USMC nicknames [Was: Re: Fw: [BCK2P2S4etal] Fw: Re: Navy slang (1927)]

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Titless WAVE" and "jarhead" were both reportedly current  in WWII.  As in WWI, however, U.S. Marines were mostly known as "leathernecks" and "gyrenes."  Both of these retain currency but now sound somewhat old-fashioned. "Seagoing bellhop," another WWI term, is essentially obsolete. "Jarhead" is now usual.

"Devil dogs," still current, started out as a propaganda term toward the end of WWI, allegedly translating a German army epithet. No one has turned up any proof that the Germans ever used such a term ("Teufelhunde") for the Marines or anybody else.

Have they ?

JL

Page Stephens <hpst at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Page Stephens
Subject: Fw: [BCK2P2S4etal] Fw: Re: Navy slang (1927)
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I forwarded the navy slang article to an old friend of mine who was in =
the Navy, and he replied:

Fw: Re: Navy slang (1927)


Actually, in my time yeomen were 'titless waves' and marines were 'jar =
heads' while civilian clothes were 'civvies.'
Cheers, Robert



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