[Ads-l] Antedatings of "friendly fire"

Fri Mar 13 22:56:15 UTC 2020

And a Vietnam example:

1966  _Evening Times_ (Trenton, NJ) (Oct. 3) 5: In a tragic setback, one
American soldier was killed and three others wounded when "friendly fire"
from Allied artillery fell on their position about 22 miles north of Saigon
Sunday.

JL

On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 6:45 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Another WW2 example:
>
> 1944 Cleveland Plain Dealer (June 24) 1: Two of the even bigger Douglas
> Skymasters have been brought down by mistaken "friendly" fire. ...[T]he
> wonder is more "mistakes" are not made.
>
> While overlooking the occasional earlier occurrences of _friendly fire_,
> Earl R. Anderson concludes (as did I, supra) that Bryan's book did more
> than anything else to lexicalize the phrase in the fratricidal nuance:
>
> 2017 E. R. Anderson _Friendly Fire in  the Literature of War_  (Jefferson,
> N.C.: McFarland)  4: "It was a nameless transgression until 1976, when
> journalist C.D.B. Bryan published _Friendly Fire_, an expose' of  an
> administrative cover-up after the accidental death of Private. Michael
> Mullen by misplaced artillery on feb. 18, 1970. "Friendly fire" progressed
> from a book-title to a household word [sic] on Apr. 22, 1979, when 64
> million viewers watched _Friendly Fire_, an ABC-televised movie...."
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 7:27 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Antedatings of "friendly fire"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> "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:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > 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
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > 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
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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