Antedating of "oojah" and "oojahkapivi"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Undoubtedly relevant: here it seems to means "Turkish soldier."

Cf., also from an antipodean source:

1919 W. H. Downing _Digger Dialects_ (Melbourne: Lothian) 28 [ref. to
1916-18]:  HOOJAH—What's-his-name.

Downing was a sergeant in the 57th Battalion, Australian Imperial Forces,
in Egypt and France. He authored a memoir, _To the Last Ridge_ in 1920.

I'd try Turkish or Arabic for an etymon.

JL


On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 10:39 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "oojah" and "oojahkapivi"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Perhaps relevant, from "Letters From the Front" in The Tumut Advocate and
> Farmers & Settlers' Adviser (NSW) 23 August 1915, from an 11 July letter:
>
> "....The Hoojahs charged our trenches....I was shooting Hoojahs trying to
> creep back into their trenches...."
>
>
> http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/112267013?searchTerm=hoojah&searchLimits=l-textSearchScope=*ignore*|*ignore*|||l-word=*ignore*|*ignore*|||sortby=dateAsc
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2013 10:07 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] Antedating of "oojah" and "oojahkapivi"
>
> From db "The First World War: Personal Experiences":
>
> 1917 _Lines. The official organ of the Divisional Signal Company, RE_
>  (Nov.)
> 13: Things We Don't Expect ... A civi [sic] to understand the order "Take
> this ujakapivi and go to the oojah and bring some what's it."
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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