The Long Trail: What the British Soldier sang and said in 14-18

[Private Butler]

My other half came back from her parents today and they sent me a number of books that they had found in various sales/jumbles including the title above.

I'm seriously pleased they did, there are 140 pages of soldier's slang in this gem, over 50 songs for the march, the estaminet or neither, as well as chants and sayings and other songs from the music hall. This will be a major asset when it comes to reference Now, for all I know, this might be more common than I think this book but it really is superb.

So, any unknown pieces of slang? Let us know, and you never know, I may have it here.

Canteen stinker : an inferior cigarette

To chuck a dummy: to faint on parade

Sergeant Major's: better than usual tea

RAMC : Rob all my comrades

Over the plonk...

[Bardess]

Sounds like a seriously good find. Why don't you scan and post one page a day of the slang. Would be very entertaining

Diane

[IanA]

A good book, fairly common and reprinted quite recently.

[Private Butler]

Sounds like a seriously good find. Why don't you scan and post one page a day of the slang. Would be very entertaining

Diane

I might just do something similar, although being a phobe of the techno sort I may just have to revert to the ol' type Diane.

If the Sergeant Steals Your Rum

If the sergeant steals your rum,

Never mind!

If the sergeant steals your rum,

Never mind!

Though he's just a bloody sot!

Just let him take the lot,

If the sergeant steals your rum

Never mind!

If old Jerry shells the trench,

Never mind!

If old Jerry shells the trench,

Never mind!

Though the blasted sandbags fly

You have only once to die,

If old Jerry shells the trench,

Never mind!

If you get stuck on the wire,

Never Mind!

If you get stuck on the wire,

Never mind!

Though the light's as broad as day

When you die they stop your pay,

If you get stuck on the wire,

Never mind!

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Bought mine ~ a paperback edition in 196? @ Bracklesham Bay,West Sussex; when on Holiday as a "Wee Lad" a most interesting & useful little book

[Private Butler]

Turd walloper: sanitary fatigue man.

Tapped: Slightly mad.

Swinging the lead: Malingering, or otherwise evading duty.

Scene shifter: A famous English heavy gun near Arras in '17.

Griffin: Confidential information, or warning of trouble to come as in so and so has just given me the griffin on Bob's court martial.

Dog and maggot: Biscuit and cheese (regular army).

[David Filsell]

For information really: I simply love The Long Trail and although I'm not sure which edition the recent reprint is taken from, the first was an extremely limited run I believe (about a thousand). Second edition was in 1930 and revised and enlarged and there was a third - I do not know the date of publication - which added a further 155 pages . BUT unless the new edition is taken from the Sphere paperback 1969 it may well be incomplete, since that edition was again revised and expanded by Brophy. So unless the new reprint is taken from this third edition the paperback is the most authoritative edition of all and copies do turn up.

As a further note even rarer is Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases by Edward Fraser and John Gibbons (George Routledge & sons 1925). This contains many words and phrases not in The Long Trail and I was surprised to find one which I knew (but had forgotten). I intend to re-introduce it on the wahitsisname, er thingy, er watchercallit. Here goes: But first, Partrige and Brophy were fascinating individuals Partridge went on to compile a huge dictionary of slang, Brohpy wrote at least one book about WWII (set in the Western Desert from memory) and was I am sure the father of Briget (Bridgid?) Murphy.

Anyway

OOJAH (also OOJA-KA-PIVI) : A substitute expression for anything the name of which the speaker cannot momentarily think of.

Apparently OJIBOO meant the same

Oh how I remember the OOJAH from me dear old mum and her spinster sister - who taught me and my children the word

[centurion]

For information really: I simply love The Long Trail and although I'm not sure which edition the recent reprint is taken from, the first was an extremely limited run I believe (about a thousand). Second edition was in 1930 and revised and enlarged and there was a third - I do not know the date of publication - which added a further 155 pages . BUT unless the new edition is taken from the Sphere paperback 1969 it may well be incomplete, since that edition was again revised and expanded by Brophy. So unless the new reprint is taken from this third edition the paperback is the most authoritative edition of all and copies do turn up.

OOJAH (also OOJA-KA-PIVI) : A substitute expression for anything the name of which the speaker cannot momentarily think of.

Apparently OJIBOO meant the same

Oh how I remember the OOJAH from me dear old mum and her spinster sister - who taught me and my children the word

The 1969 Sphere edition was first published as a hardback in 1965

As a lad I can remember an ex tanker who used to use the phrase Oojah ma flic as an alternative for thingy ma jig

[truthergw]

OOJAH (also OOJA-KA-PIVI) : A substitute expression for anything the name of which the speaker cannot momentarily think of.

Apparently OJIBOO meant the same

Oh how I remember the OOJAH from me dear old mum and her spinster sister - who taught me and my children the word

These had a wide currency, being common in Dundee when I was a lad. I associate them with oui-jah as in oui-jah board, an accessory well known in late Victorian and Edwardian drawing rooms at seances and spritualist meetings.

[squirrel]

When something went wrong my uncle used to say that it had gone "Up the Oojah kapiv".

[Private Butler]

The 1969 Sphere edition was first published as a hardback in 1965

As a lad I can remember an ex tanker who used to use the phrase Oojah ma flic as an alternative for thingy ma jig

Mine's a 1965 hardback published by Andre Deutsch.

[Private Butler]

The 1969 Sphere edition was first published as a hardback in 1965

As a lad I can remember an ex tanker who used to use the phrase Oojah ma flic as an alternative for thingy ma jig

I'm sure I remember hearing that phrase Oojah ma flic, even using it myself on the odd occasion.

Isn't it used as if referring to old whassis'name?

[Black Maria]

This was one of my first WW1 books and I have found it indispensable over the years . Because it is not a memoir I have never been tempted to own an

original copy and anyway , as mentioned, the later copies have more information. My copy was an old stained x-lib one and over the years I have seen

some nicer copies but never felt inclined to spend my money on them . The other day I was lucky enough to find a very nice copy on e-bay for 99p and

I would strongly recommend the book to anyone who is starting out reading about the war , especially memoirs, because it explains the meanings of many

words and phrases that would otherwise go over the reader's head. Another thing I love about the book is that it has my favourite WW1 photo on the front of

the jacket

Edited 2 March , 2017 by Black Maria

[GWF1967]

On 2 March 2009 at 01:17, Private Butler said:

I'm sure I remember hearing that phrase Oojah ma flic, even using it myself on the odd occasion.

Isn't it used as if referring to old whassis'name?

My father said Oojah ma flip, it stuck with me. 

 

[Black Maria]

I remember I once accused someone of 'swinging the lead' (p. 189) and they hadn't the faintest idea of what I meant.

[Pat Atkins]

Oojahmaflip was common usage in our house when I was a kid - is it from Army Hindustani, I wonder? Also swinging the lead (god knows I tried it on as a kid, but was always sent to school regardless) and, "Oh, me barking dogs, me aching plates o' meat", which was apparently my Old Contemptible grandfather's invariable sigh as he got in from work and sat down to ease his boots, and is still in regular heartfelt use three generations on. And sergeant major's tea was fortified with a splash of rum or whisky, as befits the drink of the semi-divine! Or so my grandfather no doubt believed: he retired as QMS, and had a spell back in khaki in 1939-40 as A/CMS. I should imagine the tea was an added incentive to rejoin the colours...

 

 

Edited 2 March , 2017 by Pat Atkins
tidying up some poor English!

[David_Underdown]

oojamaflip, wassname etc all examples of metasyntactic variables.  Just things you say when the actual word escapes you.

[Dragon]

According to the large OED, oojamaflip was created by running several words together:

oojah [something you can't remember] +

ma  [from the same filler that you see in thingumajig or whatchamacallit] +

flip [the OED refers to a flippy folding trolley]

The trolley is where I'm confused. The posts above seem to be saying that the word existed in WW1 and was well used by the mid 20c. The Oojamaflip trolley seems to be 1950s - I had to google that as I don't remember ever encountering anything called an Oojamaflip. Was the word in existence before the trolley of that name, and the inventors took the word?

 

The OED suggests that oojah may be a borrowing from Arabic [hujja] or Persian. It's been around since the beginning of the 20c and they also offer: "It was suggested by J. Manchon in Le Slang (1923) that the word was of Hindustani origin, and the first article that has been found referring to its use in the present sense also suggests an Eastern source."

 

Gwyn

[The Scorer]

 "Oh, me barking dogs, me aching plates o' meat"

 

I always thought that both of these were Cockney rhyming slang, and the latter half of the second one "plates o' meat" (feet) is. However, I've Googled both of them, and some people on a discussion board are claiming that the first one was used by their family, who were from Yorkshire - and never went to London!

 

(Retires stage left, confused!)

[Retlaw]

4 hours ago, Dragon said:

According to the large OED, oojamaflip was created by running several words together:

oojah [something you can't remember] +

ma  [from the same filler that you see in thingumajig or whatchamacallit] +

flip [the OED refers to a flippy folding trolley]

The trolley is where I'm confused. The posts above seem to be saying that the word existed in WW1 and was well used by the mid 20c. The Oojamaflip trolley seems to be 1950s - I had to google that as I don't remember ever encountering anything called an Oojamaflip. Was the word in existence before the trolley of that name, and the inventors took the word?

 

The OED suggests that oojah may be a borrowing from Arabic [hujja] or Persian. It's been around since the beginning of the 20c and they also offer: "It was suggested by J. Manchon in Le Slang (1923) that the word was of Hindustani origin, and the first article that has been found referring to its use in the present sense also suggests an Eastern source."

 

Gwyn

 

My faythur used to  when I axed  him wods thad back he came ids a oojah yakum a pivy.

[squirrel]

Oojah kapiv was another version. Expressed as "right up the oojah kapiv" when something went disastrously wrong.

Edited 3 March , 2017 by squirrel

[Muerrisch]

and a handbook of filthy songs to sing along to. 

 

One of my earliest purchase, bought second hand in Shanklin on holiday as a teenager.

 

A treasure.

[Pat Atkins]

15 hours ago, The Scorer said:

 "Oh, me barking dogs, me aching plates o' meat"

 

I always thought that both of these were Cockney rhyming slang, and the latter half of the second one "plates o' meat" (feet) is. However, I've Googled both of them, and some people on a discussion board are claiming that the first one was used by their family, who were from Yorkshire - and never went to London!

 

(Retires stage left, confused!)

He was a Cockney - dog's meat predates plates of meat but has the same meaning, so he was just repeating himself really. There's a well-documented linguistic process whereby London dialectal forms are passed on to other areas of the country (it's not a one-way street, of course, and is part of a more complex set of interactions), but I suspect that the Edwardian Regular Army my grandfather enlisted into - and in which even county regiments mostly had a strong London contingent - may well have spread contemporary London slang around the country. Maybe the Yorkshire folk had relatives in the army in the past?

 

Cheers, Pat

[The Scorer]

57 minutes ago, Pat Atkins said:

He was a Cockney - dog's meat predates plates of meat but has the same meaning, so he was just repeating himself really. There's a well-documented linguistic process whereby London dialectal forms are passed on to other areas of the country (it's not a one-way street, of course, and is part of a more complex set of interactions), but I suspect that the Edwardian Regular Army my grandfather enlisted into - and in which even county regiments mostly had a strong London contingent - may well have spread contemporary London slang around the country. Maybe the Yorkshire folk had relatives in the army in the past?

 

Cheers, Pat

 

Ah, thanks; the people that I quoted didn't say whether they had had relatives in the army, so maybe this is the case.

[Pat Atkins]

Should perhaps add that I got the expression from my father who is from Brighton, where his father settled on completion of his 21 years' service, so I suppose there's an example of Londonese spreading right there. Without the family connection I'd've recognised plates as rhyming slang for feet but not dogs, I think. On the strength of this thread I've ordered a copy of the book from Amazon: I look forward baffling my nearest and dearest with fluent trench-talk in the near future.

 

Cheers, Pat