New retroacroetymythostupidnym

[Jeff Prucher]

No no no... "Pogue" is "kiss".  These personnel clearly got their cushy jobs by
kissing up to their superiors.  If it was about their soft, squishy bottoms,
they'd be called "mahons," and that would just be silly.  (I know, I know --
"pogue" is the imperative, and I'm not really sure whether "mahon" is "ass" or
"my ass" or what, but I really don't have time to try to make sense of Irish
morphology.)

Jeff Prucher

--- Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: New retroacroetymythostupidnym
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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).
>


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