Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/508

 418 NOTES AND QUERIES. '"' some lad " ; and enthusiam painted any- thing that had given great pleasure as " the gear," or " pure." " That's the stuff to give 'em ! " was re- marked as our artillery opened out, and the enemy's reply was greeted with humorous inquiries of '" Where did that one go to ! " The soldier relieved himself with facetious remarks. " If you stood sideways you'd be marked absent on parade ! " made a friend realize that he was not a Daniel Lambert in ! proportions ; and an inquiry as to the time would be met with a quotation from the drill sergeant's instructions to those learning to " form fours," " The time is one, one-two." It was a popular assumption that military distinctions " came up with the rations," and men without any were warned that they would be charged with a " deficiency of kit." Pride in one's native place was humbled by an inquiry if that were not the place" where the women eat their young." The piano was known as a " Joanner." Tinned corn beef was, of course, " bully." , " Stiff " was certainly applied to the dead, but its general use was to describe a man incompetent for his duties. " Muck into it " had a much wider application than the mere sharing of rations. " Buckshee " was most commonly used to indicate the food left over after every one had been served. " Is there any buckshee ? " was the anxious inquiry. " Oojarkapiv," of which only the first two syllables were commonly used, I always heard aspirated, but that may have repre- sented lack of culture. A necessary form of relief 011 the march was sometimes known as " easing springs " ; and " rear " (evacuate) takes us back to days when armies moved in a more informal way than at present. Should it not be recorded, however familiar to everyone now, that a " route march " is always a " rowt marc i " in the Army ? " Sea -pie " was a favourite dish not noted in the list. Certain resorts behind the line known as " red lamps " often resulted in what the authorities were led to categorize as " self- inflicted wounds." " Mud " and " dirt " were never mentioned in the army ; all was "s t." A man who had been in a! muddy trench would say that he had been " up to his eyes in s t." A very telling ex- j pression was that commonly used by a man I who had been "told off" at the orderly room, that he had been "s t on from a] great height." And if one remarked that, in j the case of some military offence being dis- , covered, " my name's mud," there was a, pleasant aroma of " earth to earth" about the expression. The C.O. made a mortal enemy of a tall friend of mine doing gas- guard in the " subsidds " (not at all by his own wish), while the battalion was in the front line, by a grunting remark that he was " good meat going to waste." When an officer whose orders seemed in- comprehensible was said to have " gone stone- winnick," I perfectly understood what was implied, but it was not till afterwards I discovered that the expression originated in the presence of a lunatic asylum at " Winwick" ; this, of course, would only be local slang. It is interesting to observe the use of " stone " to intensify the " win- nick," from analogy with " stone-deaf " and " stone-blind." " Civvies" is omitted from the list ; "a nice suit of civvies " was the most extraordinary and beautiful sight to the man in khaki, whose whole thoughts were concentrated on the time when he would wear them himself once again. And what about the ever-envied " category men," whose physical condition denied them the pleasures of the front ? And " napoo, finney," was the recognized formula of speech which indicated an exhausted supply of coffee, wine, or eggs and chips. The word " nothing " was replaced in the Army by "b r-all" "I did b r- all " ; " There was b r-all to eat " ; " He knows b r-all, " and so on. " Any complaints ? " the invitation given at every meal by the orderly officer for the men to criticize the menu (and woe betide those who responded to it !), became a stock phrase, used in all manner of ways. There was one word pretty well banned in the British Army, which profusely decorated the, speech of overseas men and Americans, and that was " bastard." If I were asked to select the forty most typical expressions of general Army slang as I heard it, I should select the following (not arranged in order) : buckshee, lash-up, all cut, head-worker, hard skin, wangle, lit, talking wet, napoo, sanjairyann, the duration, soaked, stiff, touch-out, blighty, windy, click, cushy, win, jam on it, swinging the lead, oojar, scrounge, stunt, umteen, wash-out, go west, cold Jeet, s k-h e, strafe, work your ticket, where are you working, sojt job, some lad, s t (in the senses explained), issue, b r-all, muck in, sweating and the gear. This of course omits proper names, techni- cal terms, &c. Another man's list, especi-