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.

Wildfire and Trumps were ancient weapons.

Hence:

'Spread like Wildfire' (Greek wildfire)

and

'Came up Trumps'. (Mediaeval I believe)

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:

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

"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!:=

I haven't seen 'Loose Cannon' yet.

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.........

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

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.

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

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. ;)