[Ads-l] New folk ety: "jarhead"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has the gyrene sense from 1944, HDAS from 1943.

JL

On Mon, Jan 9, 2023 at 1:49 PM Mark Mandel <markamandel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Etymonline has this to add:
>
> also jar-head, "U.S. Marine," by 1985 (but in a biographical book with a
> World War II setting), from jar + head (n.). Also used as a general term of
> insult (by 1979) and by 1922 as a Georgia dialectal word for "mule."
>
> MAM
>
> On Mon, Jan 9, 2023, 9:38 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Quora.com:
> >
> > "The Marines were formed as dedicated fighters who's sole purpose was to
> > board the enemy ship and step on necks. The only original requirement was
> > to be over 6ft tall. As ships we're built to conserve space, this lead to
> > many a Marine whacking their noggin' on the lamps illuminating the ships
> > interior. Hence they earned the moniker “Jarhead" after the jar lamps."
> >
> > An accompanying photos show illustrate "jar lamps."
> >
> > "Jarhead," of course, wasn't applied to U.S. Marines before WW2.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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> >
>
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> 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