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

Tue Apr 15 20:01:34 UTC 2025

Splendid research, Jeff.  It seems unlikely that even a fiction writer
would make up a word or a usage that would contribute nothing to the story
- and, in this case, might even prompt some readers to scoff at its
inauthenticity.

Particularly if, years later, the presumed invention was a recognized idiom.

My guess (no, my *bet*) is that Renfrow picked up the word after the war in
his association with various Marines. It would be decidedly odd (IMO) for
army soldiers in 1918 to call Marines by a word so closely connected with
Army mules, but if Renfrow had heard Marines use it, even after the war, he
might, if it appealed to him, reasonably have retrofitted it into his story.

Some thoroughly gratuitous observations:  at the time of the Armistice
(Nov. 11, 1918), the USMC comprised nearly 53,000 troops. Thirty thousand
were in France, leaving 23,000 in the United States, on shipboard, in Haiti
and the Dominican Republic, in the Philippines, in China, and on the island
of Guam - all places that received little news coverage at the time.  Given
the lack of evidence from France, IF "jarhead" was in use so early as 1918,
it was most likely in one or more of these places.

 If.

JL

On Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 2:42 PM Jeff Prucher <
000000b93183dc86-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

>
>
>
> 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.
> The 1935 cite, from "Brothers Under the Tin", was likely published in
> Fawcett's Battle Stories #41, Jan. 1931, and was written by Frank Hunt
> Rentfrow, according to Galactic Central, which is pretty reliable in my
> experience (http://www.philsp.com/homeville/afi/k00064.htm#A4).
> I found an obituary of him in ProQuest that describes his service (I think
> it doesn't require login, but I'll quote the salient bits in case):
> https://www.proquest.com/docview/206499817?sourcetype=Trade%20Journals
> =====In 1917, after a bout with scarlet fever, he enlisted in the First
> Illinois Cavalry, was later transferred to the 122nd Field Artillery, and
> served overseas with that unit, participating in three major engagements.
> After his discharge from the Army, Rentfrow was as versatile as an
> itinerant Marine recruiter.
> ...
> In March, 1928, his attention was attracted by activities of the Marines
> in Nicaragua. He enlisted spontaneously, and was off to Parris Island,
> South Carolina, for basic training.
> Previous experience in communications with the Army resulted in Rentfrow's
> transfer to Quantico, for duty with a signal battalion. It was there that
> he was recommended for duty with Leatherneck Magazine by a chaplain who
> recognized his name in connection with published articles.======
> So he would have had first-hand experience of military slang in 1918 (per
> Wikipedia, the 122nd was at St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, and Lorraine in
> 1918), but I wouldn't want to comment on whether he is a reliable relator
> of period slang in his fiction or not.
> Jeff Prucher
> >
> > 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."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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