Hinky Dinky

[paulzjoh]

sous-lieutenant, sous chef ( standard for number two in the kitchen) seems
pretty straight forward 'frenchifing' to me.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 12:10 AM
Subject: Re: Hinky Dinky


> I wonder: why "sous-lieutenant"? Wouldn't "second lieutenant" fit OK?
> Wasn't "second lieutenant" the name of this rank in the US in WW I times?
> This stanza presents the 77th as a very small or under-strength unit
> consisting of exactly two enlisted men and one officer of the very lowest
> rank; maybe "sous-lieutenant" was a conventional jocular term for
"[second]
> lieutenant" (maybe because it sounds like "sou-lieutenant" and the French
> sou of the time apparently was a very small coin, approx. one cent).
>
> Here are a bunch of stanzas:
>
> http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=2385
>
> -- Doug Wilson