Winston Churchill, KBO

[Jonathan Lighter]

In OED? Not hardly.

1941 in _ Kenneth Young, ed. _The Diaries of Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart_ II
107 (N.Y.: Macmillan, 1973) [Google Books]: KBO...Winston: 'Keep buggering
on, of course.' HG (quick as lightning) : 'Ah, yes, Mr
Prime Minister, but you can't go on fighting rearguard actions all the
time!'

1984 Piers Brendon _Winston Churchill: A Biography_ (N.Y.: Harper): All that
[Churchill] could do was, in the words of his oft-repeated motto, to KBO -
"Keep Buggering On" - and Churchill himself embaked on the battleship _Duke
of York_.

2008 John Lukacs _Blood, Toil, Tears & Sweat_ (N.Y.: Basic  Books) 136: Two
days later [Dec. 9, 1941] he said that what the British must do is KBO, Keep
Buggering On.

Numerous other exx., all associated with Churchill in WWII.

Have never encountered this use of "buggering" before (surely it isn't
a mere expletive).

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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