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War Slang: American Fighting Words and Phrases Since the Civil War
Paul Dickson, one of the country's leading authorities on American slang, offers the first comprehensive collection of fighting words and wartime phrases Americans have used from the Civil War to the Iraq War. This definitive dictionary, updated and expanded to include the events of September 11 and the war on terrorism, is arranged war by war and reveals military slang at its most colorful, innovative, brutal, and ironic. Dickson also shows how language mirrors the unique experience of each conflict. For example, World War II brought unprecedented linguistic experimentation, innovation, and abbreviation, including "dogface", "quisling", "blitz", and the immortal "GI" as well as the rich stew of pidgin English used to communicate with the native peoples of the South Pacific. Raw frustration and cynicism surface in the slang of the Vietnam War, with a record number of synonyms for the verb "to kill", including "blow away", "dust", "get some grease", "waste", and "zap". Beginning with a brief overview of the Revolutionary War, War Slang reveals the thoughts, attitudes, and environments of America’s fighting men and women from the last 230 years. An incomparable reference work, WAR SLANG serves the language lover and military historian alike by adding a brilliant and provocative new dimension to the understanding of war.
432 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1994
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About the author
Paul Dickson
136 books41 followersPaul Dickson is the author of more than 45 nonfiction books and hundreds of magazine articles. Although he has written on a variety of subjects from ice cream to kite flying to electronic warfare, he now concentrates on writing about the American language, baseball and 20th century history.
Dickson, born in Yonkers, NY, graduated from Wesleyan University in 1961 and was honored as a Distinguished Alumnae of that institution in 2001. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy and later worked as a reporter for McGraw-Hill Publications.
Since 1968, he has been a full-time freelance writer contributing articles to various magazines and newspapers, including Smithsonian, Esquire, The Nation, Town & Country, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post and writing numerous books on a wide range of subjects.
He received a University Fellowship for reporters from the American Political Science Association to do his first book, Think Tanks (1971). For his book, The Electronic Battlefield (1976), about the impact automatic weapons systems have had on modern warfare, he received a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to support his efforts to get certain Pentagon files declassified.
His book The Bonus Army: An American Epic, written with Thomas B. Allen, was published by Walker and Co. on February 1, 2005. It tells the dramatic but largely forgotten story of the approximately 45,000 World War I veterans who marched on Washington in the summer of 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, to demand early payment of a bonus promised them for their wartime service and of how that march eventually changed the course of American history and led to passage of the GI Bill—the lasting legacy of the Bonus Army. A documentary based on the book aired on PBS stations in May 2006 and an option for a feature film based on the book has been sold.
Dickson's most recent baseball book, The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign Stealing Have Influenced the Course of our National Pastime, also by Walker and Co, was first published in May, 2003 and came out in paperback in June, 2005. It follows other works of baseball reference including The Joy of Keeping Score, Baseballs Greatest Quotations, Baseball the Presidents Game and The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary, now in it's second edition. A third edition is currently in the works. The original Dickson Baseball Dictionary was awarded the 1989 Macmillan-SABR Award for Baseball Research.
Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, another Walker book, came out in October, 2001 and was subsequently issued in paperback by Berkeley Books. Like his first book, Think Tanks (1971), and his latest, Sputnik, was born of his first love: investigative journalism. Dickson is working on a feature documentary about Sputnik with acclaimed documentarians David Hoffmanand Kirk Wolfinger.
Two of his older language books, Slang and Label For Locals came out in the fall of 2006 in new and expanded versions.
Dickson is a founding member and former president of Washington Independent Writers and a member of the National Press Club. He is a contributing editor at Washingtonian magazine and a consulting editor at Merriam-Webster, Inc. and is represented by Premier Speakers Bureau, Inc. and the Jonathan Dolger Literary agency.
He currently lives in Garrett Park, Maryland with his wife Nancy who works with him as his first line editor, and financial manager.
Dickson, born in Yonkers, NY, graduated from Wesleyan University in 1961 and was honored as a Distinguished Alumnae of that institution in 2001. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy and later worked as a reporter for McGraw-Hill Publications.
Since 1968, he has been a full-time freelance writer contributing articles to various magazines and newspapers, including Smithsonian, Esquire, The Nation, Town & Country, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post and writing numerous books on a wide range of subjects.
He received a University Fellowship for reporters from the American Political Science Association to do his first book, Think Tanks (1971). For his book, The Electronic Battlefield (1976), about the impact automatic weapons systems have had on modern warfare, he received a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to support his efforts to get certain Pentagon files declassified.
His book The Bonus Army: An American Epic, written with Thomas B. Allen, was published by Walker and Co. on February 1, 2005. It tells the dramatic but largely forgotten story of the approximately 45,000 World War I veterans who marched on Washington in the summer of 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, to demand early payment of a bonus promised them for their wartime service and of how that march eventually changed the course of American history and led to passage of the GI Bill—the lasting legacy of the Bonus Army. A documentary based on the book aired on PBS stations in May 2006 and an option for a feature film based on the book has been sold.
Dickson's most recent baseball book, The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign Stealing Have Influenced the Course of our National Pastime, also by Walker and Co, was first published in May, 2003 and came out in paperback in June, 2005. It follows other works of baseball reference including The Joy of Keeping Score, Baseballs Greatest Quotations, Baseball the Presidents Game and The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary, now in it's second edition. A third edition is currently in the works. The original Dickson Baseball Dictionary was awarded the 1989 Macmillan-SABR Award for Baseball Research.
Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, another Walker book, came out in October, 2001 and was subsequently issued in paperback by Berkeley Books. Like his first book, Think Tanks (1971), and his latest, Sputnik, was born of his first love: investigative journalism. Dickson is working on a feature documentary about Sputnik with acclaimed documentarians David Hoffmanand Kirk Wolfinger.
Two of his older language books, Slang and Label For Locals came out in the fall of 2006 in new and expanded versions.
Dickson is a founding member and former president of Washington Independent Writers and a member of the National Press Club. He is a contributing editor at Washingtonian magazine and a consulting editor at Merriam-Webster, Inc. and is represented by Premier Speakers Bureau, Inc. and the Jonathan Dolger Literary agency.
He currently lives in Garrett Park, Maryland with his wife Nancy who works with him as his first line editor, and financial manager.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 14, 2011
One of those books you can either read front-to-back or just open and browse; both entertaining and often enlightening in what it reflects about both the military and the national cultural milieu at the time of each war covered. I caught a handful of mistakes, but not enough to carp about. I'd like to see a similar book picking up in time where this one leaves off.
January 21, 2024
It took me a little less than a month to get through this, and I was beginning to fear I'd never do it. It's a great resource though; there were so many times I exclaimed out loud, "oh, so that's where that comes from!" Americans have always been funny, and now I have this book as evidence. Very fun and informative if you appreciate American slang and idioms.
May 9, 2015
A very good resource! It is interesting to see how much of this lingo has become part of modern speech, particularly in clichés that pundits and sports commentators love to throw around. Even more interesting is how “Pentagonese” has so permeated the culture that the common soldiers ridicule it at the same time as embracing it, particularly in the modern day. Terms like “Dome of Obedience” for a helmet, or “Fort Living Room” for a rotation home are prime examples.
The thing that really binds it all together is a gallows humor, understatement and grim resignation. I also like the way that the phrases that were coined reflect upon that time and place in history.
Some of my favorites include:
• Civil War: Bounty Jumpers = Take bounty to substitute enlist, dessert and reenlist.
• WWI: Soldier’s 1% = 100%
• WWII: Penguin = non-flying member of the air corp.
• Korea: hero gear = war souvenirs
• Vietnam: Pucker factor = how dangerous a situation is
• Desert Storm: Make the rubble bounce = heavy bombing/artillery
• Doomsday: Purr words/snarl words = “branding” to make things seem good or bad.
• Post 9/11: Embrace the suck = dealing with a bad situation
The thing that really binds it all together is a gallows humor, understatement and grim resignation. I also like the way that the phrases that were coined reflect upon that time and place in history.
Some of my favorites include:
• Civil War: Bounty Jumpers = Take bounty to substitute enlist, dessert and reenlist.
• WWI: Soldier’s 1% = 100%
• WWII: Penguin = non-flying member of the air corp.
• Korea: hero gear = war souvenirs
• Vietnam: Pucker factor = how dangerous a situation is
• Desert Storm: Make the rubble bounce = heavy bombing/artillery
• Doomsday: Purr words/snarl words = “branding” to make things seem good or bad.
• Post 9/11: Embrace the suck = dealing with a bad situation
September 7, 2009
read it, Twice. military evidently have a profound and engaged relationship, with language as: justification, deception, that of being and mocking the powers that be simultaneously, a living snorting code of brute survival within a hemisphere that is impossibly bureaucratic, a surprisingly dear and deep respect and curiousity for a time worn network of phrasing whose history and prevail is retained, revised and devoured by the services own codists and manuals. Consequently, Dickson's resources are engaged (up to and assumining the threat of death) without a moment to lose! Pilots air intercept terms many of which date back to WWI are gorge!!! FIGMO: fuck it got my orders. Ride the Pipe: Pilot a jet. Incoming mail: hostile fire... Mummy sac, Kill box, Street without joy, Shoot and scoot... One of the best dictionaries I have ever read. Honestly.
August 11, 2012
Alphabetical glossary of war slang. Unfortunately the words and phrases aren't always identified by war. Some are clearly very old: "hardtail" means Army mule, and when's the last time we've seen an Army mule? Some are clearly newer; any equipment can be placed after its date of invention. Some slang may have died in one war, but some survived till the next. But some isn't easily dated. Interesting for everyone who likes language, and for anyone in the military.
November 13, 2008
Ever wonder where phrases such as "Big Bertha" or "deep kimchi" or "tell it to the Marines" originate? This is the book for you.
I enjoy word and phrase etymologies and have this and other books on this subject.
I enjoy word and phrase etymologies and have this and other books on this subject.
May 13, 2013
Really fun, really handy. I just wish they had more samples of the slang in use.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews