klick

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wilson, if slang terms were indeed rarely committed to paper, my job would be so much easier....

As is so often true, your G.I. memories set an informal antedating standard for "click/ klik/ klick."  Maybe someone can search the _Army Times_ before 1960.

When did the Army switch to the metric system for map-reading ?  My impression has been that during WWII, "miles" were the standard.

JL
Harrold Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Harrold Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: klick
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If memory serves, G.I.'s in my day - '50's and '60's - used the
spelling "klik." Needless to say, as is the case with any slang term,
it was only rarely committed to paper.

-Wilson Gray

On Sep 7, 2005, at 1:13 PM, Victoria Neufeldt wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Victoria Neufeldt
> Subject: Re: klick
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> I hear and see this used in Canada especially for 'kilometres per
> hour'. Very useful, since the phrase is something of a mouthful. I
> don't recall seeing it spelled with a 'c'.
>
> Victoria
>
> Victoria Neufeldt
> 727 9th Street East
> Saskatoon, Sask.
> S7H 0M6
> Canada
> Tel: 306-955-8910
>
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society
>> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
>> Of Harrold Wilson Gray
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 7:15 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: klick
>>
>>
>> "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
>>> Poster: Dave Wilton
>>> Subject: Re: klick
>>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> -----------
>>> --------
>>>
>>> Quoting "Mullins, Bill" :
>>>
>>>> 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
>>>
>

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