as my old first shirt used to say"you have a point there.But you keep a hat on,noone will know."
I have to say that sounds pretty retrospective to me. "don't take his ****" is pretty self-explanatory if you ask me, given the wide range of use the word sees - what's that ****, what a load of ****, don't talk **** etc etc.
Do you have any evidence for your "soundalike" hypothesis?
UnrepentantSinner
A post by Alan Smithee
I suspect the G.I. Bill had more of an effect in cementing the meaning into our collective concience.
I think it's funny but I can think of several improvements to the punch line such as "his initials were A.G.I" or "his name was Omar Bradley", etc.
No articles of clothing had GI on them and for that matter, I'm not sure if service or utility uniforms of the time even had a name tag/plate. At Texas A&M they were WW II era uniforms an they have nameplates ex:
http://www.aggiecorps.org/CadetLife/Uniforms/midnights.htm
http://www.aggiecorps.org/CadetLife/Uniforms/summeralphas.htm
UnrepentantSinner
A post by Alan Smithee
We're probably the only two people on here who knows what redleg means without having to look it up.
to chuck 842
I recieved a dad suburn during my time off in fla.i spent one full day in the base hospital.i had to pay back that day at the end of one of my hitches.so i gave them one day extera befor i got out.unauthorised damage .i had to compinsate the af one day.
I recieved a dad suburn during my time off in fla.i spent one full day in the base hospital.i had to pay back that day at the end of one of my hitches.so i gave them one day extera befor i got out.unauthorised damage .i had to compinsate the af one day.
when the troops early in ww 2 started to pull KP(kitchen police )it in cluded detailas such as cleaing trash cans.the new troops not to familar with chemical terms.such as GI (galvanised iron)assumed (assume makes ass out of you and me .)every thing we wear or work with is government issue.if something belongs to the military,property of the air force,navy,never marines.they are navy.weather they like it or not.Never government issue.
Euromutt
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Three. It means artilleryman, derived from red being the arm of service color of the artillery, and the artillery's trousers used to have red piping (probably still do on ceremonial uniforms, as well as red backing on officers' rank insignia), just like the cavalry had yellow and the infantry blue.
Euromutt
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It might be meaningless in an American military context, but it has its uses. In the Royal Netherlands Army, the term "general infantry" is used to indicate an infantryman (usually trainees) who has not (yet) been assigned to a unit with a regimental lineage. Rather than wearing a regimental badge on their berets and collar patches, the soldier wears the badge of the "Arm of the Infantry (general)." Dutch has separate words for "general" in a general sense (algemeen), and in the sense of the military rank (generaal).
So what, accordingly to you, is the origin of the word "commando," and how did it come to mean what it does now?
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arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
Not to mention "mayhem". I'd be fascinated to know the story behind that one.
I know that "Commando" is used in the British infantry as a unit designation, in place of "Brigade" - ie, the "3rd Commando". Most other countries as far as I know use it as a general term for special forces units.
Euromutt
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Close, but not quite. A "Commando" is the equivalent of a infantry battalion. The 3rd Commando Bde (which is Royal Marines, not army, by the way) is composed of 40, 42 and 45 Commando, IIRC.
During the Second World War, there were 21 Commandos, or so; 12 composed of British (and exiled allied) army personnel, nine from the Royal Marines. According to legend, Churchill came up with the term "Commando" for these units, borrowing the term from the Boers (Churchill was a war correspondent in South Africa during the Second Boer War). In Afrikaans, a kommando was essentially a scratch militia force, the word simply meaning "command" (in the same sense as, say, "Central Command"). Boer kommandos in the Boer War were generally lightly equipped (compared to the British troops, anyway) but highly mobile, and relied on "hit-and-run" tactics to compensate for the superior weight of British numbers.
At some point during WWII, the term "Commando" seems to have been misinterpreted as referring to the members of the units, rather than the units themselves. I assume this is what gumboot is referring to.
"Mayhem," apparently (I had to look this up), is a somewhat archaic term for intentionally and maliciously removing or destroying another person's body part for the purpose of reducing the victim's capacity for self-defense (e.g. cutting off a hand or putting out an eye). It shares a common root with the verb to maim.
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arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
Okay, thanks for clarifying/correcting. My dad was career military (Lt Col. ret.) but I never had much of an interest, so most of my knowledge is by osmosis.
Wow, cool. I love how language changes. Thanks.