Ace: an expert in any endeavor -- originally was a pilot with at least five enemy kills.
B-Girls short for bar girls, was applied to a saloon's female employees whose job was to mix with male customers, chat and encourage their purchases of alcohol. She received a commission on drinks and picked up extra cash either upstairs or in a backroom as a prostitute. By contrast a V-Girl was one who gave "it" away freely to keep up morale or because she was just partial to men in uniform.
Bazooka was used in 1943 by Major Zeb Hastings as the name for the military's new 5 foot long anti-tank rocket gun supposedly because it went "bazoooom" when activated. But the name is more than echoic -- in the early years of the 20th Century a bazooka was a harmless two part stove pipe bomb used by comedian Bob Burns as a laugh getting stage prop. Its thought that Burns got the word from the Dutch bazuim ("trumpet") or from bazoo a mid 1800s slang term for loudmouth.
Bomber was coined by the British, who experienced German projectiles firsthand.
Big Bertha: today it means anything behemoth. Originally it meant the German long-range gun first used Liege, Belgium in 1914, and later to shell Paris. The cannon was named after Frau Bertha Krupp wife of the head of Krupp Munitions.
Blitzkrieg is a German word, literally meaning "lightning war," and used to refer to any rapid combined arms advance. Other German words making their way into common usage were shrapnel and flak.
Chow -- a Civil War term, it came intocommon parlance when hungry World War I soldiers "chowhounds," lined up at mealtime. The word comes from the Mandarin Chinese ch'ao "to cook." Servicemen almost never used the word food, and this was one of the few they could bring back from "over there."
A dog tag was a serviceman's identification disc worn round his neck and used to identify him case of a grave injury or death. Its purpose was much that of a dog's identifying collar.
Doughboy is an expression for American soldiers, particularly those in World War I. There appear to be three possible origins. In the 1700s , doughboy was the name of a sweet cormneal cake, then the name of a biscuit served to soldiers. In the American Civil War the term had changed to refer to a circular brass button worn on the uniform to identify the wearer. A second theory holds that the term derives from the earth clay, douigh, that soldiers once used to clean their white belts.
The last possibility holds that the it is a corruption of adobe, a Mexican term used for American soldiers during the mid-1800s because many men were quartered in adobe buildings, hence "adobe boys"
Dud now anything that does not live up to expectation, derived form the 16th Century English word dudde or "rags". During World War I a dud was a bomb that failed to explode.
Ersatz (German "replacement") anything fake.
Geronimo! The yell was coined and popularized by many American Indians, especially Yakis and Cherokees in US paratroop units.
Gobbledygook. meaning nonsensical, bureaucratic jargon was coined in 1944 by Texan Maury Maverick, then chairman of the Smaller War Plant Corporation after he attempted to decipher the obscure "officialese" in a committee memo. He claimed the word was inspired by the gobbling utterances of turkeys.
Goldbrick is a word that has been continually devalued. In the early 1800s it was a bar of gold, then became a valueless item that only appeared to have worth. By 1914 a goldbrick was an untrained inexperienced army lieutenant appointed directly from civilian life. Afterwards, a goldbrick was anyone who did less than his fair share of work.
World War I saw an increase in anti-German feelings that vented themselves in the a variety of "renamings", hence sauerkraut became Liberty cabbage, Liberty pups were dachshunds, Rubella (German measles) was called liberty measles; hamburgers were named liberty steaks. Modesty prevents me from telling you what frankfurters were called.
WWII gave us "M&Ms" a war effort candy developed by Mars company at the request of the government. The result was the unique candy bar that hat melts in your mouth, not in your hand -- an important consideration for a soldier worried about sticky fingers when it came time to fire a gun or toss a grenade. The candy is named after Mars executives Forest Mars and Bruce Murrie.
Mae West -- a canvas and inflatable rubber life vest issued to airmen -- it clearly derived its name from the entertainer whose chest measurements made her look as though she was wearing the vest
Penicillin was a new word in the American lexicon in the early 1940's. Discovered by British microbiologist Alexander Fleming when he failed to observe sterile technique in handling some bacterial cultures it was the first antibiotic. The word was often on the lips of those soldiers and sailors who had watched the horrific films that warned of venereal disease. Injected into a wound on the battlefield, this miracle drug saved countless lives and spared thousands the trauma of limb amputation from rampant wound infection.
POW, i.e. Prisoner of War. This became popular in the 1940s.
RADAR (acronym for Radio Activated Detection And Ranging) was a new and invaluable technology developed by the British who called it a radiolocator since it used radio frequency beams to target an enemy plane. The US Navy popularized the shorter "radar."
Rookies derives from the word recruit though in the 1890s it had been exclusively used for a new athlete on a sports team. Commonplace usage began in World War I to refer to new soldiers. Now it means any novice or beginner.
Torpedo from the Latin torpere "to numb." Originally it was the name for a dangerous eel-like fish that emits a stinging electric charge. It became the term time for any wartime booby trap of explosives on land and at sea, hence "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" referred to mines, not modern weapons of the same name. With the adoption of self propelled torpedoes in World War I was restricted to an underwater projectile.
Walkie-Talkie, the name of a portable, but bulky, two person receiver and transmitter communication device developed in the 1930s was popularized during the war. After the conflict the devices became commonplace among police, campers, eventually appearing as children's toys.
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© Copyright 1995 by David W. Tschanz.
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