klick

[Harrold Wilson Gray]

"Klick"/"click" was the usual term used in the U.S. Army Europe when I
was in it in the late '50's and early '60's. My feeling  is that it was
already Army-wide way before 'Nam as a  consequence of the American
occupation of countries that ordinarily measured distances in
kilometers. But, of course, it takes somebody to write it down for it
to count.

-Wilson Gray

On Sep 7, 2005, at 3:17 AM, Dave Wilton wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: klick
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Quoting "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>:
>
>> klick [kilometer] OED has 1967.
>>
>> "New Slang Evolves in Viet Nam War", Hal Boyle (AP), Dallas Morning
>> News,
>> June 12 1965 sec A p. 12
>> "But no one calls a kilometer a kilometer.  It's a "click". "
>>
>>
>
> Robin Moore's "The Green Berets" uses "click" a lot. I believe that
> was a 1965
> book--maybe 1964.
>
> --
> Dave Wilton
> dave at wilton.net
> http://www.wilton.net/dave.htm
>