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Military slang is a colloquial language used by and associated with members of various military forces. This page lists slang words or phrases that originate with military forces, are used exclusively by military personnel or are strongly associated with military organizations.
A number of military slang terms are acronyms. These include SNAFU , SUSFU , FUBAR , and similar terms used by various branches of the United States military during World War II.[ citation needed ]
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BOHICA stands for Bend Over, Here It Comes Again. The meaning is that something undesirable is going to happen again and that there is not much else one can do other than just endure it.
The Log, the humour magazine written by and for Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy, featured a series of comics entitled "The Bohica Brothers", dating back to the early 1970s.[ citation needed ]
FUBAR (Fucked/Fouled Up Beyond All/Any Repair/Recognition/Reason), like SNAFU and SUSFU, dates from World War II. The Oxford English Dictionary lists Yank, the Army Weekly magazine (1944, 7 Jan. p. 8) as its earliest citation: "The FUBAR squadron. ‥ FUBAR? It means 'Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition," [1] referring to unpaid military personnel with erroneous paperwork.
Another version of FUBAR, said to have originated in the military, gives its meaning as "Fucked Up By Assholes in the Rear". This version has at least surface validity in that it is a common belief among enlistees that most problems are created by the military brass (officers, especially those bearing the rank of general, from one to four stars). This version is also most likely to have had its origin in the U.S. Army, where the senior officers command from the rear, as opposed to the Navy or Air Force, where it is common for generals to command alongside their forces. FUBAR had a resurgence in the American lexicon after the term was used in two popular movies: Tango and Cash (1989); and Saving Private Ryan (1998). [2]
This particular FUBAR acronym survived WWII and for a time, mainly in the 1970s, found its way into the lexicon of such diverse groups as hippies and management consultants. Although the word “rear” is not normally used to describe the vantage point of senior corporate executives, their use of the term might have come about as the result of their frequent conclusions that the cause of corporate problems (inefficiencies and ineffectiveness causing poor profitability or a negative bottom line) rested not with rank and file workers, but rather with executives, particularly senior executives – the equivalent of senior military officers.[ citation needed ]
One possible origin of the term comes from the German word "furchtbar" meaning frightful, negative, or bad. A skilled German speaker pronouncing the word would say something which to an anglo would sound like "Foitebar". Being unable to collectively pronounce the German "rcht" spelling inflection, but knowing the word's pronunciation wasn't greatly modified by it, an Anglo would naturally simplify it to "Fuubar/Fubar" in common usage. A similar scenario had occurred with French "m'aidez" ("help me") becoming "Mayday" in WWI; with contractions not being common in English verbs it was translated as a single word.[ citation needed ]
CHIPS (Causing Havoc In Peoples Streets) is a slang term used by the British Army in urban warfare operations, usually in conjunction with FISH (Fighting In Someone's House) as in Fish & Chips.
FUBU (Fucked/Fouled Up Beyond all Understanding) was also used during World War II.[ citation needed ]
FRED (Fucking Ridiculous Eating Device) is a slang term in the Australian Army used to refer to the Field Ration Eating Device attached to each ration pack. [3] [4]
SNAFU is widely used to stand for the sarcastic expression Situation Normal: All Fucked Up, as a well-known example of military acronym slang. However, the military acronym originally stood for "Status Nominal: All Fucked Up." It is sometimes bowdlerized to all fouled up or similar. [5] It means that the situation is bad, but that this is a normal state of affairs. It is typically used in a joking manner to describe something that is working as intended, but doesn't necessarily work well when used for its intended purpose. The acronym is believed to have originated in the United States Marine Corps during World War II.[ citation needed ]
Time magazine used the term in their June 16, 1942, issue: "Last week U.S. citizens knew that gasoline rationing and rubber requisitioning were snafu." [6] Most reference works, including the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, supply an origin date of 1940–1944, generally attributing it to the United States Army.[ citation needed ]
Rick Atkinson ascribes the origin of SNAFU, FUBAR, and a bevy of other terms to cynical G.I.s ridiculing the Army's penchant for acronyms. [7]
Private Snafu is the title character of a series of military instructional films, most of which were written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, Philip D. Eastman, and Munro Leaf. [8]
In modern usage, snafu is sometimes used as an interjection, although it is mostly now used as a noun. Snafu also sometimes refers to a bad situation, mistake, or cause of the trouble. It is more commonly used in modern vernacular to describe running into an error or problem that is large and unexpected. For example, in 2005, The New York Times published an article titled "Hospital Staff Cutback Blamed for Test Result Snafu". [9]
The attribution of SNAFU to the American military is not universally accepted: it has also been attributed to the British, [10] although the Oxford English Dictionary gives its origin and first recorded use as the U.S. military. [6]
In 1946, as part of a wider study of military slang, Frederick Elkin noted: "...[there] are a few acceptable substitutes, such as 'screw up' or 'mess up', but these do not have the emphasis value of the obscene equivalent." He considered the expression SNAFU to be: "...a caricature of Army direction. The soldier resignedly accepts his own less responsible position and expresses his cynicism at the inefficiency of Army authority." He also noted that "the expression … is coming into general civilian use." [11]
An Imperial FU (An Imperial Fuck Up) was used during World War I by soldiers of the outlying British Empire, e.g. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, Kenya, Tanganyika, India, in reference to odd/conflicting orders from British authorities. Note that during World War I, the British Empire had an Imperial War Cabinet , and the troops from Australia were called the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), not to be confused with the AEF, the American Expeditionary Forces of WWI, or the Allied Expeditionary Force of WWII.[ citation needed ]
SUSFU (Situation Unchanged: Still Fucked Up) is closely related to SNAFU.
SNAFU and SUSFU were first recorded in American Notes and Queries in their September 13, 1941, issue. [6]
TARFU (Totally And Royally Fucked Up or Things Are Really Fucked Up) was also used during World War II.[ citation needed ]
The 1944 U.S. Army animated shorts Three Brothers and Private Snafu Presents Seaman Tarfu In The Navy (both directed by Friz Freleng), feature the characters Private Snafu, Private Fubar, and Seaman Tarfu (with a cameo by Bugs Bunny). [12] [13]
Tommy Atkins (often just Tommy) is slang for a common soldier in the British Army, but many soldiers preferred the terms PBI (poor bloody infantry) [14] "P.B.I." was a pseudonym of a contributor to the First World War trench magazine The Wipers Times .
SNAFU is an acronym that is widely used to stand for the sarcastic expression Situation normal: all fucked up. It is a well-known example of military acronym slang. It is sometimes censored to "all fouled up" or similar. It means that the situation is bad, but that this is a normal state of affairs. The acronym is believed to have originated in the United States Marine Corps during World War II.
Newbie is a slang term for a novice, newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in a given profession or activity. In particular, it may refer to a new user of computers, and often concerns Internet activity, such as online gaming or Linux use.
Military slang is an array of colloquial terminology used commonly by military personnel, including slang which is unique to or originates with the armed forces. In English-speaking countries, it often takes the form of abbreviations/acronyms or derivations of the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, or otherwise incorporates aspects of formal military terms and concepts. Military slang is often used to reinforce or reflect interservice rivalries.
Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional adult animated shorts, ironic and humorous in tone, that were produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The films were designed to instruct service personnel about security, proper sanitation habits, booby traps and other military subjects, and to improve troop morale. Primarily, they demonstrate the negative consequences of doing things wrong. The main character's name is a play on the military slang acronym SNAFU, "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up".
This glossary of names for the British include nicknames and terms, including affectionate ones, neutral ones, and derogatory ones to describe British people, Irish People and more specifically English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish people. Many of these terms may vary between offensive, derogatory, neutral and affectionate depending on a complex combination of tone, facial expression, context, usage, speaker and shared past history.
G.I. is an informal term that refers to "a soldier in the United States armed forces, especially the army". It is mostly deeply associated with World War II, but continues to see use.
In military terminology, a chalk is a group of paratroopers or other soldiers that deploy from a single aircraft. A chalk often corresponds to a platoon-sized unit for air assault operations, or a company-minus-sized organization for airborne operations. For air transport operations, it can consist of up to a company-plus-sized unit. Frequently, a load of paratroopers in one aircraft, prepared for a drop, is also referred to as a stick.
Fucked up may refer to:
Fuck is an English-language profanity which often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to around 1475. In modern usage, the term fuck and its derivatives are used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an interjection or an adverb. There are many common phrases that employ the word as well as compounds that incorporate it, such as motherfucker and fuck off.
Pogue is American pejorative military slang for being Posted on Garrison, which at the time were the Infantry.
The field ration eating device (FRED) is an Australian eating utensil and multi-tool that serves as a combination of a can opener, bottle opener, and spoon. As its name suggests, it is issued to the Australian Defence Force for use with its Combat Ration One Man field rations. It was first issued around 1943.
Military humor is humor based on stereotypes of military life. Military humor portrays a wide range of characters and situations in the armed forces. It comes in a wide array of cultures and tastes, making use of burlesque, cartoons, comic strips, double entendre, exaggeration, jokes, parody, gallows humor, pranks, ridicule and sarcasm.
Digger slang, also known as ANZAC slang or Australian military slang, is Australian English slang as employed by the various Australian armed forces throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. There have been four major sources of the slang: the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The name Digger slang derives from the cultural stereotype of the Digger in the First World War. Graham Seal AM, Professor of Folklore at Curtin University of Technology, calls the slang Diggerese. It is a combination of an occupational jargon and an in-group argot.
Snafu or SNAFU may refer to:
Three Brothers is part of the Private Snafu series of animated shorts produced by Warner Bros. during World War II. Screened for troops in September 1944, the cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng and features the familiar voice of Mel Blanc.
The SNAFU Principle is a popular principle in Discordianism. It states that Communication is only possible between equals. In any hierarchy people and employees inevitably distort the truth of reports when dealing with their superiors, in order to avoid any punishment for relaying bad news. As a result, the superiors often operate from a distorted view of the situation, sometimes leading to poor results.
Army creole was a term used in Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff to describe an English dialect spoken by military personnel. The dialect relies upon extensive use of profane intensifiers like "fuck" to gain attention in confusing circumstances requiring prompt, decisive action. Before 1980, basic training drill instructors, drill sergeants, military training instructors, and recruit division commanders used the dialect to increase the stress levels of recruits, simultaneously emphasizing a recruit's subordinate status to the instructor and increasing the probability of the recruit focusing on the instructions being provided in distracting situations. Military personnel learning the dialect in training may use it to improve communication in stressful situations.
Yank, the Army Weekly magazine (7 January 1944; p. 8)
Their CO, 1st Lt. Edward O'Donovan of Cohoes, N. Y., once a member of the AAF, has an easy answer to the debate about whether the Fubars are soldiers, sailors or marines; he says they're probably being carried as AWOLS in Washington. ...FUBAR? It means 'Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.'
I remember the spoon come tin opener that was in later years nicknamed "Fred" (F****ing ridiculous eating device)
'Situation Normal ... All Fouled Up,' as the first SNAFU animated cartoon put it
