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In between trying to keep themselves alive, wartime military personnel have always found the time to get creative with the language they use.Our latest overseas conflicts have birthed terms such as "fobbits," which is a contraction of "forward operating base" and "hobbits," and is used to describe those who cling to the safety of the base, and "death blossom" which describes gunfire sprayed indeterminately in all directions.
While it remains to be seen if any of these new words come home with our brave men and women, in the past military jargon has made its way into the civilian lexicon. Keep reading for 10 words or phrases you may not know originated on the battlefield:
10. Snafu -- An acronym for Situation Normal: All F**ked Up.
9. Son of a Gun -- Expression of surprise. May derive from the military practices of marking recruits of unknown parentage with the name "A. Gun."
8. No man's land -- First used in World War I as the unoccupied area between the trenches of opposing armies.
7. Scuttlebutt -- Gossip. It's also the nautical term for the cask that serves the crew fresh water. Since sailors, like office dwellers, exchange gossip around the water dispenser, scuttlebutt became Naval slang for loose talk and the spreading of rumors
6. Gung ho -- Enthusiastic and dedicated, sometimes to a fault.
5. FUBAR -- F**ked Up Beyond All Repair
4. Ground zero -- It originally meant the point of detonation, but it now the definition has been stretched to include the site of any disaster.
3. AWOL -- The official military term for absent without leave.
2. RADAR -- Radio detection and ranging.
1. Blitzkrieg -- German for lightning war. Shortened to blitz for the American faux-warriors of Sunday.
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Wednesday 16 December
By B52HVet
Along with SNAFU and FUBAR, you left out TARFU... Things Are Really F**ked Up. Those 3 are often interchangeable and used when referring to orders, Officers, or equally misguided people.
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Wednesday 16 December
By B52HVet
Ahh yeah, one more. Whenever we'd see our QA (Quality Assurance) squadron coming down the ramp to perform an unscheduled inspection, the word of the day was BOHICA. It means "Bend Over, Here It Comes Again"
Wednesday 16 December
By Sean
'Gung ho' comes from Mandarin Chinese gōnghé, “to work together,” which was used as a motto by the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society ('gōngyè hézuòshè'). Lieutenant Colonel Evans F. Carlson (1896–1947) borrowed the motto as a moniker for meetings in which problems were discussed and worked out; the motto caught on among his Marines (the famous “Carlson's Raiders”), who began calling themselves the “Gung Ho Battalion.” From there eager individuals began to be referred to as gung ho.
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Saturday 19 December
By Michael Picard
Scuttlebut is actualy what the navy / marines call a drinking fountain or water cooler. That you would somtimes hear rumers around. that is where it came from.
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Sunday 20 December
By lantern314
"Deathblossom" actually originated on a battlefield in the far-far-imaginary future. It is a term from the movie "The Last Starfighter." There is a last resort button that spins the fighter around firing all of the weapons at once called the "Deathblossom."
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