[Ads-l] early "boot camp"/ antedating "hit the deck"/ Haitian "spick"

[Jonathan Lighter]

All from Newpapers.com.

OED: 1916, ref. to Parris Island USMC training center

1917 _Fresno Morning Republican_ (Aug. 19) 9 [Newspapers.com]:  I was in
the "boot camp" [at Mare Island, Calif., from Nov., 1915] until the 6th of
March [1916].

The article doesn't explain the origin of the term.

II

1915 _Ward County Independent_ (Minot, N.D.) (Sept. 16) 10: These "spicks"
[in Haiti] are afraid of cold steel.

1917 _Butte Daily Post_ (Dec. 10) 5 [Newspapers.com]:  The one [phrase]
that I first grasped (I never had to be informed twice of its meaning), was
"hit the deck." We call it "roll out"  [v.? n,? both? - JL] "Floor" is not
in a marine's vocabulary. ... They call the natives of Haiti "spicks," who
are neither African, Mexican, or Spanish, but a black conglomerated mass of
these nationalities....[A]n old service man ...told me that if a "spick" is
asked what language he speaks, he "no spickity Spanish, no spickity Mex, no
spickity French." He must be a "spick" then, according to the rules of
derivatives.

JL
-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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