go hermantile (hermentile, hermatile, hermetile, hermitile)

[Grant Barrett]

A listener to the radio show turned me on to the expression "go hermantile" ' go crazy' or 'get angry."

He's retired from the US Navy and works for USN now as a civilian. He says he's  heard it his whole career and most people do not pronounce the N. It's not in HDAS, DARE, GDOS, or OED.

Urban Dictionary has entries: "Acting disproportionately crazy to a situation; running amok and generally reacting badly."

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hermatile
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hermitile

It's discussed here by veterans/military types:

http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104706
http://www.submarinesailor.com/bbs2/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=3892&posts=10

The relevant citations below show it is definitely associated with the military, though I've found plenty of more informal non-military uses on the Internet.

1926. American Legion Monthly. Google Books date, snippet view. "Nah," muttered Boots, "the Old Man'll be hermantile in a minute or two. Listen,
Milishy, get out on the runnin' board, an' see can you see the curves in the
road, or shell holes or anything."

1928 (July 4) Nashua (Iowa) Reporter. "Chevrons" by Leonard Nason, serialized. Military fiction about the AEF in WWI, first published in book form in 1926. "Hey, there, Red Cross, you see that barehead bird down there taking off his breech cover? Keep your eye on him; I think he's started off his conk." "That so?" said the medical corps man. "I'll just amble down there. What we need now to make this picnic a success is a couple of shell-shockers runnin' hermantile up and down this ditch."

1949 "Playtime is Over" Clyde Brion Davis. (Google Books date; Amazon has 1950; a scholarly guide to Davis's papers at Yale says the background materials  are from 1944 and the publicity and reviews for it are for 1949. http://goo.gl/vOAVN ) p. 183, according to Google Books. "The next day I went into a debate with myself on the topic: 'Resolved, that Sergeant Steve Lewis go into hiding from the Senhora de Pantana in order to avoid enormous and unseemly complications.' But the debate did not go far. It was immediately evident that to hide out would be impossible unless I wished to drive myself hermatile, to use the old Army word. Things had gone too far already and I was completely 'tontas ya locas' about Senhora de Pantana."

1962 "The Sand Pebbles." Richard McKenna. p. 508. "They really lost their military fear." Farren slurped coffee. "So've I. I hate to think it, sitting here now. But if Bordelles and the chiefs came down to the main deck to kick us into line, I'm scared I'd go hermentile right along with the rest of 'em."

1988 "Henry Miller's Hamlet Letters." (1988 is the book publishing date; info is from Google Books snippet, so I could not retrieve the letter date).  p. 106 "You had never imagined there was a sun but only this black spot in front of the eyes, only yourself and your idea of life. Then suddenly the cataract is removed, suddenly you see! And like the young man by the ocean shore you go hermantile."

1995 "Official Privilege." PT. Deutermann. (NP) "You assumed wrong. You specifically said not to hurt her, so I just did the monster-mash routine--gave her the word, just like you wanted, and then beat feet when she went hermantile. I figured you'd be on the receiving end next, shit she was saying."

1998 "Zero Option." P.T. Deutermann. (NP) "I give up," he said. "I get the same thing you did. One number off. One fucking number." She nodded. "Now what?" she asked. "We tell McCallister, that's what. He's the sergeant." "He gonna go hermantile."

2007 "Killing Che" Chuck Pfarrer. Ex-military.  (NP) "You send that up there, and the Directorate of Operations is going to go hermatile."

Dubious speculation:

DARE has a possible lead at "herm up," quoting from the Scottish National Dictionary at "harm" n. v. II 1 "to grumble, to be peevish or fretful" but it's usually of the weather.

http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?dtext=both&query=Harm

A doubtful lead is "Hermetic," defined in New Oxford Dictionary of English as "relating to an ancient occult tradition encompassing alchemy, astrology, and theosophy" and "difficult to understand because intended for a small number of people with specialized knowledge." I mention it here only for completeness: basically only the "difficult to understand" might correspond with the usages given in the cites above.

Little chance this is related, but for completeness' sake: There is a substance called "hermatile" in this article from the Canadian Magazine of Science and the Industrial Arts," April 1887, in a patent record related to the "manufacture of composite pavements, floors, platforms, etc." filed by a Peter Stuart from Edinburgh, Scotland. "...with or without the addition of ground or pulverized hermatile, magnetic or black oxide or other iron or or coloring matter, for the manufacture of pavements..."

http://goo.gl/98sOR

It is similarly mentioned in a classified ad for an auction in Bombay as "ore hermatile" and is among other hardware and scrap metal.

There is or was a company called "Heremetile" that seemed to make raw materials for manufacturing.

Grant Barrett
grantbarrett at gmail.com

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