"Devil Dogs": new evidence

[Jonathan Lighter]

 The past fifteen or twenty years has seen a recrudescence of the term "Devil Dogs" for U.S. Marines.  The name was introduced during World War I, but seems to have been widely regarded as embarrassingly "cornball" twenty-five years later.  Recently the pendulum has swung back, at least in the Marine Corps.

  "Devil Dog" was nearly omitted from HDAS as being a bit too close to a contrived PR term for comfort, but good sense prevailed on the principle that terms genuine but poorly documented in standard dictionaries should be given the benefit of the doubt when possible.

  HDAS's primary cite comes from August, 1918.  This etymological note heads the entry: "the often repeated assertion that the term translates a hypothetical G *Teufelhund allegedly applied at the battle of Belleau Wood or Chateau-Thierry is unsubstantiated."

  And shall forever be so because an earlier ex., prior to said battles, has now come to hand, courtesy of America's Historical Newspapers.  (BTW, sometimes the search engine finds it and sometimes it doesn't: demand the whole paper for Apr. 16.)

  1918 _The State_ (Columbia, S.C.) (Apr. 16) 5: New Name for Marines. "Leathernecks" Now Referred to as "Devil Dogs." Washington (Apr. 15)--That time honored nickname borne by United States marines for generations--"leathernecks"--is no more. At least, the Germans have abandoned it, according to reports from France.
  In its place the Teutons have handed the sea soldiers one with far more meaning. They call the American scrappers "teufel hunden," which in English means "devil dogs." "Gee, those guys rank us with the 'Ladies from hell,' " declared a grizzled old marine sergeants [sic], swelling with pride, when he heard the new title.

  OED has a 1914 for "leatherneck" (marine) but HDAS beat that with an American 1907, and a British 1903 from no less than Kipling.  OED offers a British cite from as far back as 1871 in the sense "soldier," which is the closest anybody has ever come to proving that U.S. "leatherneck" goes back before the 20th C.  (British sailors do not seem to have distinguished "marines" from "soldiers" very carefully in those days, both words having a contemptuous usage in naval circles.  The same was apparently true in the United States.) FWIW, I have never encountered an American "leatherneck" before 1907, though AHN located one in 1908.

  Also BTW, the ga-ga tone of the "Devil Dog" dispatch is typical of war-related "feature" journalism of the period.  And not atypical of similar coverage in WWII.

  JL






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