"rookie" from "recruit"

[Garson O'Toole]

Stephen Goranson gave a great early cite for rookie, and Jonathan
Lighter noted that the 1868 date was accurate. Below is a link into
Google Books for the citation:

> The original cite really is from 1868 -  _Colburn's United Service Magazine_ (London) (May, 1868), p. 87.

 ...they would say it was a lot of raw rookies* who could not be
trusted either to draw a sword or spur a horse.
*Recruits.

http://books.google.com/books?id=zEDzAAAAMAAJ&q=rookies#v=snippet&q=rookies&f=false

Six years earlier in the same periodical there is an interesting use
of the word "rookery" to refer to a ship containing a large number of
young navy men. I think this provides a piece of evidence for the
derivation of "rookie" from "rookery". Douglas G. Wilson mentions this
possibility and cites Farmer & Henley in his post on this thread.
Jonathan Lighter mentions rookie as a diminutive of the rook bird.

Cite: 1862 February,  Colburn's United Service Magazine, Training for
the Royal Navy, Page 171, Hurst and Blackett, London.

Imagine, reader, particularly if you happen to have been an old first
lieutenant, what a rookery a ship so blessed must be! Imagine, we say,
two hundred of the wildest of the creation, of the average age of
thirteen, assembled in one ship, having a few old sloping petty
officers to watch over them!

http://books.google.com/books?id=jtgRAAAAYAAJ&q=rookery#v=snippet&

Garson

On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 10:20 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "rookie" from "recruit"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Mark Mandel wrote:
>> ....
>> Is there any evidence for how the military sense would have derived from the
>> bird sense?
> --
>
> I don't know of real evidence, but there are possibilities:
>
> (1)
>
> "Rookery" was applied to [disorderly] barracks (military and civilian)
> and the like. Farmer & Henley (1903) (under "rook"): <<Hence ROOKERY =
> (1) a gambling hell; and (2) any place of ill repute: _e.g._, (a) a
> brothel, (b) subalterns' barrack quarters, and (c) a neighbourhood
> occupied by a criminal or squalid population, a SLUM (_q.v._).>>
>
> (2)
>
> Barrère & Leland slang dictionary (1890) says: <<*Rookey* (army), a
> recruit; from the black coat some of them wear.>>
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
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