Antedating of "Snafu"

[Fred Shapiro]

Besides being an antedating, the passage below has some etymological
content.


snafu (OED Sept. 1941)

1941 _Kansas City Star_ 27 July 5A (Newspaperarchive)  The little
sergeant, upon arriving from Camp Robinson yesterday, naturally shied from
a long discussion of the etymology of a word that has been creeping into
his letters lately. ... The word was "snafu" and his family was curious
about its precise meaning. ... "Why snafu just means snafu," the sergeant
answered his mother's question.  "I thought everybody knew that by now."
His mother patiently explained that she never in her ife had heard the
word until he started using it.  The most she could make out of it was
that it was a catchall army slang phrase.  "Well, I guess that's right in
a way," the sergeant replied with the full force of a man sure of himself.
"It's right, only it's also something you wear on your head." ... I didn't
bring my snafu home with me because you only wear 'em out in the field.
You've seen pictures of 'em, Mom.  They're khaki and match our uniforms
and you keep the brim up when the sun's out and down when it's raining.
... "But why do you call them snafus, son?"  The sergeant went on to
explain that "snafu" was a term the 35th division outfits that went on
maneuvers over in Tennessee last month imported to Camp Robinson.  "But
surely the word didn't just pop out of somebody's head," his mother
protested. ... "Well, you hear two versions of that.  Most of the fellows
say that's the way it happened.  Then, after snafu got pretty well spread
around, somebody decided it was a bunch of letters that stood for words.
"What words, son?"  "The way I heard it, it goes 'Situation normal.  All
fixed up." ... I wish you wouldn't frighten us with such strange
expressions.  That time you wrote you'd been talking to your captain for
half an hour and everything was snafu, you got us terribly worked up. ...
Everything is strictly snafu.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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