[Ads-l] 'jarhead' (a soldier) antedatings

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nice finds. The 1930 is interesting, but it seems just to mean
"blockhead" - esp. since it's in an ad, not the main text.

If it means "marine," there should be other exx. in _Leatherneck_
through the 1930s. I don't see any. The Army team is frequently called
"Jarheads." (The Marine team is the 'Devil Dogs.')

 JL


On Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 2:08 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Back in 2010 JL found some citations starting in 1926 in which members
> of the U.S. Army football team were called jarheads (the team's mascot
> was a mule)
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-February/096857.html
>
> On Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 12:41 AM James Eric Lawson <jel at nventure.com> wrote:
> >
> > OEDO senses 2a ("member of the United States Army") 1931, and 2b
> > ("member of the United States Marine Corps) 1944. Green ("a US
> > Marine") 1943. ADS-L, Lighter, 1918 ("Artilleryman"), 1942
> > (soldier).
> >
> > 1930  *Telling The Marines! [ad]* _The Leatherneck_ 13/6 33 No
> > wonder the little dame is giving her Marine the works!  No female
> > loves a briar that smells like a Chinese fish market.  Now if this
> > jar-head had used Sir Walter Raleigh in his pipe, you’d see the
> > skirt with her arms around our hero, while the fragrant smoke
> > wafted its way skyward.
> >
> >
> > https://archive.org/details/sim_leatherneck_1930-06_13_6/page/n34/mode/1up?q=%22jar-head%22
> >
> > 1932  *Army “Slanguage”* _Recruiting news_ 6–7  An Army mule is a
> > "jar head ” or a Missouri Mustang. Soldiers of a machine gun
> > company are also “jar heads” to their buddies but - when you call
> > ’em that, stranger, smile!
> >
> >
> > https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112099968973&view=page&seq=184&q1=jar-head
> >
> > --
> > James Eric Lawson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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