Why were they called Jerries and such?
Doug
in WWI and I should know that, since I *should* know German), Tommy for
Brit, even doughboy and dogface? It's something I've always wondered and
could never find an answer to.
Thanks
DjB
M.J.Powell
<socr...@NOMAILTOhome.com> writes
>Why were such names used for different soldiers? Jerry for German (Boche
'Jerry' because their helmets looked like chamber-pots, 'jerries' in
British slang.
Mike
--
M.J.Powell.
Cub driver
>Why were such names used for different soldiers? Jerry for German (Boche
>Brit, even doughboy and dogface? It's something I've always wondered and
>could never find an answer to.
For Boche (bosh, I've always heard it said) perhaps you ought to know
French, not German?
Jerry I always assumed was short for German (Gerry) but I will yield
to the chamber pot thesis.
Tommy is 19th century British slang for soldier, which as far as I
know began with Rudyard Kipling ("Thomas Atkins" was the prototype of
many a barrack-room ballad). Less affectionate was swaddie, as the
Irish pronounced it, or squaddie as I have also heard it said; I
rather assumed that was Gaelic, but I don't know.
Australians and New Zealanders were called Diggers in WWI because
(gasp!) they actually *dug holes* to fight from at Gallipoli. Dunno
doughboy. The WWII term was GI, for government issue. Dogface or
doggie AFAIK was Marine Corps derision for Army types. Many's the
time, hitchhiking to Fort Bragg, the lads from Lejune would bark out
their car windows at me.
Velovich
>doggie AFAIK was Marine Corps derision for Army types.
Dogface was also Army for infantryman...
<*> V-Man
A Knight is sworn to Valor
His Heart knows only Virtue
His Blade defends the Weak
Delete the ".CanDo" from my addy to reply!
Jet the Cat
>
> >Why were such names used for different soldiers? Jerry for German (Boche
> >in WWI and I should know that, since I *should* know German), Tommy for
> >Brit, even doughboy and dogface? It's something I've always wondered and
> >could never find an answer to.
>
> For Boche (bosh, I've always heard it said) perhaps you ought to know
> French, not German?
>
> Jerry I always assumed was short for German (Gerry) but I will yield
> to the chamber pot thesis.
Agreed. From my Dad (British WW2) - it was always "Jerry": "The Boche"
or "Heinie" was current in early WW2 in Britain but marked you down as a
WW1 dugout.
> Tommy is 19th century British slang for soldier, which as far as I
> know began with Rudyard Kipling ("Thomas Atkins" was the prototype of
> many a barrack-room ballad).
"Tommy" has a long history. Derived from "Thomas Atkins" a soldier brave
of the Napoleonic era whose name stuck in the mind of the Iron Duke when
it came to him to specify a representative signature for the standard
paybook. For a time, "Atkins" competed with "Tommy" some 100 yrs ago.
The original Thomas Atkins epitomised the British soldier:
long-suffering of all things, indomitable in defence, and the first to
call you friend when the smoke cleared -> a company flank man (who I
believe) did his duty and died of wounds at Asseye under the eyes of "'r
Arfer".
> Australians and New Zealanders were called Diggers in WWI because
> (gasp!) they actually *dug holes* to fight from at Gallipoli.
Close. There was a great goldmining and fossiking tradition down here.
To work a claim you needed a mate, and a good mate was a ____________?
Good fun topic thanks!!!
nightjar
M.J.Powell wrote in message
<37e352ca...@news.curie.dialix.com.au>...
>'Jerry' because their helmets looked like chamber-pots, 'jerries' in
>British slang.
Describing the enemy as Jerry dates from the latter part of WW1. The
Oxford English Dictionary supplement of 1930 describes it as contraction
of 'German'. There is no recorded use of the word jerry to mean a
chamber pot until much later so, if there is a connection, it is
probably the other way around. OTOH, the use of jerry to mean a chamber
pot could also derive from its similarity in shape to a round felt hat
of the same name.
Colin Bignell
krossfader
boche comes from french, and derives (according to webster's) from the term
"tete de caboche" meaning "cabbage-head" ...a reference perhaps (this is
me, not webster's) to the prevelence of cabbage in the german diet???
doughboy: ...i have found a somewhat unsatisfying theory of the origins of
this word in Robert Hendriksen's "Origin of words and Phrases." Doughboy,
he claims, is a corruption of "adobe," "which Spaniards in the Southwest
called military personnel...."(for some reason) ...hmmmm, maybe...the US
had just come out of a little skirmish/hunt with/for pancho villa in the
southwest (which pershing withdrew from in feb. of 1917...shortly thereafter
he was on his way to france, where he landed in june of 1917) ...in any
case, it is a term of WWI origin (...was it even used in wwii?)
Doug wrote in message <7r0qq3$s...@dgs.dgsys.com>...
nightjar
Cub driver wrote in message <37de3f3...@news.usenetserver.com>...
>...squaddie as I have also heard it said...
Squaddie = member of a squad.
Colin Bignell
Louis Capdeboscq
>"tete de caboche" meaning "cabbage-head" ...a reference perhaps (this is
>me, not webster's) to the prevelence of cabbage in the german diet???
Sorry for Webster's but even though your dictionary is correct that "boche"
was originally a French term, the rest is wrong.
"caboche" means "head". It also refered to large-topped nails (for shoe) in
the last century, but it definitely never meant "cabbage". Its origin is a
12th century Norman word, "caboce", that was mixed with "caput" (Latin for
"head"). Of course "tete de caboche" never existed, as it would have meant
"head-head".
What did exist was "tete de boche" (wooden head, English equivalent would be
pig-headed). From that, you take "Allemoche" as slang for "Allemand" (means
"Germain" in French, except that "moche" also means "ugly"), it is altered
in "Alboche", and becomes "Boche".
It's a bit complicated, I admit... but no cabbage--head, and no relationship
with their diet.
Bill Shatzer
> doughboy: ...i have found a somewhat unsatisfying theory of the origins of
> this word in Robert Hendriksen's "Origin of words and Phrases." Doughboy,
> he claims, is a corruption of "adobe," "which Spaniards in the Southwest
> called military personnel...."(for some reason) ...hmmmm, maybe...the US
> had just come out of a little skirmish/hunt with/for pancho villa in the
> southwest (which pershing withdrew from in feb. of 1917...shortly thereafter
> he was on his way to france, where he landed in june of 1917) ...in any
> case, it is a term of WWI origin (...was it even used in wwii?)
Actually, the term "doughboy" pre-dates WWI by quite some time, dating
back to the Civil War, at least. Elizabeth Custer, wife of he of
Little Bighorn fame, included an explanation of the term "doughboy"
as it applied to soldiers in her book "Today on the Plains" which
was published in 1867. Mrs. Custer wrote. "A 'doughboy' is a
small round doughnut served to sailors on shipboard generally with
hash. Early in the Civil War, the term was applied to the large
brass buttons on the infantry uniform, from which it passed by
natural transition to the infantrymen themselves."
Now I don't think much of Libby Custer's explanation (prefering the
Spanish "adobe" version with its allusions to dust-covered
troopers) but the Custer quote is offered as proof that the
term was in the common vernacular - or at least the common
military vernacular - long before the First World War.
Cheers and all,
--
Bill Shatzer -bsha...@orednet.org -or- aw...@freenet.carleton.ca-
"Cave ab homine unius libri"
Ken McGregor
a diminutive form of Jeremy, but is also a fairly
obvious contraction of German. There can be
a tendency for some people to come up with
elaborate theories to explain the origin of
words or phrases which look fairly obvious.
nightjar <nigh...@pavilion.co.uk> wrote in message
news:37e1849...@news.usenetserver.com...