Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 223, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1917 — WHERE SOME NICKNAMES GIVEN WORLD’S FIGHTING MEN HAD ORIGIN [ARTICLE]

WHERE SOME NICKNAMES GIVEN WORLD’S FIGHTING MEN HAD ORIGIN

Will it be “Sammies?” Probably not. The history of slang shows that nicknames of soldiers (or anything else) come from the soldiers themselves, or very often from the en6my. It apparently has occurred to nobody who writes letters to the newspapers that the American soldier has gone through, several wars without any fixed slang name such as the English soldier’s Tommy Atkins. Most of the letters advocate the Sammy appendage. . Who started it nobody knows. Probably the idea of Sammy after Uncle Sam broke ' out in eruption in several quarters at the same time. Word from France says that the men of the Pershing expedition do not like the idea. Sammy or any word ending in the affectionate diminutive to the American mind is unmanly. That is not SP in England and British possessions, “Tommy Atkins” sprang, according to well-es-tablished reports, from a word written on a sam- ' pie form of application to the British army. It represented the British “John Doe.” And anyway Tommy applies only to the English soldier, usually a little fellow, and not to the big-boned colonials,Scotch' “Killies”*or Irish Dragoons or Fusiliers. With Sammy as a basis the letter writers next, decided on Samson as a fitting name—less effeminate. “The Sons of Sam —Uncle Sam” —fine and manly, they argued. But Samsons -didn’t stick either. Then many advocated “Yanks” from Yankees, the old Civil war nickname for the Union troops. That, of course, did not appeal to the Southerners. Somebody wrote in that Yanks wouldn’t do because Yankee'came from an Indian word which meant coward. That isn’t shown by Webster, who gives a dozen other theories about the origin of Yankee. Like all other slang words it comes from so far back that nobody’s memory would serve tn untangling the mystery. In the Civil war the Northerners were “Yankees” or “Yanks,” meaning properly in the States a New Englander, but a word applied abroad to all Americans.' The Southerners were “Rebs,” from rebels, or “Johnny Rebs.” It Is apparent 'that each got his name from the enemy. So in the Mexican war the only slang name the American soldiers had was "gringo,” also given to him by the enemy. “Gringo” means nothing in Spanish. The Australian and New Zealand soldiers of the British army have been dubbed “Anzac,” a combination of the initial letters of Australian and New Zealand army corps. The Scotch retain their name of “kilties,” of course, from the kilts they wear. The German soldiers are said to call them “the ladies of hell.” but that was too long a title to remain, although it probably pleased the “kilties.” There has been much discussion about “hoche,” the name for the German soldiers, and “pollu,” the French soldier. “Boche” is French slang, and its birth is -clothed in mystery almost always surrounding a slang word. It means a most despicable sort of person and is an insult. In that connection the American army already has its slang term for an infantryman. It is used commonly in the army, but generally unknown to the -civilian. The term is “doughboy.” Since “doughboy” long has been an American infSntryhiafi the United States army already has as explicit a slang term as the French army has In “pollu.” “Doughbqy” is in Webster as meaning an infantryman In the United States. ’ Probably “doughboy,” by reason of Its use and popularity in the American army, will become the general word for the American soldier before the war is over. “Gringo” also may become common usage, for . the American soldiers have seen so much service In and' near Spanish speaking countries that they often refer to themselves in fun as “gringos.”—New York Herald