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

[Wilson Gray]

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