Hinky Dinky

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes. In fact, "sous lieutenant" was (and I believe still is) the standard designation in the French army for "second lieutenant" (or British Great War "subaltern.")  It's just that "sous lieutenant" was not a usual term in the AEF ("sou" lieutenant seems to me like an unwarranted stretch). Furthermore, the odd choice of words encumbers the stanza ain singing; just compare the more tripping rhythm of the normal "second lieutenant" in the same slot.(Homer had to deal with similar considerations.) I suspect the stanza was bowdlerized for print in some way, represents some sort of mistake, or else was hardly ever sung, or that it was totally factitious.

Given the temper of the '20s, when the stanza was published in a songbook, my guess is bowdlerization - not of a bawdy reference but of something that today would seem pretty innocuous.

In the mid-20s the Broadway comedy-drama "What Price Glory?" which was the first mildly realistic portrayal of American soldiers on stage, was the target of protests because it showed American soldiers cursing, carousing, complaining, questioning the value of the war and - wait for it! - DRINKING!

More in keeping than "sous lieutenant" with the derisive tone of the "77th" stanza and so many others, would be something like,

         The 77th went over the top,
         A drunken lieutenant, a Jew and a Wop.

JL









paulzjoh <paulzjoh at MTNHOME.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: paulzjoh

Subject: Re: Hinky Dinky
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sous-lieutenant, sous chef ( standard for number two in the kitchen) seems
pretty straight forward 'frenchifing' to me.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas G. Wilson"
To:
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

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