Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/421

 12 s. ix. OCT. 29, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 343 boche had nothing to do with the Germans when it made its appearance c. 1860. It was then a parisianism, meaning mauvais sujet (" bad lot "). The word represented a Parisian abbreviation of caboche (pate, noddle, nob), as shown by bochon (blow) for cabochon. In the war of 1870 Boche was still unknown. The Germans bore exclusively the name of Prussiens. Only after the war in 1871 was this epithet Boche applied to the Germans, in the sense of " tete dure" (blockhead). Eugene Boutmy ( ' Diet, de la Langue verte typo- grapliique,' Paris, 1874) has tete de Boche. This term is specially applied to the Germans, because they are slow in under- standing the explanations of the type- setters. Other instances are in Courte- line's ' Le Train de 8 h. 47 ' and Bruant's chanson, ' La Rue.' Its pedigree is thus as follows : The word boche was first limited to the world of gallantry and meant young man (Delvau, 1866). Thence it passed to the printers (c. 1874). In ' L'As- sommoir,' Zola, who liked to give his characters expressive names, baptized his Alsatian concierges les Boches (Dauzat). A little later, all the Germans, including inhabitants of Luxemburg and Alsace, were called Alboches or Allemandes- Boches, and still later Pan-Bochie. Now this sobriquet has become the eth- nical general name, both in the trenches and in the Press, and has en- gendered a whole posterity : bochiser= germanize ; Bochonnie= Germany ; bochon- nerie = Boche villainy ; and in the French trench journals Le Bochophage (Boche- Eater) and Rigolboche, a Rabelaisian word which only a Sterne could translate. M. Andre Beaunier has even produced a brochure entitled ' Les Surboches ' the Super-Boches ! Finally, M. Albert Dauzat thus sums up the whole matter from the French point of view. : However that may be, Boche fills a blank : it does not designate a nationality, but a people, a race, with the depreciatory shade, under which the crowd sees the stranger, enemy or not. It is not merely the counterpart of the Italian tedesco, of the Alsatian and the Swiss-German Schwobe, of the Swiss-French Schnock, or of the Dutch moffe ; it is also the perfect retort, which we wanted, to Welsche, by which the Germans contemptuously call the peoples of the Latin race. The present war is the struggle of the Welsches against the Bosches. Ami in a footnote he adds, " Autrichiens ou Allemands, tout a, c'est de la Bocherie ! " In these desultory introductory remarks I fear I have fallen far short of the didactic and instructive prologue which the Editor of ' N. & Q.' announced last week " setting out the present state of the inquiry, especially as compared with similar inquiries in France and Germany, and the best methods of pursuing it." This I shall try to do more definitely in subsequent articles. The main point is that readers should be stimulated to take an interest in the question of the collection and classification of the slang produced by the war and its listorical and philological relations to that of previous periods, and to the literary lan- guage. In my next article I shall hope to show bhat the best method in this, as in most things, is the comparative ; giving side by side the French and German equivalents for our slang, and our equivalents for theirs. As we progress in our inquiry I trust a method and system will evolve from our sporadic efforts. For the final arrangement and classification of the resulting material I shall seek guidance from expert lexicographers and from British, Dominion, American, French, German and Italian writers on the subject, whose works I shall hope finally to append in a comprehensive bibliography. A. FORBES SIEVEKING. 12, Seymour Street, Portman Square, W. This first list of words has been put together from contributions kindly sent in by the following members of The Times Staff, who, having served in the war, could draw on their personal knowledge* of the soldiers' speech : MB. BEAUMONT, MB. BEN- EST, MB. COHEN, MB. FYSON, MB. GBEEN, MB. GBIMSTON, MB. HALE, MB. LOVE, MB. MAUDE, MB. MOULD, MB. OWEN, MB. PAB- FITT, MB. RULE, MB. SEYMOUB, MB. SMITH, MB. TUCKEB, and R. B. We also owe a number of words to MB. HOOD, who obtained them from his father. A. NICKNAMES AND PERSONAL APPELLATIONS. ALLY SLOPEB'S CADETS (ALLY SLOPEB'S CAVALBY.) From A.S.C. (Army Service Corps). AUSSIE. A member of the Australian Expedition- ary Force. (See DIGGEB.) BASE-WALLAH. A man who seldom sees the front line ; continually at the base sick during a big attack. From Hindustani. BIG NOISE. General from Headquarters. BOBEBJE (BOBADJI, BOMMAJEE). A COOk. An old army word. Hindustani. I BOLO. A useless person. Hindustani. BBASS HAT. A Staff Officer ; Senior Staff Officer. CAMEL- WALLAH. Camel guide or driver. From Hindustani. CHINK. A Chinaman.
 * bad lot " in opposition to muche, a polite