ROOKIES
"The Listener." The Editor, Sir,-There is an article in your last issue on "Army Slang" (Page 4), where you say that "rookie" is a new word, and means a private soldier. It is not a new word. You will find it in Kipling’s "Barrack-Room Ballads," which was published in late ‘eighties, or early ‘nineties, of last century. It is in the second to last verse of "Route Marchin’", which runs: So ’ark and ’eed you rookies which is always grumblin’ sore, There’s worser things than marchin’ from Umballa to Cawnpore, etc. The meaning of the word is a recruit of less than six months’ service. It wasn’t a new word when Kipling used it fifty years ago. With best wishes to The Listener, Yours, etc.,
A.
CHISHOLM
Waipukurau, March 17, 1940. (We thank the correspondent who has reminded us of Kipling. But " rookie" was not used in the last war, and but for an American film would perhaps not have been used in this war. In that sense it is a new word.)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 43, 19 April 1940, Page 10
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174ROOKIES New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 43, 19 April 1940, Page 10
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