FW: Modern War Words???

[Jonathan Lighter]

They even had "Gold Star Mothers" in World War I.  Families with a son in
the service were authorized to display a flag or a sign with a silver
"Service Star" on it. Families that had lost a son displayed a Gold Star.



AEF song (Air: "Where Do We Go From Here?"):

Mother, put up your Golden Star,
Your son's going up in a Sop.
The motor's junk, the pilot's drunk,
He's sure to take a flop. ...



USAAF song, WW2 (Air: "My Bonnie"):

Take down that Service Star, mother!
Replace it with one made of gold.
Your son is an aerial gunner:
He'll die when he's nineteen years old.

Ah, yes!
TS!
He'll die when he's nineteen years old!


HDAS vault (selection):

smoke, v. to destroy by gunfire or bombardment; (hence) to shoot dead.

1921 T. J. McCoy, in Hal Cannon, ed _Cowboy Poetry_   (Layton, Ut: GIbbs M.
Smith, 1985) 20: 'Fore...my six-guns start a-barkin',/ And I smoke yer
golderned village off the earth.

1985 Dale Dye _Run between the Raindrops_ (N.Y.: Avon) 291 [ref. to Vietnam
War]: We smokin' these motherfuckers, man.

1989 Gar Wilson _China Command_   (Toronto: Worldwide) 209: I want you
rat-droppings to know a Vietnam veteran - a real Vietnam veteran - is gonna
smoke your ass!


Cf. syn. Vietnam-era "light up."

JL


On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 4:37 PM, John Doe <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       John Doe <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: FW: Modern War Words???
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Shitbag" is the uncovered version of the cop-opera "dirtbag." "Pogey-bait"
> has been around so long as Marine Corps slang that I'll leave further
> comment to Jon. And "waddy/wadi/waddi," with the meanings cited, is an
> ordinary word, long since borrowed from Arabic via Spanish, for anyone who
> knows who Ken Maynard and his Wonder-Horse, Tarzan, were. For those of us
> who lived through The War, "gold-star family" is no "euphemism." "Smoke"
> reminds me of BE "bring smoke on" = "shoot at," but further deponent sayeth
> not, given the existence of the non-violent "smoke over" = "look over,
> examine; ogle."
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 3:26 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: FW: Modern War Words???
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I'm pretty sure Combat Tourist, Hero, Smoke and Shitbag are quite old
> > (smoke, for sure, and it's also old gang slang). That is, I've heard
> > them before 2002. Some (hero) came from period films (including sci-fi,
> > not just military docudramas). Others are documented more directly. Old
> > military might be a better source on this than a fly-by-night observer
> > like me.
> >
> >      VS-)
> >
> >
> > On 12/18/2013 6:13 AM, David Barnhart wrote:
> > > The following is from my nephew who was deployed in Afghanistan a
> couple
> > of
> > > years ago.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > David
> > >
> > > barnhart at highlands.com
> >
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> > 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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