WW 1 - Origin of many of today's commonly used words or expressions

IF YOU’RE feeling washed out, fed up or downright lousy, the First World War is to blame.

Research has shown how hundreds of everyday words and phrases came into common parlance thanks to their use in the trenches. Among the terms found to have originated or spread from the conflict are “cushy”, “snapshot”, “bloke”, “washout”, “conk out”, “blind spot”, “binge-drink” and “pushing up daisies”. Peter Doyle, a military historian, and Julian Walker, an etymologist, analysed thousands of documents from the period — including letters from the front, trench newspapers, diaries and official military records – to trace how language changed during the four years of conflict.

They found that the war brought military slang into the mainstream, imported French and even German words to English, and led to words from local dialects becoming part of the national conversation.

“The war was a melting pot of classes and nationalities, with people thrown together under conditions of stress,” said Mr Walker, who works at the British Library. “It was a very creative time for language. Soldiers have always had a genius for slang and coming up with terms. “This was a citizen army — and also the first really literate army — and those Zwho survived took their new terms back to the general population.”

The results of the research are included in a book, Trench Talk: Words of the First World War, that documents how words and phrases originated, and how others were spread from a previous, narrow context to gain new, wider meanings.

Many of the words were created by soldiers to describe unfamiliar surroundings and circumstances. While they came up with names for new items such as “trench coats” and “duckboards”, other, more descriptive, phrases were also developed. “Lousy” and “crummy” both referred to being infested with lice, while “fed up” emerged as a widespread expression of weariness. Communiqués from headquarters were derisively known as “bumf” — from “bumfodder”, a term for toilet paper. Such reports could often give rise to “guff” (rumours), although this was not to be confused with “gaffs”, the term for makeshift theatres built behind the lines to entertain the troops.

Other phrases to develop were “snapshot” (from a quickly-taken rifle shot), and “washout” or “washed out”, which described a process by which aspiring officers who failed their commissions were sent back to their regiments. By 1915 the term was being used to signify any kind of failure. “Dud” also came to take on a wider meaning for something that failed, from the large number of shells that did not explode. Advances in technology also brought with them new phrases, one notably from the bafflement of soldiers handed an item hard to describe — “thingumajig”.

Parcels from home would be “whacked round” by the recipients — shared among friends, each getting “a fair whack”. The brutality of life at the front also gave rise to many euphemisms for death and fear. Comrades who were killed were “pushing up daisies”, had “gone west”, “snuffed it” or “become a land*owner”. Those who were afraid were said to have “got the wind up”.

Among terms that were previously particular to one region or social class but entered common usage were “scrounging” — a phrase to describe foraging for food thought to have derived from a northern dialect — and “binge” — a Lancashire term to describe overindulgence in alcohol. “Blotto” was another term for drunk popularised during the war. Lower-class words such as “fag”, for cigarette, and “bloke”, which previously referred just to a gentleman, moved from their narrow social roots. Phrases from the criminal world entered wider use, among them “chum” — slang for an accomplice — “rumbled” (to be found out) and “knocked off” (stolen).

Many more terms came from the mix of nationalities thrown together by the war. Souvenir — French for a remembrance or memory — replaced keepsake as the primary word for a memento, while officers who were sacked were said to have “come ungummed” from the French “dégommer”, to dismiss. This developed into “come unstuck”. Other words arrived with troops from the US — such as “cooler”, for prison — and Canada — “swipe”, for acquiring something by unofficial means. Words even entered the lexicon from the enemy trenches. “Strafe” became an English word, from the German “to punish”.

Not all the new terms emerged on the Western Front. Troops serving in the Middle East campaign picked up “bint”, from the Arabic for daughter and would “go binting” (looking for women) while on leave. Terms picked up from Indian soldiers and already used in the regular army also spread, including “cushy” — from khush (pleasure) — to describe comfortable billets or quiet sectors.
The Hindi word bilati, meaning “foreign”, which was popularly used by Indian servicemen to mean “British”, even produced the term for the thing that soldiers desired most — “Blighty”.

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Wapping said:

I guess the German ones came via prisoners or from German speaking reconnaissance soldiers?

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The Phantom Pieman said:

Cos it would have never come from the fact that English has it's roots in the German language, and the
Saxons invaded, and the Royal family were German ...

No - it all came from WW1

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Terms picked up from Indian soldiers and already used in the regular army also spread, including “cushy” — from khush (pleasure) — to describe comfortable billets or quiet sectors.

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Wapping said:

Bizarre reply

But, hey, that's 'foreign', too

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MikeP said:

I wish someone would point Guy Martin at the above. In the intro to his new series he pronounces it as chushtie (meaning genuine IIRC).

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Wapping said:

Interesting that 'To chat' and 'Chatting' comes from soldiers' lice hunts, I certainly didn't know. I wonder if it's in the book?


Swift edit: It seems it might be something else.

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=62847

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Womble said:

All the people I know who say 'cushtie' are serious Only Fools and Horses fans.

edit - it seems to come from the Romany word for happiness.

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Mr K said:

"Cushdy" is used south of the Tyne meaning cool/nice/smart..

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