[Ads-l] Antedating of "FUBAR"

[Laurence Horn]

This exchange reminds me of a question I had a few days ago that I hadn’t gotten around to asking.  I was hoping to locate my copy of Jesse’s _The F-Word_ before posting, but it seems to have gone into hiding when I changed offices last week. In “The Dreamers”, one of the stories in Stephen King’s recently published collection, _You Like It Darker_, the narrator is a Vietnam vet who frequent invokes the attitude expressed in the acronym FIDO, explained as an acronym for “Fuck It, Drive On”. This can allude to the decision to ignore something awful you see along the way, or it can apply more generally, as in the story in question or in this X/Twitter post

https://x.com/KingBeauregard/status/1806928653827112984

The evidence on the web, e.g. at https://www.allacronyms.com/FIDO/Fuck_It-Drive_On, indicates its origin (like so many other acronyms) is from the military, but it’s not clear to me that it’s “old” in the sense of predating the Vietnam War (which doesn’t seem all that long ago to me).  Anyone have more info?  

LH



> On Aug 24, 2024, at 8:49 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Very nice find, Bonnie.
> 
> Fred
> 
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2024 4:37 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Antedating of "FUBAR"
> 
> FWIW, the pseudonymous "PVT. ROGER FUBAR" authored a letter to the
> editor that was published in The Greensboro (NC) Daily News on 20
> September 1942 (p. 2). "Private Fubar" claimed to have been writing
> from the U.S. Army's Camp Davis (Holly Ridge), North Carolina.
> 
> https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A11EA68DA9EC1533C%40GB3NEWS-14342C4F04D625DE%402430623-1429AACA06587E82%4038-1429AACA06587E82?clipid=vagzaobhajkiiwpkvfvtbfczqqdikjlx_ip-10-166-46-121_1724265678637<https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A11EA68DA9EC1533C%40GB3NEWS-14342C4F04D625DE%402430623-1429AACA06587E82%4038-1429AACA06587E82?clipid=vagzaobhajkiiwpkvfvtbfczqqdikjlx_ip-10-166-46-121_1724265678637>
> 
> -- Bonnie
> 
> On Wed, Mar 22, 2023 at 1:29 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> FUBAR (OED 1944)
>> 
>> 1943 Buffalo Evening News 9 Aug. 1 / 4 (Newspapers.com)  All sentinels are required to memorize 11 general orders, listed in the Soldiers' Handbook. After each order I will list the FUBAR (framed up beyond all recognition) version.
>> 
>> Fred Shapiro
> 
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