THE ARGOT OF THE FRONT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3053, 14 April 1917, Page 6

THE ARGOT OF THE FRONT

ANZAC VOCABULARY

NEW WORDS AND PHRASES

(By O.G.P. in the "Sydney MorninnHerald.") '

I venture to state tliat if an average Australian averagely slangacquainted were set down to-night in one of our tents in France and listened to -the boys as they talk and joke and chaff he would not understand the greater part of their conversation. It is nob tbo words themselves so much as-the in-which, they are used and the significance that attaches to them that would puzzle him. For the war has brought with it a great increase in our vocabulary, and the slang dictionary will have to be re-compiled to be up to date. .We have been in strange countries, and we have picked up and assimilated, to our own use strange words.. Lot me record some of these, as .commonly used.

The stay in Egypt naturally meant an influx of Eggyptian or Australianised Egyptian words. "Saida" (or Sayeeda) became the common greeting. "Good-day," "good-night," "goodbye,", all became "sayceda." Theterm passed very quickly to the Australians themselves and to their, distinctive hat. "Where's your sayeeda hat?" Or at times when the troop trains went past here, "Who are those chaps?" "4sayeedas" (i.e., Australians) is the answer. "1 went to Dublin," recounts one-traveller, "and blowed if I didn't see two saycedas coming down the street. Wo were soon good 'cobbers.' " —a great Australian word for friends.

"Bukshee" is another importation from the Egyptian. "Baksheesh" is "something for nothing," "alms." The children —ay, and men and women, too —beseech the foreigners for "backsheesh"—a gift, a tip. So a "bukshee feed" would be a meal scored for nothing, or at someone else's expense. "Bukshee stripes" betoken the fact that the wearer holds a certain rank but doesnlt draw the equivalent pay. A corporal acting as a sergeant has one '''Bukshee stripe," or an acting-sorgeant drawing no extra duty pay at all would be a "Bukshee sergeant." A "Bukshee fag" is a cigarette, which has been asked for, "cadged," "bludged," "nipned," "hummed"—all of theso terms expressing the act of borrowing or trading upon goodi nature. "Mafeesh" is another word that will live. It occupies the same placo with us as "fines" '(French, tini finished) does for Tommy Atkins. One of the first Egyptian expressions you learned was "Mafocsb felouce" (Finished my money, no money loft). . And'so everything became "Mafeesb." A worn-out tunic is "Mafcesh." A good escuso worked too often is "Mnfeesli." Giving evidence at tho court-martial one follow said,- "I got a crack behind tho ear, and' mafeesh,' leaving the colonel to understand that after the aforesaid blow ho' took no further interest in the proceedings. "Iggareo" (I.do not vouch for the spelling) means "quickly," and was soon adopted and corrupted. As they rode about in carriages ("carries" for all time to tho Anzacs), the cry was always "Iggaree." Being accustomed to the. military expression "at the double," he 60on crossed it by "at the ig." So you might hear a corporal, "Come on, you chaps, fall in "at the ig." And they.all Tcadily understand that haste is required. -. This 'by no means exhausts tho Egyptian Vocabulary—as a' matter of fact, the Anzac rather prides himself on his linguistic abilities, and really the way ho.can,make himself understood to a foreigner is remarkable.' ' There is "Imshi" (go), "Yallah" (go), or when together very strong, "Imshi yallah (go to blazes), "Doghree," or "Doggarce" (go on, go straight ahead), "Stanna" (stop),- "Stanna swali" pronounced as spelt (stop a little while), but these are all. probably that will last. These and "Gallip" (Gallipoli), "The Pen'insh" (The. Peninsula 1 ),, will stand for all time in our language. Coming on to France.the Anzac soon increased his vocabulary. "Bon" (good), "Tray bon" (very good), or "No bon" (no good) were soon standardised. The Egyptian "Quice kiteer" (very good) will run "Tray bon" very close and will die hard. "Finee" _and '\Naipoo" were soon picked' up. The latter word. comes from Mr. Atkins from the French "n'y a plus." lie went into a shop, and asked for something, but was told 'II n'y a plus," so he quickly got to understand that "naipoq" (as he corrupted it) meant "nothing doing." So he applied it on all hands. "Got a fag; mate?" "Naipoo," is l the answer. "I asked the 0.0., but—naipoo—l asked her to marry me,' but got the naipoo l (which signifies a polite refusal) —"We thought they were coming, but naipoo" (which signifies a false alarm). When'you talk of Tommy Atkins you naturally think of "blighty," his name for' England. For us, too, if is just the same—if is "Blighty." It. is said to be. a corrupted Hindustani word for Great Britain —"the land across the water." But whatever its origin the English soldiers in India popularised it as a synonym for "home." He talked of "Blighty," dreamed of- "Blighty," and thus when he was wounded and sent off to England he joyously pro; claimed the fact that he had got a "Blighty," meaning to imply. a-wound sufficiently serious to necessitate his removal to England. Hear the boys in the tent, "Where's old Bill now?" "Oh, \\u was dead lucky, he got a blighty in the knee!" Which means that "poor old Bill's" knee was not likely to recover very quickly, and so his recuperation would take place in England. It is only those who have "been out there" and have spent weary months in the trenches who can appreciate where the luck comes in.

To return to the French, however. The bewildered Frenchman shook his head iu despair, and said something about "compris," so our boys quickly learned that "compree" had to do with understanding, "Compree?" (do you understand ?), says one, ■ after efforts to make himself understood, or "No compree 1 ' (I don't understand), after vain efforts on his part. "Mongy" was as near possible to "Manger to eat," so you hear, "Have you had' your mongy?" or' "Come and mongy." "I had a great mongy at '■ for two francs." "Allay" (alien, go, or allezvous-en, go away) soon became as popular as "Imshi," though the Anzacs have quite educated the younger French generation as to the meaning-—ay, and wisdom I—of "allay" when they are told. As a matter of fact, the French people think the Egyptian words we use are pure Australian, and I was once asked in all good faith, "Do all Australians speak English?" We were not the first Australians to land at Marseilles, but imagine our surprise at being greeted by "Sayeeda kid," "mafeesh Mouse," "imshi yollah," "quise kitier"—and the like. It is not only the foreign words that have been corrupted and assimilated, however. Many of our own words have now meaning as never before. "Chronic" is a good example, it stands for anything very bad. The rainy weather is "chronic," food is "chronic," getting no letters is "chronic." "Up to putty" expresses the same feeling, though I havo not the faintest idea as to its derivation. "These rooties" are "up to putty," says ope, whioh, to be translated, me»ns "Route-marches (rootieß) are no

good (up to putty)." "Beat it" (go, hurry off) was learned from the Canadians. "I must 'beat it' now," "it's timo for us to beat it," "Ibeat it for my life," all express the idea of. j;oing or hurrying. To "float a note" or "flash a note" comes from the universal use of paper money. If you have any money at all, it is in five-franc, two-franc, one-franc, or half-franc notes; so to produce one or have one is to "flash" it or "float" it. A position of any sort has cot reduced to "posi" (pronounced "pozey"). A sniper has a good "posi" ; a place in the tent where it did not leak, would he a good "posi." "Cushy" (doubtless from cushion) implies something soft and easy. "A cushy job" is a soft, permanent position not entailing much work, The A.P.M. (Assistant Provost Marshal) at Paris, for instance, is much envied for his "cushy job." A "cushy wound"- is a flesh wound, not.causing much pain or serious consequences. Not the least significant of the war words are those by which the soldier refers to death. At all times we shrink from the actual word death, and over since _ma.ii first hegan to clothe his language in poetry he has sought to take the stins, as it were, out of this word. We speak of "across the border." "the great unknown." "laid to rest," "departing in peace." Shakesrware has put it, "Aftor life's fretful fever, he sleeps well." and the Greeks and the 'Romans did it before US. But the soldier has evolved his own expressions. "So and so stopped one" AiresumaMv a bullet), "went out to it," '(took the count" (expressions from the boxinc; arena), "got it in the neck" (where the severing of the juitiilnr vein is fataO, "passed in 'his ohenks".(an Americanism), but none of these onuals in - simplicity 'or noe+rv the nuict words, "gone west." The wir has meant the untimely nutting off of many in their prime, and as the sun, its dnilv journey o'er, sinks in a blaze of clorv. in'the western ckv, so these yonna lives, glorious in.their death, have L'ono west;