flak

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not at all - it's absolutely true.  "Flak" means exploding shells from antiaircraft artillery(something of a quaint notion in the missile era).

But "flak vest / jacket" as worn by ground troops reasonably allows for the idea that it merely means shrapnel, bullets, etc.

This is the sort of semantic broadening which is utterly abhorrent to geezerly types like yours truly, but must seem absolutely inconsequential to any nonspecialist born after 1970 or even 1960.

JL

Tom Kysilko <pds at VISI.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Tom Kysilko

Subject: Re: flak
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At 3/30/2005 02:58 PM -0800, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>This misunderstanding of "flak" as shrapnel or bullets must be decades old :

So the derivation from the German "Flugzeug Abwehr Kannonen" (or something
like that) is an etymythology???

I want my mommy.
--Tom Kysilko


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