Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"]

Tue Jul 27 16:31:43 UTC 2010

I did not serve in submarines in my navy career, but 100% of those I was
acquainted with would correct anyone who pronounced it sub-mariner,
informing them that it was submarine-er.  I never really thought it made
much difference, but they were a little touchy on the subject.

I never really liked it when they called our ships of the line "surface
skimmers", or when they proclaimed that there were only two types of ships:
submarines and targets.

Bill P
----- Original Message -----
From: "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 12:00 PM
Subject: Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"]

> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> Subject:      Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A friend of mine who entered the Naval Academy in about 1968 and, upon
> graduation, went into submarine service, and spent his career in
> submarines,
> told me in no uncertain terms that sub-mariner was considered an insult of
> the thems-fightin-words variety, the proper term being submarine-er. I
> don't
> know about WW II, but it seems odd the attitude re pronunciation
> preference
> would have been different, given the beneath-a-mariner implication of the
> former. No? (History and Discovery Channels are always saying sub-mariner.
> Surprising no one has corrected them.)
> DAD
>
> If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
>
>
>> (Back During The War, there was a
>>sea-dwelling superhero named "SubMARiner" and the crew of a submarine
>>were also subMARiners. Nowadays, "submaRINer" appears to have become
>>the norm.)
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 7:20 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>>
>> "thousand-parsec stare" gets about 9 rgh, all fairly recent I think.
>> Looks
>> like it's gotten well established in sf. Of course it could easily have
> bee=
>> n
>> independently reinvented.
>>
>> m a m
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 5:05 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> FWIW, at one time, "thousand-yard stare" was so hip that a
>>> science-fiction author whose name I can no longer recall used it in
>>> the modified form, "thousand-parsec stare" in a story whose title I
>>> can no longer recall in an sf mag whose name I can no longer recall.
>>>
>>> Photos of the thousand-yard stare by David Douglas Duncan
>>>
>>> http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/photography/holdings/
>>>
>>> http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0405/ddd01.html
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 10:56 AM, Jonathan Lighter
>>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>> ------
>>> >
>>> > The appearance - in big print - in Harper's must have helped assure
>>> > the
>>> > term's permamence.
>>> >
>>> > JL
>>> >
>>> > On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
>>> > Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>> ------
>>> >>
>>> >> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>>> >> Caveats: NONE
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> >
>>> >> > >
>>> >> > >
>>> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> >> > ----------
>>> >> > >
>>> >> > > Should the OED add "thousand-yard stare"?  Wikipedia's article of
>>> >> > > that name dates it to the title of a Life Magazine painting in
> 194=
>> 4
>>> >> > > (although that used "2,000").  Google Books gives about 57
>>> >> > > results
>>> >> > > before 1951, all snippets, and some journals and so needing
>>> >> > verification.
>>> >> > >
>>> >> > >
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> Wikipedia was wrong (surprise!).  Tom Lea's painting appears in the
> Ju=
>> ne
>>> >> 11 1945 issue of Life:
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=3D_EkEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=3DPA61&dq=3D%22tom%20=
>> lea%2
>>> >>
> 2&as_pt=3DMAGAZINES&pg=3DPA65#v=3Donepage&q=3D%22tom%20lea%22&f=3Dfals=
>> e
>>> >>
>>> >> and is not titled there.   I've tried to straighten up the wiki a
>>> >> little, but it would take a bigger re-write than I will do to really
> f=
>> ix
>>> >> it.
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> Legit 1944 cites:
>>> >>
>>> >> [no author given; interview with George E. Jones, UP war
> correspondent=
>> ]
>>> >> "War Reporter Home to Rest,"_Oregonian_ [Portland OR] 4/6/1944 p 9
> col=
>>  2
>>> >> "And they have that 'thousand-yard stare' a look of utter fatigue, as
> =
>> if
>>> >> somebody had placed a film over their eyes."
>>> >>
>>> >> Hansford Martin, "Thousand-yard stare"  [short story] _Harper's
>>> >> Magazine_ v. 189 (November 1944) p. 523-8
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>>> >> Caveats: NONE
>>> >>
>>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>>> truth."
>>> >
>>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> -Wilson
>>> =E2=80=93=E2=80=93=E2=80=93
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=E2=80=93=E2=80=93a
> strange=
>>  complaint to
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> =E2=80=93Mark Twain
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> ---
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"--a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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