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

Tue Apr 15 17:33:55 UTC 2025

This looks like a slightly earlier ex.:

1934 _Leatherneck_ (Apr.)    [Internet Archive]:  WEE-VEE [i.e., battleship
"West Virginia] MARINES... "Evangelist Edwards ... the Converted
Marine"...Now, now, Jarhead...from now on all men shall call you Aimee.

(Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was a celebrity of the era. Suspension
points as in original,  a la Winchell.)

This "ex." is, however, factitious. In the March issue, the same column
mentioned "'Jarhead' Edwards" along with "'Goofy' Walker" and other marines
of the "West Virginia."

As a mere matter of interest, "West Virginia" was launched in 1921, and the
nickname "Wee-Vee" was in print in 1925.

JL

On Wed, Jan 18, 2023 at 12:11 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Taken together these are quite interesting. 1933 seems to refer
> unequivocally to Army soldiers, as "USAT" stands for "U.S. Army
> Transport" and the marines are giving the army crew the runaround.
>
>  In 1936 it isn't at all clear whether "Gyrene" and "Jar-head" are
> synonyms or complementary terms.
>
> But it doesn't matter since 1935 almost certainly means "marine." The
> story concerns a Soldier (capitalized) and an anonymous Marine (also
> "Leatherneck" and "Gyrene," all consistently capitalized). It's the
> soldier who calls to the marine "Hey, Jar-head" (note capitalization).
>
> The story is set in 1918, but whether the writer was calling on
> first-hand experience isn't clear. (A note says the story was
> reprinted from the pulp _Battle Stories_, no date given.)
>
> If jarhead 'marine' existed in 1918, its use must have been pretty
> uncommon, and (if the story is based on experience) possibly
> restricted to certain units of marines or soldiers in France. This
> seems to have been true even in the years before WW2. In the early
> '70s I read hundreds and hundreds of first-person WW1 accounts with an
> especial eye out for slang terms associated with later generations,
> including "jahead," with which I was familiar. I discovered no
> "jarheads" but countless "leathernecks" and not a few "gyrenes" (an
> influence on "jarhead"?). Both "leatherneck" and "gyrene" are well
> attested years before WW1.
>
> But I was also looking for "dogface" (army soldier), which was nearly
> as well known in WW2 as "GI." I found none. Fifty years later the
> miracle of newspaper databases revealed examples, used apparently in a
> single army unit at the end of the war, and I posted them here. As a
> word for a soldier (never a Marine) it only became common (in print,
> anyway) after 1941.
>
> The 1935 or earlier "jarhead" seems to exemplify the same phenomenon:
> a very uncommon term rising to prominence and familiarity only decades
> later.  (Same for 19th-century "leatherneck" and "gyrene" and "woke.")
>
> Good sleuthing, James.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 12:48 AM James Eric Lawson <jel at nventure.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > These from 1933, 1935 and 1936 may be examples from _Leatherneck_
> > in the 1930s, although I have my doubts about the meaning of the
> > 1933 and 1936 examples.  The "marine" sense of the 1935 example
> > seems fairly certain, although it also could be equivocal, I
> > suppose.
> >
> > 1933  *Q.M. SCHOOL BREVITIES* _The Leatherneck_ 16/5 38/3
> > Sergeants Kramer, Green and Carrick sure gave the Army the run
> > around on the USAT *Republic*. Upon embarking they moved into the
> > second class cabins, and it took three days and a squad of
> > “jar-heads” to get them and the baggage moved to the troop class.
> > The skipper got a growl in New York because they had to move their
> > baggage themselves.
> >
> >      http://archive.org/details/sim_leatherneck_1933-05_16_5/
> >
> > 1935  *BROTHERS UNDER THE TIN* _The Leatherneck_ 18/4 61/2  “Hey,
> > Jar-head,” said Chuck, halting abruptly, “there ain’t no use in
> > traveling any farther. That barrage isn’t advancing any more; I’ll
> > bet it doesn’t even reach that line of machine guns. You don’t see
> > any of the gunners falling back, do you? We’ll never get out if we
> > go any deeper inside the lines.”
> >
> > The barrage had apparently reached its limits and was sweeping
> > back and forth with ineffectual ferocity in front of the echeloned
> > machine guns.
> >
> > "Damn fool soldiers," grunted the Marine. “Why don’t they raise
> > that barrage? Doesn’t do any good where it is.”
> >
> >      http://archive.org/details/sim_leatherneck_1935-04_18_4/
> >
> > 1936  *SKIMMED FROM THE SCUTTLE-BUTT: EUPHONIOUS, TOO* _The
> > Leatherneck_ 19/5 11/1  Gyrene: “I thought you had a date ashore
> > with some blonde tonight.”
> >
> > Jar-head: “I did; but when I got near her house I saw her going
> > down the street with some other guy, so I called it off.”
> >
> >      http://archive.org/details/sim_leatherneck_1936-05_19_5/
> >
> >
> > On 1/16/23 08:27, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > > 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
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > "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
> >
> > --
> > James Eric Lawson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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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