
>>>  "Douglas G. Wilson" wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>  Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
>>>  Subject: Re: Military jargon
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>>  --------
>>>
>>>>  Q. I'm selling [willing to pay you to work] my burn-bag detail.
>>>> Want
>>>>  it?
>>>>  A. Yeah. I'll buy it from you for [do it for you if you pay me] ten
>>>>  dollars.
>>>>
>>>>  I assume that paying someone else to do your work was an Army-wide
>>>>  custom. But was this particular style of language in common use?
>>>
>>>  I don't know, but I've used this exact "sell [a burdensome duty,
>>> for a
>>>  negative 'price']" myself freely in recent years. Generally it has
>>> been
>>>  understood, but once it wasn't, and when I thought about it I wasn't
>>>  able
>>>  to remember where I first encountered it or indeed whether I might
>>> have
>>>  generated it independently (although I've surely heard it from
>>> others
>>>  too).
>>>  Anyway, it seems natural enough ... at least until I look at it too
>>>  closely. I'm pretty sure that I did not encounter it first in a
>>>  military
>>>  context.
>>>
>>>  -- Doug Wilson
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>         Asian and African Languages
> Wells Hall A-740
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
> Office: (517) 353-0740
> Fax: (517) 432-2736
>