Antedatings of "friendly fire"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Friendly" being the usual antonym of "hostile," it's hard to imagine any
other word coming naturally to mind, then or before then.

I'd suggest, however, that the phrase became lexicalized and familiar
through the title of C.D.B. Bryan's post-Vietnam book (1976).

JL


On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 3:50 AM, Hugo <hugovk at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Hugo <hugovk at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Antedatings of "friendly fire"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "friendly fire" n. (OED: 1918)
> "friendly" adj. (OED 2f: 1903)
>
> Here's two "friendly fire" antedatings, one also antedates the military
> adjective.
>
> ---
>
> First, the captain is concerned the proposed gun invention is too close to
> their own defensive brushwood barricade (abbatis) and will be destroyed by
> their own gun's fire.
>
> 1867 June 3, Captain Jasper Selwyn R.N., =E2=80=9CFurther Particulars
> Regar=
> ding
> Moncrieff's Protected Barbette System=E2=80=9D, Journal of the Royal
> United=
>  Service
> Institution, volume XI, number XLIV, page 256:
>
> [Begin]
> It is clear that the firing of very heavy guns, or the enemy's fire in
> return, would very seriously interfere with an abbatis, or anything of that
> kind, and it will only be something of the lightest character, or something
> that is placed at a considerable distance from the friendly fire, the fire
> of the gun itself, that would remain.
> [End]
>
>
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3DqS4wAQAAMAAJ&pg=3DPA256&dq=3D%22friend=
> ly+fire%22
>
> ---
>
> And a 1910 about firing on one's own soldiers in a review of a book about
> the Franco-German war (1870 =E2=80=93 1871).
>
> May-June 1910, P.E.T., =E2=80=9CThe Franco-German War=E2=80=9D, Journal of
> =
> the Military
> Service Institution of the United States, volume XLVI, number CLXV, page
> 552:
>
> [Begin]
> The slaughter of one's own troops by being fired into by their friends in
> rear. We are very much concerned over the question of avoiding loss from
> the enemy's bullets while passing through the danger zone, but what have we
> done to avoid our bravest fellows, the survival of the fittest, those who
> have gotten to the front and have held on to hard-won
> positions=E2=80=94wha=
> t have
> we done to avoid their being shot to pieces by friendly fire? Absolutely
> nothing that we have ever heard of=E2=80=94and yet this is one of the most
> =
> serious
> problems that confronts the leader of troops. Courage before the enemy will
> quail before a fire from the rear.
> [End]
>
>
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3DqS4wAQAAMAAJ&pg=3DPA256&dq=3D%22friend=
> ly+fire%22
>
> ---
>
> Hugo
>
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