"shambo" (was " Charlie")

[Jonathan Lighter]

This occurred to me when I first encountered the term, but I seriously doubt it's so.  The Japanese (or Chinese, Koreans, or still later, Vietnamese) have never been routinely referred to by terms suggesting the all-too-familiar racial identification of "Sambo."  And if they had been, why alter the initial phoneme?

JL

"Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
Subject: Re: "shambo" (was " Charlie")
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a guess: Seems to be an alteration of "Sambo."

Gerald Cohen


> >Something of a mystery word for the Japanese was "shambo." It seems to have been restricted to the First Marine Division and was resurrected in Korea for the Chinese.
> >Any etymological suggestions?
> >
> >JL
> >
>

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