Hinky Dinky

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 23, 2004, at 6:42 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Hinky Dinky
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>
>> 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.")
>
> Apparently a Canadian officer of this rank has both designations
> ("second",
> "sous") (it's a bilingual country).
>
>> It's just that "sous lieutenant" was not a usual term in the AEF ....
>
> I believe there were Americans who served under the French flag

The 92nd Infantry Division (Negroes), United States Colored Troops,
United States Army. Since the U.S. Army was Jim Crow, black American
soldiers were assigned to the French Army. That any of the black
soldiers held commissioned-officer rank within the French Army is
probably unlikely.

-Wilson Gray

>  and who
> actually carried the rank "sous-lieutenant" (not in the 77th though,
> right?). [It would be a miracle if nobody ever made a joke like "I'm a
> sous-lieutenant. That means I get paid one sou a month." But maybe
> such a
> joke never caught on.]
>
>> Furthermore, the odd choice of words encumbers the stanza in 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.
>
> But wouldn't it be easier and more natural then to bowdlerize by
> replacing
> the bad word (whatever it was) with "second" instead of "sous"?
>
>> 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!
>
> Then maybe "sous" appears as a euphemism or an error for the
> blasphemous
> "soused" (or even "sozzled")?
>
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>