[Ads-l] "Definitive glossary of modern U.S. military slang"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Re: "Self-licking ice-cream cone" in cited glossary:

2020 Rep. Denver Riggleman (R.-Va.) on  _CNN Newsroom_ (Dec. 15):  There's
a term that we like to use in the military when the confirmation bias got
exploded...or you have a conclusion that you're trying to fit the narrative
to it, and that's "a self-lickin' ice-cream cone."

JL

On Sun, Oct 4, 2020 at 4:56 AM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> Is there anybody here young enough to know? <sigh!>
>
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2020 at 6:41 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > When I went back to look, I ran ont one those dreaded paywalls.
> >
> > But not before I read that it's "painful" for modern soldiers to watch
> > Afghanistan war movies that use obsolete words like "chopper" and "GI."
> >
> > Are these formerly indispensable words now considered "square," as
> today's
> > "cats and chicks" say?
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sat, Oct 3, 2020 at 5:32 AM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Interesting!
> > >
> > > Of course, _gun_ has been around forever. _Ratf#@&_ reminds me of the
> > > "SARF!" < _S[hitty-]A[assed]R[at-F[#@&]!_, an expression of random
> > > annoyance, of my day. And the euphemism, _ratfink_. also comes to mind.
> > > _Rumint_ should probably be spelled "RUMINT," like the standard
> > > COMINT/Siver Section, ELINT/Blue Section, and SIGINT/Orange Section -
> > > communications intelligence, electronics intelligence, and signals
> > > intelligence - that preceded and inspired it. (Would you believe that
> > these
> > > three terms were once classified "top-secret/crypto," the highest
> > > classification possible, back in the day? You could have knocked me
> over
> > > with a feather, when, ca. 1964, Newsweek published a full-page article
> on
> > > SIGINT. I was also annoyed by the fact that the article implied that
> > SIGINT
> > > was of greater significance than COMINT. Since I had been involved with
> > > COMINT and had been taught that that was the most important of the
> three
> > > INTs - after all, Silver Section consisted entirely of graduates of the
> > > Army Language School - I took umbrage at the implication.)
> _Willie-Pete_
> > is
> > > just a variant of V iet-Nam's "Willie-Peter."
> > >
> > > On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 1:15 PM Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > From the Denver Post, 2013.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.denverpost.com/2013/12/03/the-definitive-glossary-of-modern-us-military-slang/
> > > >
> > > > The usual assemblage from every possible register including (I'd say)
> > the
> > > > idiosyncratic.
> > > >
> > > > "Self-licking ice-cream cone" is worth considering.
> > > >
> > > > JL
> > > > --
> > > > "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
> > > -----
> > > 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
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > 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
> -----
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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