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21 Apr 2020, 7:31 am
JSBACH
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: 4 Aug 2018
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 68
Location: Western Europe
21 Apr 2020, 7:57 am
21 Apr 2020, 8:01 am
DILLIGAFF?
We're talking' figs, here...
21 Apr 2020, 8:04 am
21 Apr 2020, 8:19 am
A few more from your friendly neighborhood military contingent:
BOHICA - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again
FIDO - Forget It, Drive On
FIFO - Forget It, Fly On
FIGMO - Finally, I Got My Orders
FUBAR - Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition
POD - Plan Of the Day
SNAFU - Situation Normal; All Fouled Up
SOP - Standard Operating Procedure
SOS - Same Old Stuff
This list has been sanitized.
21 Apr 2020, 8:23 am
^ so that’s where “Snafu” comes from! 
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
21 Apr 2020, 8:27 am
21 Apr 2020, 3:31 pm
funeralxempire
Veteran
Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Age: 41
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 34,202
Location: Right over your left shoulder
22 Apr 2020, 3:50 pm
Karamazov wrote:
^ so that’s where “Snafu” comes from!
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
It's been around for ages, so it's also possible he picked it up from pop culture.
It was first noted by American Notes and Queries in fall '41, and was showing up in print media by 1942 (which suggests they could assume most readers would know what was meant). If he trained WWII era it would have been ubiquitous, not just heard around American recruits but instead just part of the slang used by troops. You know, like 'the kids' use 'cool' in it's typical slang way, they don't know where they first heard it because it was everywhere.
22 Apr 2020, 4:02 pm
funeralxempire wrote:
Karamazov wrote:
^ so that’s where “Snafu” comes from!
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
It's been around for ages, so it's also possible he picked it up from pop culture.
It was first noted by American Notes and Queries in fall '41, and was showing up in print media by 1942 (which suggests they could assume most readers would know what was meant). If he trained WWII era it would have been ubiquitous, not just heard around American recruits.
He would have been born ~1930 (can’t remember the exact year) so would have been in the Sinai/Suez area on his National Service sometime between ‘47 and ‘50: he did physics at Cambridge after the military, and married my grandmother after graduating so couldn’t have been demobbed later than that to fit that in before my dad’s birth.
funeralxempire
Veteran
Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Age: 41
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 34,202
Location: Right over your left shoulder
22 Apr 2020, 4:03 pm
Karamazov wrote:
funeralxempire wrote:
Karamazov wrote:
^ so that’s where “Snafu” comes from!
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
It's been around for ages, so it's also possible he picked it up from pop culture.
It was first noted by American Notes and Queries in fall '41, and was showing up in print media by 1942 (which suggests they could assume most readers would know what was meant). If he trained WWII era it would have been ubiquitous, not just heard around American recruits.
He would have been born ~1930 (can’t remember the exact year) so would have been in the Sinai/Suez area on his National Service sometime between ‘47 and ‘50: he did physics at Cambridge after the military, and married my grandmother after graduating so couldn’t have been demobbed later than that to fit that in before my dad’s birth.
So basically, like I was saying, it was already common slang by the time he was training, no need to assume he picked it up directly from Americans.
22 Apr 2020, 4:14 pm
funeralxempire wrote:
Karamazov wrote:
funeralxempire wrote:
Karamazov wrote:
^ so that’s where “Snafu” comes from!
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
It's been around for ages, so it's also possible he picked it up from pop culture.
It was first noted by American Notes and Queries in fall '41, and was showing up in print media by 1942 (which suggests they could assume most readers would know what was meant). If he trained WWII era it would have been ubiquitous, not just heard around American recruits.
He would have been born ~1930 (can’t remember the exact year) so would have been in the Sinai/Suez area on his National Service sometime between ‘47 and ‘50: he did physics at Cambridge after the military, and married my grandmother after graduating so couldn’t have been demobbed later than that to fit that in before my dad’s birth.
So basically, like I was saying, it was already common slang by the time he was training, no need to assume he picked it up directly from Americans.
Not common slang in Britain. It was an American expression, originating in the US military right then in WWII.
It was American GI slang in WW2, and his granddad was a Brit serving in the British Army only shortly after the war. So it is kinda funny that he would have picked it up that fast. The term may have spread to the British army during the war. Or maybe it did spread to Britain via radio/movies in the Forties.
22 Apr 2020, 4:25 pm
funeralxempire wrote:
Karamazov wrote:
funeralxempire wrote:
Karamazov wrote:
^ so that’s where “Snafu” comes from!
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
My dad’s side of the family use it a lot, but never heard anyone else here do so.
Guess my late grandfather must’ve done his military service alongside American recruits.
It's been around for ages, so it's also possible he picked it up from pop culture.
It was first noted by American Notes and Queries in fall '41, and was showing up in print media by 1942 (which suggests they could assume most readers would know what was meant). If he trained WWII era it would have been ubiquitous, not just heard around American recruits.
He would have been born ~1930 (can’t remember the exact year) so would have been in the Sinai/Suez area on his National Service sometime between ‘47 and ‘50: he did physics at Cambridge after the military, and married my grandmother after graduating so couldn’t have been demobbed later than that to fit that in before my dad’s birth.
So basically, like I was saying, it was already common slang by the time he was training, no need to assume he picked it up directly from Americans.
Yeah, there would have been plenty of veterans who’d picked the phrase up somewhere along the way around the various camps and postings he was stationed at, and his superiors at work after uni would have all been veterans of the war.
(Secret work at the time, some of his papers from the fifties and sixties were on display at his wake with big “MOD classified” stamps on the covers)
@naturalplastic yeah it is unusual, no-one I’ve met here uses it apart from my family: as indicated above he would have spent at least a decade working under men who did serve alongside American fellow officers, so there’s plenty of opportunity to have picked up US Military slang/abbreviations there.
funeralxempire
Veteran
Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Age: 41
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 34,202
Location: Right over your left shoulder
22 Apr 2020, 5:02 pm
