Military Phrases in Civvy Life

[Olly O'Leg]

We've just had a crewroom discussion as to phrases that originated from the military but have been taken into civvy life - one we came out with was "The whole nine yards" which apparently came from the Second World War where the length of the belt of bullets used in Hurricanes was nine yards. Thus when someone had shot another aircraft down, he'd given him "The whole nine yards"

Know any others chaps??? :p :p :p

[tony draper]

A few associated with weaponry,
Lock stock and barrel.
Flash in the pan.
Loaded to the gunnels.
Three sheets to the wind
Can't think of anymore at the momment my head has started to spin down for the night. ;)

[G.Khan]

The "Whole Nine Yards" goes back a lot further than WWII.
There are two plausible explanations that I have heard.
One refers to the nine yard-arms on a major fighting ship under sail and the second to the amount of material required to make an adult male kilt. In hard times Scotsmen had to economise with less but whenever possible they would "go the whole nine yards" - later used to imply total effort or suchlike.

[gravity victim]

From the Navy (had longest time to come up with them):

Above board.
Aloof (from a'luff, or hard on the wind)
On your beam ends
Bearing up
Between the devil and the deep blue sea (the devil being an outside seam in deck planking)
Bilge
Bitter end (inner end of the anchor cable)
Black books, to be in; (Admiralty Black book being the 14th Century Laws and Ordinances)
Blazer: Invented for smartening ship's barge crew of HMS Blazer)
Turning a Blind Eye; Nelson of course
Chance your arm: (WW2) Risking loss of good conduct stripes worn on left arm.
Chewing the fat: salt beef and pork took a lot of jaw action
Cut and run: Choppping an anchor rope was the way to get away with a prize quickly
Getting in a flap: The confusion of getting a warship to sea, preceded by many hasty flag hoists (WW1)
Making headway
Money for old rope: sold to shoreside traders, shared among the crew. Easy money
On the wrong tack
Scrub round it: working round an obstacle when holystoning the decks
Show a leg: At Spithead there were sometimes 500 women allowed aboard one ship. Petty officers used this to get the hairy ones up for work, leaving the feminine ones in the hammock.
Slush fund: fat was scraped off the barrels of meat and kept by the cook as his perk, to be sold ashore
Sweet Fanny Adams: the poor girl was murdered and turned up in a trunk at the Deptford Navy Yard about the time the Navy was switching to tinned meat...
Taken aback
Wallop: Sir John Wallop led a reprisal raid on Normandy after the French burned Brighton in the time of Henry VIII. He destroyed twenty-one towns and villages, several harbours and gave a word to the language.
Wash out: From the early days of signal flags,when messages were recorded on a slate, and a cancelled one was washed off.




;)

[ 14 September 2001: Message edited by: gravity victim ]

[Lafyar Cokov]

One that always worries me is when something runs 'With Military Precision'!

Does that mean it's going to be 2 years late - be supplied by the cheapest tender and not do the job it's supposed to for at least the first third of its operatonal life until all the bugs are ironed out?????

Others I have heard recently include - he couldn't organise a Joint Helecopter Command in an HQ Land building....

...as effective as an aircrew retention bonus...

and

...as cunning as a navigator!!!!

All in everyday English usage!!!!
:D

[FJJP]

'F**K' - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. In Nelson's day, sailors ashore were not allowed to consort with the 'ladies of the night'. If they were caught, they were hauled before the Captain and punished. An entry was made in the punishment book, but the full entry was abbreviated - the initials have now become a word meaning.....

'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey' - again in the days of sail, the brass monkey was a brass plate set into the wooden deck on which were piled the cannon balls. This prevented damage to the deck planking. Metal to metal contact was also more stable when wet - wood tends to be slippy, in which case the cannon balls would be sliding all over the place. However, when the temp dropped low enough to form ice, the balls did indeed slip of the brass monkey.....

(Edited for punctuation...)

[ 15 September 2001: Message edited by: FJJP ]

[henry crun]

FJJP: One of my dictionaries gives the origin of f**k as follows.

16th century: probably of Germanic origin:
akin the the Middle Dutch "Fokken", to strike.

[Low and Slow]

Well I don't know about the origin, but my other half still gives me a hard time about all the phrases I seem to be unable to forget and creep into everyday language

"Stand by" or "Wait one"
"Roger that,"
"Listen in,"
"Declare a scrub" or "stack for the day"
"Clear above and behind" - when backing car out. - yes I'm sad. Can't help it.
"Depart the IP and 450 knots heading 270" - only kidding! :)

[Vortex_Generator]

I believe "Gone for a Burton" originates from a wartime beer advert featuring RAF pilots.

[tony draper]

(Screw the Loaf), was a one that was in common usage in the North East,and in Scotland I believe, it meant, beware or watch what your doing, being cursed with infinite curiosity I often wondered where it came from, don't know if it has any military connection.
I can remember men right up to the seventies who would not accept the third light from a match, I'm talking about young men who probably didn't even realise where the superstition came from.

[the funky munky]

Both of these are from the RN:
2,6 Heave. Something to do with the cannon loading in Nelsons time. Apparently the cannon crew each had a number and the cannon was loaded to a set routine.
Back on your heads. From quite a coarse joke.

[ShyTorque]

"Bu@@er me!" is an old British Navy term, as is "Whale oil, beef hooked"

ShyT :D

[tony draper]

Another although not directly connected, I read that TURNED OFF,stems from the early days of hanging as a form of execution, the hangee was stood on a ladder,and the executioner turned him or her, off the ladder

[ 16 September 2001: Message edited by: tony draper ]

[Samuel]

The Services have a language all their own, and most of it has found its way into everyday life: Some more:

"Wait till you see the whites of their eyes."This was coined by ships' gunners in Nelson's time.Ship to ship bombardment took place in close proximity, and while the ship's guns had no sights nor any mechanical means of judging distance, experience dictated that at 400 yards it was possible to hear conversation on an opponent's ship, and at 200 yards the white's of the enemy's eyes could be seen.
"Three sheets to the wind"Also from the RN, this is a sailing term when the ship, through poor setting of sail, veers and luffs almost out of control. Just like a Dining-out!

[Self Loading Freight]

I used to have Eric Partridge's dictionary of RAF slang, which was great fun. Lost it, alas, but I got the following from http://www.acm.cps.msu.edu/~kortasma/raf.html

Baling out
Bogus
Dud
Duff and pukka gen
Flak
Flap (as in general excitement or chaos)
Get cracking
Gremlins
Pack up ("the set's packed up")
Plug away
Ropey
Shot down in flames
Tail end charlie (used in drug culture, m'lord, to refer to a cannabis cigarette with only a couple of drags left)
Tear off a strip

I also recall snog being an RAF term. But why anyone would want to kiss a pilot is beyond me...

R
(what's that loud noise overhead?)

[Poison Arrow]

This is hearsay, but it sounded plausible to me...
'Ginger's bought it' meant, sadly of course, that Ginger had pranged the kite and not walked away from it. The phrase referred to the fact that if an RAF aircraft crashed, Her Maj would buy the land, usually a farm. Probably.

[FJJP]

The third light stems from the First World War. At night, snipers were limited in what targets they could go for - the target had to be illuminated in some way. Clearly, the soldiers avoided lighting fires in the open, but they initially did not stop to think about smoking. If a group of men were talking and smoking, the sniper would see the initial match strike and be alerted; the man would pass the lighted match to the second man - sniper takes aim - and when the light was passed to the third man - fires.

Eventually someone noticed, and the third light became very unlucky indeed.

[Gainesy]

When I left the RAF in the late 70s I found that no one in the new job could understand even the most basic and simple requests such as: "NATO Standard please" ...tch, Civvies.

[kbf1]

Gopping/Minging = foul or rancid
Minger = ugly woman


Also hear the fish heads say BZ or Bravo Zulu a lot instead of well done, or thanks. Anyone got any idea where that comes from?

[Flatus Veteranus]

To "have one's finger in" or "pull it out" - ie, to be dreaming and to wake up. Origins, I think RAF pre-WW2, and vulgar. Hence bowdlerisms such as "extract digit" and "digit out". :)

[X-QUORK]

Domestic Sunray - Wife

Radio Silence - What happens when Domestic Sunray discovers your slush fund

Gash - Surplus to requirement

Harry Black - Masking Tape

Jack - To be selfish / Non team player

Doggers - Poor visibilty

Harry Roasters - Hot weather conditions

Heaving - Unclean

Zinging - Clean

The Colonel - NAAFI (Colonel Gaddafi)

Alright, maybe civvies aren't using these terms that much...but it's fun to highlight some of the old slang we used.

Would "Heads Up" and "Scope" be of military origin, both frequently used in civvy life ?

[EGDR]

Both from the RN -

BZ - Bravo Zulu - an RN ship-to-ship code for manoeuvre well executed.

Three square meals a day - ref to the square plate used on ships of old

[ 17 September 2001: Message edited by: EGDR ]

[Samuel]

Sorry, the plates weren't square, there were raised squares on the mess tables, (still visible on HMS Victory I believe) which held the plate in place.You are otherwise quite right about the origins!

Here's another though! "Tell it to the Marines" emanating from King Charles the Second, who was reputedly talking to one of his Captains when a sailor mentioned that he had seen fish that flew. Charlie 2 was rather doubtful of the accuracy of the statement and, turning to a Marine Officer, asked his opinion. The Marine officer informed the King that he had also seen fish that flew. "Flying fish, flying fish!" the King announced. Well, should I in future have occasion to doubt any statement, I will first tell it to the Marines."

[doubledolphins]

The wooden plates were square, indented on one side flat on the other.Main course in the indented side, Duff on the flat. Mess tables were flat. Both can still be seen "IN" HMS VICTORY. The Navy has given us many expressions whos origins are not immediatly obvious. My particular favourites being "Pigs Ear",a small urinal on an open bridge for the use of the OOW so he did not have to leave his place of duty and "Can Of Worms", a canister containing nail shot. Also "Straight Laced", discribes a regular officer as opposed to one of the reserves. Sadly my source of all information does not tell me if the "Cut Splice" was named after the part of the female anatomy that it resembles or Viccy Verccy. (It used to be spelt with four letters the third one being N.) I could bore you with "Swinging the Lead/Lamp or a Cat, or even "Brass Monkeys", But I need several beers to realy go on about this subject.

[Sloppy Link]

I believe that the phrase "the full Monty" originates from after the War, when a serviceman was discharged from the forces or de-mobbed, he was given a suit, two shirts, two ties, an overcoat, a hat and a pair of shoes. This demob suit was provided by the tailors Montague & Burton, hence being dressed in the "full Monty" means having your best gear on. How Elstree studios managed to turn it around to mean the opposite defeats me. For a reference book, Surg Cdr Rick Jolly's Jack Speak is good WC material (this from an Army man!). Enjoyed this thread.

[kbf1]

Not forgetting Blue on Blue, Friendly Fire, and Collateral Damage from our American Friends.

[BUMPFF]

My nickname (should truly be spelled 'Bumf') was originally army slang for 'bum fodder' = toilet paper, now meaning any bit of paper. BUMPFF was coined as an original WW2 RAF term, a mnemonic used by single-seat fighter pilots before take-off and landing checklists were devised, and recalls:

Brakes
Undercarriage
Mixture
Propeller
Flaps
Fuel

[Brakes...beer]

Plonk - WW1, from 'vin blanc'.

[Chris Gowers]

Not military, but in regular use in the forces. "Balls out," comes from the old steam engines. When moving with a full head of steam the governors rotating balls were fully extended. Hence the expression.

[WebPilot]

Sweet Fanny Adams - almost right, but it wasn't Deptford Navy Yard where she turned up but Alton in Hants. Her grave is still there in the churchyard.

Sweet Fanny Adams

From Hampshire, rising up through underlying beds
In verdant meadows west of Alton town,
The River Wey begins its double-headed path,
To Tilford first then, fortified, runs down
In tribute to the Thames's peaceful flow
At Weybridge, rolling onwards, stately, slow.

Around the fields and hillsides near its rural source
Grow hops, in gardens crossed with poles and wire;
Those hops which give full flavour to the Alton beer;
The hops which every year bring forth for hire
Whole families, who claim to find delights
In plucking gold dry fruit from twining heights.

The stranger to these parts might view a simple scene
Of peace between bucolic squires and madams,
But in tranquil settings evil passions lurk,
As seen by what befell poor Fanny Adams -
Playing with her sister and a friend
One August afternoon she met her end.

Young Fanny, only eight in eighteen sixty-seven,
And with full life to live one might expect,
Was taken, so the court was told, by Frederick Baker,
Local clerk, whose gruesome actions wrecked
The peace of Alton causing all to grieve,
And for his sins was hanged on Christmas eve.

No need to detail how the dismal deed was done,
Enough to say her body was dismembered,
Spread about the fields, or some say in the river,
Either way, an incident remembered
Not just locally, for through the press
The nation heard of Fanny's grim distress.

At just that time, as chance would seemingly dictate,
The Navy changed its issue to the tars
From salted tack to low-grade tins of chopped up mutton,
Giving rise to rumours in the bars
That Fanny's end and their unwelcome ration
Were juxtaposed in some unpleasant fashion.

And so the English language found a new expression
From this sorry tale of local pain,
And far beyond the confines of the Royal Navy
Folk would use poor Fanny's name in vain;
And even here in Alton I would say
Not many now would give a sweet FA!

[ 22 September 2001: Message edited by: WebPilot ]

[BeauMan]

WAFLOB was a good'un, stood for What A Firking Load Of B0110cks. Aptly did the rounds at Cranditz a few years back; don't know if it's still in use there, but I've happily dragged it out to Civvieland with me...

[ROGERTHAT]

Having the miss fortune of being a crab on loan to the navy their language is baffling. In fact there is a book called Jack speak that has at least 200 pages.

some favorites.

Billy big steps-----to run away (bravley)
FUBAR---F`d Up Beyond All Recognition
SNAFU----Situation Normal all F`d Up.
BUNDY--But Unfortunatley Not Dead Yet( "yeah his still about, BUNDY)

[ 26 September 2001: Message edited by: ROGERTHAT ]

[Spur Lash]

Re: Gainsy's 'Nato Standard...' on page 2, I believe that has now given way to: UN Implementation Force Standard.

[oldpinger]

How about FINCL

as applied to a CO of a Grey floaty thing I was once on..

F###### idiot no C### likes

:D

[only1leftmate!]

How about these blazen military corkers:

Have you done your equal opportunities training yet?

or the well known

I'm sorry, there is no money for further Exped as we have achieved the Perfomance Indicator.

Then there is the famous

'whingers!!- baaaahhhhh` used alledgedly by certain 'top Brass' when referring to anyone who dares express an opinion.

by the way, how come we don't control a quarter of the Globe anymore?

[STANDTO]

On a course at the moment in deepest XXXXXX.It appears the Met police take a lot of beating. How about:

'There I was staring down a set of nostrils' (the nice gentleman was pointing a double barrelled shot gun at me)

or

'Yeah, got the eyeball but he's done a flip flop in the banjo' (I am engaged in surveillance and can still see the subject, but whilst following him, it appears he has done a U turn in a cul de sac)

Just shows, the Mil doesn't have the monopoly

[ops]

On a long patrol a nice game of "S**t on your oppo" or "uckers" (no WAFU rules of course) would always pass the time. How about "dobie dust"(washing powder) and "scran"(food).

WAFU - Wet And F*!@ing Usless

If I hear 'fish head' one more time.....

[ 01 October 2001: Message edited by: ops ]

[ChoppedASWObs]

I'm alright Jack - RN followed by hoist the rope.

WAFU comes from Weapon and Fuel User that used to be in Aircrew jackets during WW2, so I was told.

[Captain Gadget]

On visiting an Army recruit training depot, saw many young lads wearing those fairly awful DPM caps. The reason was that they had not yet earned the right to wear the Regimental cap badge, and, since the beret has holes in it for the badge, they couldn't wear that either...

These DPM hats were described as CAPS DULAC. I politely asked why, whereupon a hairy Sarn't Major told me that DULAC was an acronym for Don't U Look A C**t.

God bless 'em all

Gadget :ok:

[johnfairr]

Does this constitute a record in time between posts??

:ok:

[allan907]

Balls to the wall - from RAF WW2 the cylindrical knobs on the top of the throttle levers when pushed to the firewall - ie fast as you can go


Also heard the explanation for the difference between "Roger" and "Wilco" - you can't wilco a cat.


And a really good one used unknowingly by little old ladies and nuns throughout the land - blow a raspberry - comes from cockney rhyming slang - raspberry tart

And from even further back - Viking norse - the words "drat" and "s**t". These have become transposed in much the same way as we now refer to "toilet" as "bathroom" or "rest room". Originally "drat" was the word describing faeces;"s**t" was the word meaning dust or mess. In polite society then the word "sh*t" was used to describe faeces and has now become the coarse word for faeces. Drat remains as a swear word but, over time, much reduced in effectiveness so that now, even the well known little old ladies and nuns will quite happily use it.

[Yarpy]

Wildfire and Trumps were ancient weapons.

Hence:

'Spread like Wildfire' (Greek wildfire)

and

'Came up Trumps'. (Mediaeval I believe)

[blind pue]

Allen907

The reason Little old lady's are happy to use the word s**t is that it refers to the movement of manure by sea, cant remember the exact explaination but it stands for

Store Higher In Transit . S H I T

due to the cargo exploding if stored lower,

S H I T was written on the crates at the docks to remind the dockers to load manure last.

:cool:

[Spotting Bad Guys]

Trumps were actually the 5th suit in the mediaeval deck of cards; the suit was removed by the Roman Catholic Church in the 14th century (I think) due to its pagan/perceived heretical connections and thus the modern use of any of the other four suits as 'trumps' was born.

The joker is also a leftover from these times of enlightenment!

SBG

[Out Of Trim]

"Not enough room to swing a cat"

RN term for not enough room to swing a cat o' nine tails (rope whip used for flogging) below decks in Nelsons Time.

Not a Tabby!:=

[18greens]

I haven't seen 'Loose Cannon' yet.

[Nearly Free]

Noticing that the Senior Service are getting an awful lot of credit for originating many of the a/m phrases, the Army, especially those who served in India, brought a colourful range back with them:

Pukka gen (truth)

dhobi (laundry)

char (tea) (and why am I giving the translations to such well-known phrases? Ah well, there may be some grey jobs reading!)

Basha (shelter - Malay)

Khaki (dusty)

and how about the Dorf Deutsch phrases that may ring a bell for former FRG servers?

Auto schlussel hose - Khaki trousers (car key trousers)

Ganz Neue (brand new)

Morgen, mein alter freundlich bratwurst (morning, me old matey sausage)

And a couple of recent acronyms/synonyms I heard that made me chuckle:

FIGJAM - F**k I'm Good; Just Ask Me

Gerber - a useless tool that everyone carries
(and strangely, both the above titles were given to the same chap)

anyway.........

[X-QUORK]

Nearly Free,

Slightly off topic this as I haven't heard its use in civvy street yet, but I rather liked the term JAFCOD...Just Another F**king CO's Driver.

Am guilty of now having Mrs X-Q using:

A-firm
Roger
Endex
Mag to grid - get rid
Stand by
Over

Haven't introduced the old S10 respirator into our bedroom antics yet, but maybe one day we'll get the urge to mask in 5.


I suspect the term Thrush (an irritating C**T) might have eminated from within one of HM's armed forces?

Just some random thoughts.

Regards

X-Q

[Dan Winterland]

Two more from the senior service.

'The Cat's out of the bag'. The cat being the afore mentioned cat o' nine tails. In Georgian times, the offending Jack had to make his own cat out of a piece of rope while he was waiting for his punishment. In Victorian times, a leather cat was found to be more effective and it was kept in a red bag. If the cat was out of the bag, it wasn't good news for someone. Incidently, the bag was red so that the blood didn't show after use.

'My turn in the barrell again - b#gger me!'. Not sure about the origins of that one.

[BEagle]

I've noticed "Say again" and "U/S" creeping into everyday use......

"Golden rivet" - isn't that another fish folk term? Like "Stokers' daisy chain" :E

[X-QUORK]

Captain Gadget,

I can confirm the DPM cap story. When I was in training back in '86 we had to wear "C**T-CAPS" as they were known. Then once we'd passed the beret tests we were issued with the more respectable beret and regimental badge...proud as punch we were. The cynicism took at least a year to creep in. ;)