British Military and American Jargon

[moggie]

I have been lead to believe that the older English spelling uses "Z"s in many places which modern English now uses an "S".

Therefore, localiZe would actually be correct.

The irony ("like Goldy and Bronzy but made of Iron") is that by mis-spelling the modern spelling of the word, Bill Gates has taken us back to the traditional way!

However, most of the stuff under discussion here (sky blue thinking, deep water thoughts) is what was know as "management w@nk words" when I was in the RAF a handful of years back. Blunty speak, Marketing speak, Management speak - all the same old cr@p with different names.

Well that's my bit of "joined up thinking" that has "squared the circle" and put "clear blue water" between myself and others.

[MG]

Funny really, the very first thread complained about Americanisms creeping in (and I do agree with 'Fire in the Hole' - awful!!!) but then spelt (or is that spelled?) ordi nance the American way. Blat, that'll be your foot hurting from the hole in it!!

[FEBA]

MG
No sorry I've just checked and ordinance is spelled correctly as per my Chambers dictionary. They're Scottish and generally much better at English than we are. It comes from the latin ordinare.
0/10 I'm afraid. Any way is any one going to remove this dreadful phrase Fyre (sic) in the Whole or what. Standing orders Colonel....
FEBA

[chippy63]

I like "counter-intuitive" - translates to "sounds f***ing stupid, but we're desperate, so let's try it!"

[MajorMadMax]

Hell, if y'all think "Yank" sounds funny, y'all need to hear what they speak down in Texas...a bud of mine sent this to me before I moved to San Antonio...

Cheers! M2

The Texas Dictionary of the English Language

yawl---the pronoun of the second person plural. "Good to see yawl."

ward---a unit of language consisting of one or more spoken sounds. "Pardon me, could ah have a ward with yawl?"

lahr---a prevaricator; one who tells lies. "Are yew callin' me a lahr?"

watt---the lightest of colors. "Yew look watt as a sheet."

riot--- correct or proper. "That's jes as riot as rain."

often---so as to be no longer supported or attached. "Now stan still so ah can shoot that apple often yore had."

barley---only, just, no more than. "Ah can jes barley open mah eyes."

pour---having little or no means of support. "Them folks is downriot pour."

blond---without sight. "Love is blond."

lacked---was on the verge of or cam close to. "Ah lacked to died laughlin'."

main---of ugly disposition, nasty. "That there is one main man."

felons---a substance used to close the cavities in teeth. "When ah open mah mouth real wad yawl can see mah two felons."

thowed---to cause someone or something to go someplace as if by hurling. "Ah'm gonna have yawl thowed in jail!"

rum---a portion of space within a building. "Ah got to go to the restrum."

cheer---in this place or spot. "Yawl come riot cheer this minute!"

lard---the deity. "Lard only knows what happened."

beggar---larger as in size, height, width, amount, etc. "The beggar they come the harder they fall!"

thang---a material object without life or consciousness. "That don't main a thang."

prior---a devout petition to an object of worship. "Don't never say a prior with your hat on."

suede---dear, beloved, precious. "Ain't that jes too suede for wards?"

larry---wary, suspicious. "Ah would be larry of that if ah was yew."

prod---a high opinion of one's own dignity, importance, etc. "Ah take prod in mah work."

far---to discharge a firearm. "Stop or ah'm gonna far!"

tarred---exhausted. "Boy, am ah tarred!"

they---the objective and dative case of thou. "Mah country tis of they, suede land of liberty, of they ah sang..."

hem---objective case of he. "Ah drawed mah gun on hem."

owe---an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc. "That there is one thang ah stand in owe of."

thote---the passage in the neck from the mouth to the stomach. "Ah got a sore thote."

sighting---arousing or stirring up emotions. "That was one beg, sighting card game."

heidi---an expression of greeting. "Heidi, neighbor!"

sect---afflicted with ill health or disease. "Ah feel sect to mah stomach."

small---to assume a facial expression indicating pleasure. "Small and the whole world smalls with yew."

consarned---interested or participating. "Yawl ain't consarned in this no way!"

harket---going to the barber. "Mah hat never fits after ah get a harket."

drank---any liquid taken into the mouth and swallowed. "How 'bout a lil drank?"

squire---honest and above board. "Everythang here is fire and squire."

ails---other than the person or things implied. "Ah only done what anybody ails would do."

fair---a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, etc. "The only thang we have to fair is fair itsef."

tom---any specific point in a day, a month, a year. "How come yawl ain't never on tom?"

air---the organ of hearing in man. "Ah got an airache."

truss---reliance on integrity. "Don't yawl truss me?"

mere---a reflecting surface. "Ah jes hate to look at mahsef in the mere."

hep---to render assistance. "Ain't nobody gonna hep me?"

rang---to twist forcibly. "Ah'm gonna rang yore neck."

farfanger---the first finger next to the thumb. "Ah'm holdin' mah nose 'twixt mah thumb an farfanger."

Markin---a citizen of the United States. "ah am a Markin."

all---petroleum. "They found all on mah land!"

doll---the process used to operate a telephone. "Why that's a terrible mess of numbers to doll for a long distance call!"

wunst---one time and no more. "Call me that again, wunst more."

pawn---on top of; above. "Ah'm not gonna tell yew again to get off from pawn that table."

banes---large, smooth kidney shaped, edible seeds. "Ah could eat mah weight in pinto banes."

slave---the part of the garment covering an arm only. "Are yew sayin' mah left slave is shorter than mah riot?"

wuf---a large, doglike carnivorous mammal. "Who's afraid of the beg, bad wuf...?"

whalebarah---a small vehicle with handles and one wheel for conveying small loads. "Be careful! Don't let that whalebarah tump over."

node---past tense of "know." "Ah node ah shouldn't of bent over in these ol' britches."

paypal---a body of persons. "Where'd all them paypal come from?"

barred---(past tense), to receive with the expressed intention fo returning the same. "Who barred mah hat an' didn't brang it back?"

kaint---contraction for "can not." "Stop it! Yew kaint do it that way."

lane---to incline or bend from a vertical position. "All she did was lane her had on mah shoulder."

sep---to omit or bar. "Everyone can go in sep yew!"

coarse---a body of dancers and singers who execute special numbers. "Yore one of them coarse girls ain't yew?"

stars---a flight of steps. "If yawl thank ah'm gonna walk up all them stars yawl are crazy."

rueing---state of being destroyed, wrecked, etc. "Yawl are drivin' me to rack and rueing!"

lags---the limbs of man used for supporting the body. "That gal's lags look lack a stockin' full of rocks."

sacks---the character of being male or female. "Well, there's the male sacks an' then there's the female sacks..."

are---sixty minutes. "Ah'll meet yew there in about a are."

grain---a color. "He's jes grain with envy."

quahr---an organized company of singers. "Yes, mam, ah sang in the church quahr every Sunday."

lon---a large, carnivorous mammal of the cat family. "Yew tellin' me them Romans thowed the Christians to the lons!"

spell---to fall down. "Oooooeeeee! He sure took a nasty spell."

bean---a living person. "He's one of the finest human beans ah ever met."

ast---the past tense of the word,"ask." "Who ast yew!"

foured---the part of the face above the eyes. "The sweat's jes pourin' often mah foured."

stale---to take and carry away feloniously. "Thou shalt not stale..."

kwat---free from noise or disturbance. "Be kwat; yawl are makin' too much noise!"

tearse---a courtyard usually with trees and shrubs. " That thang yew call a tearse ain't nuthin' but a lil ol' patio."

favor---to run a temperature. " Ah thank ah got a favor."

sense---from a definite past time until now. "Ah kaint even doll the
telephone sense ah hurt mah fanger."

warsh---to cleanse by rubbing or scrubbing in water. "Pardon me, ah'm gonna warsh mah hands."

wrench---to wash lightly with water. "Can ah hep yew wrench off them dishes?"

bear---a ferment liquor brewed from malt and flavored with hops. "All ah had was one bottle of bear."

tempetour---the degree of hotness or coldness. "Boy, the tempetour must be about a hundred today."

libel---apt or likely to. "Don't never try to walk lack this or yore libel to bust a lag."

arn---a silver-white metallic element. "Mah muscle is as strong as arn."

mihyun---the number immediately following 999,999. "If ah told yew wunst ah told yew a mihyun toms."

error---the missile used with a bow. "Ah shot a error into the air, an' where it fell ah node not where..."

par---exerted energy, force, or might. "If yew can do that, more par to yew."

sar---having an acid or tart taste. "Boy, is that lemon ever sar!"

nekked---having on no clothes, nude. "...and there he was nekked as a jaybird."

tuther---being the one of two (or more). "Yew kaint have both; take one or the tuther."

card---a person who lacks courage. "Ah'm callin' yew a yella-bellied card!"

Ainglish---the language spoken in the United Kingdom and the United States. "What's the matter with yew, kaint yew understand the kang's Ainglish?"

thank---to have a judgment or opinion of. "Ah hope yawl enjoyed raidin' this dictionary. But jes thank of what yew must sound lack to a Texan!"

[Flatus Veteranus]

MG, FEBA

"An Ordinance was published prohibiting the discharge of ordnance". See OED.

[18greens]

I hate to rain on various parades (is that american?) but Moggie has a point, old englishe spelt with the letter zee. It was the frogs who introduced the s into the language.

So there you go, do you admit to organising the french way or organizing the American way.

[FEBA]

I'm not sure this is correct. We occupied most of France for so many years, how do you know it wasnt the other way around??

[moggie]

18 greens - have you any idea how unpopular you now are in the US? You have just suggested that they spell words the same way as the FRENCH!!!!

Nice one, yawl!

Major Mad Max - surely the "tempetour" was cose on a "hunner daygreez", not hundred.

[TheNightOwl]

Agreed, FV, and on the other spelling - E.O.D. = Explosive Ordnance Disposal, (or so I was taught when changing from Bomb Disposal).

Kind regards,

TheNightOwl.

[18greens]

Moggie,

Read it again, other way round surely.

Wouldn't want to offend our mates.

[moggie]

Doh! Still, offending Yanks is never wasted effort!

[Mister B]

To sort of get back to the spirit of thread:

In the early nineties I attended a Joint Warfare Course at RM Poole. During one of the presentations, a USMC bird Colonel uttered the following: "Amphibiosity is the main tent pole of this operation"

About the same time I also attended a PfP SAR seminar in Aberdeen at which a US Coastguard lootenant described their problem solving process thus: "We break it [the problem] up into bite-size chunks, chew it over awhile, then spit out the answer". Fine for English speakers, but somewhat perplexing for the former WP attendees who were listening to real-time translation; the Russians particulalry looked bemused, as lunch was still some way off.

A report from, I think, the Daily Bellylaugh a couple of years ago:

At a demo by USMC of a new combat vehicle, the Marine Captain acting as guide stated that said vehicle "has high manouevrability in low trafficability situations". When a quizzical senior British officer asked what exactly he meant by that, the rather sheepish reply was "goes well in mud, sir".

[FEBA]

MT Sargeant at a famous training camp SW England points to a rear spring on a land rover and enquires;
"You FEBA (not my real name of course) what's this called"
"It's a spring sarg"
"Yeah but wot sort of spring is it?"
"A leaf spring Sarg"
"To give it it's full name son, it's a semi epileptic spring"
Priceless.

[EmeraldToilet]

FEBA,

If you start including things like that in the thread you will get tales such as AAC SSM in gulf war 1 saying to Sqn parade
" There have been some allegations made, and I want to know who the alligators are?"

priceless

[FEBA]

Emarald
Top quote, sorry we're losing the point of this thread with regards to Americanisms However:
Woolwich baracks (some years ago) Arnhem block to Corrunna block
Bombardier X " You; get over to Corrunna dismantle a bed , bring over to Arnhem then mantle it up"
One had to keep a straight face ..... That's discipline.

[L J R]

And you guys don't think that the Brits have some backward terms / RT???

Thank F@@@ we now say LEFT and RIGHT not PORT / STARBOARD.

I never knew which way the Port was - let alone what a starboard actually means.

What about INITIALS and FINALS - I thought that the term INITIAL meant one place and FINAL was a single line on the circuit. - Who can tell me the second route to land that involves the necessity of calling it FINALS.

...and when you call ATC for some advice / information / dircetion, the reply is 'XXX [your callsign] PASS YOUR MESSAGE'. No I do not have a message to pass, just someting to ask YOU [the Air Trafficer]..




I could go on but the G & T calls


..

[BlueWolf]

"Starboard" is a dialectic transliteration of "steerboard". The steer board preceded the rudder for steering boats, and was located on the right hand side of the vessel. It dates from before the Vikings.

"Port" is so called because the port was off the left hand side of the vessel when leaving harbour and heading north, when on the east coast of Britain, or heading south from the west coast, in both instances to take advantage of favourable ocean currents.

How it would have worked in the southern hemisphere is anyone's guess - port and sherry, maybe?

[Skylark4]

Port was Port because that was the side you always tied to the port (quay). You couldn`t do it the other way around because you had this bluddy great steering board in the way.

Mike W

[Lu Zuckerman]

It woiks bote ways.

We had a grizzled old chief from New Jersey tell us Boots that " Youse guys may have the education but I got the atority".