New retroacroetymythostupidnym

[Amy West]

C'mon...with the mention of the term in another quote " It
usu.referred to support personnel holding soft rear-area jobs, like
clerk-typist," referring to a posterior position, it's obviously from
the Irish word "pogue" meaning "arse". :-) Cf. "poque mahone", The
Pogues, etc.

---Amy West

>Andrew Reeves     Sep 27 1999, 3:00 am
>Newsgroups: soc.history.medieval
>Date: 1999/09/27
>Subject: Re: Entymology of "Pogue"
>
>>What is a pogue?
>
>"Pogue," is, in U.S. military parlance, a derogatory term used to indicate
>one who is not directly involved in war-fighting, i.e., one who works in
>the company office ("office pogue"), or is simply in a Military
>Occupational Specialty other than infantry and/or combat arms.  For
>example, an infantryman wishing to insult a mechanic, bulk fuel
>specialist, etc. would call him a "pogue."  It may have, at one time, been
>used simply as a general insult, though by the mid-90's it had taken on
>this particular meaning.
>
>I have heard two explanations for the derivation of this word:
>
>1)  Derived from a Tagalog word for "prostitute," which also led to the
>term "poagie bait," which refers to candy bars, soda, ice cream, etc.
>
>2)  Derived from the acronym POG (Person Other than Grunt).