Q of the Week: Sayings/phrases?

[Leon]

From Baghdad: "I wait until the tempreature drops down to 110F before I go out running later in the day" ... I found myself saying this earlier this week when discussing keeping fit in Iraq and realised what I had said! Surreal.

Are there many wargamers out there?  We send packages out every now and then to BFPO's.

[Dave Fielder]

Only me that I know of ... there are approx 50,000 US forces here but not sure whether they game or not! Love the thought of getting packages, but BFPO 684 can be slow and tortuous as I am here as a single Brit in the midst of US Forces. Tea bags are always well received!!

[Leon]

Only me that I know of ... there are approx 50,000 US forces here but not sure whether they game or not! Love the thought of getting packages, but BFPO 684 can be slow and tortuous as I am here as a single Brit in the midst of US Forces. Tea bags are always well received!!

I'll put teabags on the Requests lists!

Couldn't you set up a game with a small town, get yourself a load of insurgents, and use it for tactical/strategic training ops?!

[Luddite]

The balloon goes up (impending trouble)

From WWI observation balloons which were often sent up to spot for artileery barrages.

To have a field day (easy achievement, enjoyment)

Military maneuvres and training in open fields.  Far preferred by soldiers than the usual hard or boring duties they were expected to undertake.

Parthian / Parting shot (accepted malprop.) (unpleasant remark before leaving, givin no chance to reply)

Obvious this one, from the famous tactic of the Parthian horse archers of shooting while riding away.

Pear shaped (something not quite right)

RAF slang first recorded in the 1960's as a reference to pilots not quite achieving the the acrobatic forms such as neat loops and so on.  Disputed meaning

[Maenoferren]

By chance i found this one - not sure of the truth of it though:
Sailors would check their rum had not been watered down by pouring it onto gunpowder and setting light to it, from where the term "proof" originates.

[Luddite]

By chance i found this one - not sure of the truth of it though:
Sailors would check their rum had not been watered down by pouring it onto gunpowder and setting light to it, from where the term "proof" originates.

Indeed, i beleive this is true.

I think it was still the measure used in the UK up to some time int he 1980's!

[FierceKitty]

The whole nine yards may have referred to a ship of the line carrying full sail: three masts, three yards on each, the maths isn't hard.

[Kiwidave]

I think " The whole nine yards" refers to the the length of a belt of ammunition for the US bomber gunners - giving them the whole nine yards meant shooting off a LOT of bullets

[capthugeca]

All gone pear-shaped - I heard that that referred to what happened when a military glider landed bandly.
Not a saying as such but 'repentence' I gather comes from Roman square-bashing when the legion was commanded to turn through 180 degrees.

[Leman]

Wargame military phrase used frequently in the Liverpool club - "You spawny get!" This refers to an unlikely but absolutely necessary dice roll.
DP

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

'With the greatest respect - you bast**d!' Common phrase at our club when someone roll amazing dice!

'Whole nine yards' is the length of the ammo belt in a Spitfire.

'It's all gone pear shaped' is about early tv pictures when the valves weren't working, (might also apply to radar)

[Luddite]

I haven't got a brass razoo

Australian slang for worthless Turkish money during WWI.  Also possibly used by the Aussies in Europe as a derogatory term for the late-coming American troops who the Australians apparently called 'raspberrys' as they considered them worthless as soldiers.  Razoo being a typical Australian contraction.

[DanJ]

Pear shaped

I'd heard "going pears shaped" came from WW1 British Balloon troops  Artillery observation balloons were filled with hydrogen and filling them was a very dangerous business.  If filled incorrectly the nice round balloon went pear shaped.  Not only wrong but dangerously wrong.

I alsways liked the idea that Artiilery obnservers in balloons were given parachutes because they were highly trained and therefore valuable but pilots weren't given parachutes because the planes were more valuable than they were.  However I suspect this is appocraphal, WW1 parachutes were both bulky and heavy and would have substantially reduced most aircrafts performance.

[hamsterking]

Not phrases but still interesting
"to maffick" : To celebrate in a manner out of all proportion to the importance of the event (From celebrations following the relief of Mafeking during the Boer War) - a word desperately in need of revival
"Camisade" : A night attack on a fortified place from the (I think) Spanish word for shirt. Derived from the custom of attackers wearing white shirts over their equipment during night attacks to distinguish them from the defenders.
"Forlorn Hope" a vanguard attacking a fortified position said to be derived from the Dutch word for "advanced guard". I've seen other derivations suggested but this one is an interesting example of words changing to find an appropriate meaning.

Dave Turner

[FierceKitty]

I understand enough Dutch (vie Afrikaans and German) to say that "folorn" certainly does not mean "advanced". It means "lost", an archaic meaning of the English adjective. Compare the Frog term for the same unit, "enfants perdus", and forgive me if my spelling or grammar's off there; French is a language I know little of.