Words, Expressions & Terms
Popularized 1914 - 1918

Term

Definition

Comments

Source

British, On top form.

By 1916 the British War Office had created an ABC system of classification for the Department of Recruiting. Each category was then graded in a scale of 1 to 3. A-1 men were fit for general service overseas. Reader Dr. David Street has brought to our attention a similar 18th century system from Lloyds of London for evaluating ships. This may be a case of the Great War spreading an existing usage much more widely.

EJ

Ace

An outstanding pilot, as well as an excellent performer in any field.

At first the term meant simply a fine flier, a "high card" to play against the enemy. Later the French singled out those fliers who had downed at least five enemy planes.

CA

Ack-Ack

Anti-aircraft fire

From the military phonetic alphabet, A-A

PH

Acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Strong association with Gallipoli campaign. Read about the celebration of Anzac Day down under.

M

Archie

Anti aircraft gun or gunnery.

DSUE

Attrition, War of

A war in which each side seeks to wear the other out.

Expression dates from WW1.

EJ

The beginning of just about any enterprise.

Originally referring to an observation balloon sent aloft to tell gunners to begin firing.

CA

An excessive number or quantity.

After the massive artillery barrages of the war which always seemed excessive.

EJ; DSUE

Big Bertha

Huge Krupp 42cm siege guns used to attack the Belgian forts at Liege in the opening of the war; generally applied to large German artillery pieces.

Named for the daughter of Alfred Krupp, German arms manufacturer.

IC

British reference to 1916 Battle of the Somme.

Later the battle also was know as the Great Cock-Up. Click here to read about this battle.

M

Americanism for the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Largest American battle of the World War. Click here to read General Pershing's battle report.

M

Black Hand

A nationalistic organization in Serbia.

Believed responsible for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

RHD

Blighty

Home; originally British for England; later  a Blighty was a wound which would get one sent home.

Derived from a Hindu word meaning a foreign country and taken up by British troops in India to refer to Britain.

EJ

A nonrigid airship used for observation.

RHD

Blotto

Prewar slang for drunkenness; during the war it referred to strong liquor.

DSUE

Blue Max

Nickname for German medal awarded to Rommel, Richthophen, Boelcke among others.

Some dispute whether the expression Blue Max was actually used during the war.

M

Boche

Disparaging epithet for anything German.

Used primarily by officers; derived from  French caboche = blockhead.

EJ; RHD

Rules for successful fighter pilots developed by German ace & aviation pioneer Oswald Boelcke. Click here to read about the Dicta.

Boelcke died in a collision with a colleague while flying his sixth mission of the day, 15 October 1916.

M

To shell with artillery fire.

Usually used in passive sense of being bonked.

DSUE

Brass Hats

High ranking officers.

British staff officers had a red band around their hats.

RHD

To do something not done before.

Probably an allusion to digging a new trench.

?

Buck private

Americanism for a private without any stripes.

DSUE

Shortened version of Bullshit.

Slang for unnecessary work, especially cleaning. The notorious British training camp at Etaples was known as the Bullring.

M

Nonsense; empty talk; later to deceive a person or pull his leg.

Complicated prewar origins from English language countries with Australia given most credit.

DSUE

Canned boiled or pickled beef which was a staple with the British Army.

RHD

Bunker

Fortification set mostly below ground level with overhead protection.

Probably from coal bunker.

RHD

Disguise, pretense; although the expression is still also used in its original sense, describing the special coloring schemes applied to equipment and uniforms to make the object harder to see.

French derivation from comoufler = disguise. Some of the original schemes are thought to have been inspired by the cubists and other modernist painters.

EJ; DSUE

Chat

Nickname for body louse.

M

Chatting

Conversing in an informal manner.

Lice were sometimes called ‘chats’;  Soldiers who spent many an hour removing them from the seams of their clothing passed the time in discussions with their mates. This led to the popularizing of chatting which had been in use since the 16th century.

EJ; RHD

British slang for a piece of paper.

From the Indian Army.

W

Chew the fat

To sulk, to be resentful or talk in such a manner; presently means have a discussion.

Has lost the negative connotation since the war.

DSUE

Chew the rag

To argue endlessly; presently means have a discussion.

Has lost the negative connotation since the war.

DSUE

Chow

Food; rations; a chow hall is a military dining hall.

Started in the maritime world by 19th Century ship crews who visited the orient. During the Great War it was passed on to the other services.

AMW

Coal Scuttle

Nickname for German field helmet used in late WWI and WWII.

So named because the helmets resembled the metal bucket used to carry coal.

RHD

Cold feet

To become discourage; possibly linked to trench foot or trench fever.

Some controversy as to how common this usage was during the war.

DSUE

A conscientious objector .

M

Conk Out

Slang for stopping, failing, passing out or dying.

Originated in the American Air Service, conk being the last sound a reciprocating engine makes before it ceases operating.

RHD

Slang, body louse. See an image and read an ode to a Cootie.

Brought by British Army from Malaya.

RHD

Synonymous with lousy.

A reference to the eggs of the lice being like crumbs of bread.

EJ

Cushy

Slang for nice, or comfortable, from Urdu kushi ‘pleasure’.

Another Anglo-Indian Army word popularized in WW1.

EJ

D-Day

Initial day of a military operation.

First used by American First Army at St. Mihiel, September 12, 1918.

M

Der Tag

German for The Day.

From German nationalist movement; in the Great War it came to refer to the Day conquest would begin.

RHD

Devil Dogs

Nickname given to the US Marines by Germans who faced them at Belleau Wood.

The Germans in this sector had previously come to admire the huge Mastiffs guarding a chateau in the nearby village of Belleau.

M

Establish one’s position strongly.

From entrenching.

DSUE

Self-name for Australian troops in World War I.

Traceable back to 19th Century Australian gold fields.  Resurrected by members of 1915 Gallipoli expedition who had to dig into cliffs to survive.

DSUE

Digging-In

To establish one’s position, as if digging a defensive trench.

EJ

Dogfight

Air combat at close quarters.

Based on the scrambling, twisting appearance of air warfare from the ground.

M

Doughboys

US soldiers of the First World War; long a disparaging name for American infantrymen, its usage broadened and became strictly positive in the war.

See an article on the derivation of Doughboy.

M

Conscript soldier.

The aggregate of a call-up cycle became known as a draft, so draftee was the natural term for an individual who had been selected. This in contrast to volunteers or regular [career] soldiers.

DSUE

A board laid down as a track or floor over wet or muddy ground.

Used for both trench floors and trails across flooded fields.

RHD

Dud

A shell or bomb that fails to explode; later, a person or enterprise that proves to be a failure.

EJ, RHD

Dugout

A rough dwelling in a bank or side of a hill.

Construction of noun from verb phrase dug out.

RHD

Dump

Temporary Depot where supplies are left for distribution.

From US 19th Century: Pile of refuse

RDH

Eleventh Hour

Just in time, at the last moment. 

The armistice of WW1 came into effect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

EJ

Ersatz

Substitute, artificial, sub-standard

1919 German for substitute foods and materials

PH

Fed-Up

Disgusted

First used in Boer War and carried over by British Army

DSU

Old rundown hotel or accommodations.

From Army slang for sleeping bag or bedroll.

M

Nickname given to the British Army raised after the start of WW1, in allusion to Fred Karno, a comedian and producer of burlesque.

Also known as Kitchener’s Army.

EJ

Frightfulness

German policy of intimidating populations in occupied territories.

Translation of German policy of Schrecklichkeit.

DSUE

Fritz

Sympathetic nickname for German soldiers by Allies.

From ‘Old Fritz’ a name for Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712- 1786).

EJ

Frog

Derogatory term for a Frenchman with 18th Century origins.

From frog eater.

DSUE

Frontschwein

Literally, frontline pigs. Implied is the imminence of being slaughtered.

How German soldiers referred to themselves.

M

Funk

Dejected mood; to shrink from.

Funk holes were excavated openings on the front walls of trenches where soldiers could retire when not on duty.

RHD

Slang for tipsy or drunk.

From the disorienting effects of a gas attack.

DSUE

Slang expression still used to expedite accelerating an engine.

From WWI air operations.

CA

GI Can

GI was the abbreviation for galvanized iron during the war and a GI can was a large trash receptacle. This was then applied as a nickname to large German artillery shells.

During WWII GI was the abbreviation for government issue and it was applied to everything from GI soap to GI shoes and, eventually, the troops themselves.

AMW

Go phut

To stop functioning or to come to grief.

Hindustani term used by Kipling in 19th Century.

DSUE

Gone West

Slang, To die; fail; decline.

Go west towards the setting sun.

DSUE

Great War, The

The First World War

Formerly used for the Napoleonic Wars, it was first applied to the events of 1914-1918 in the October 1914 Macleans Magazine

OED

Flying near the ground.

Air service origins.

CA

Huns

Derogatory term for German Soldiers.

Kaiser Wilhelm originally associated Germany with the ancient nomadic tribe that plundered much of Europe.

M

Hush-Hush

Used in WW1 to describe top-secret operations.

EJ

Large artillery shell.

The power and large amount of dark smoke given off by big shell explosions were reminiscent of black Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson.

M

Jerry

Sympathetic nickname for German soldiers by Allies.

Derived from a: German[y] according to one theory, or b: the fact that the British thought the German helmets looked like chamber pots, also known as jeroboams, abbreviated to Jerries.

CA, M

Joystick

Control handle or lever for machinery

From the airplane's hand-operated control device.

CA

Kaput

Slang for ruined, broken not working.

From 20th century German  kaputt 'done for'.

EJ

Refers to British enlistees who responded to Lord Kitchener’s 1914 appeal for volunteers.

This group provided the manpower for the disastrous 1916 Battle of the Somme.

M

Derogatory term for anything Germanic.

Short version of German food Sauerkraut.

M

British equivalent of US Taps.

Read about the Last Post Ceremony every evening at the Menin Gate in Ypres.

Lousy

Infested with lice; mean, contemptible, contaminated, unethical, etc.

RHD

Canned British ration of beef, potatoes, beans, onions and carrots in gravy.

M

Mine

Subterranean passage made to extend under an enemy’s works or position for the purpose of securing access or depositing explosives for blowing up a military position.

Used in earlier warfare such as at Petersburg, Virginia in the American Civil War, mines were frequently used on both the Western and Italian Fronts of the Great War.

M

A near full-sized, non-working model of a new design.

Derived from practices in World War I's bustling aircraft industries.

M

Monkey Meat

Nickname for French canned beef from Madagascar.

Loathed by US troops.

?

To wander aimlessly.

Used by Kipling and adopted by the BEF.

DSUE

Done, used up;  later to kill.

The origin is in the French phrase "il n'y en a plus" meaning "There is (are) no more....."

DSUE with help from Contributor Shaun Pike.

Nest, Machine Gun

Strong point of multiple machine guns with overlapping fields of fire.

OED

No-Man’s-Land

The desolate territory between the hundreds of miles of opposing Allied and German trenches.

Dates from the 1300s, when it meant the waste ground between two kingdoms, it did not acquire its military meaning until World War I.

CA

Sharp descent or decline, as in, "The stock market took a nose dive today."

Originally a description of fighter pilots’ tactic of   pouncing down on the enemy from above.

CA

Form of addresse which started in the Royal Navy about 1914 and spread to other services.

Old… became a popular form of approval during the war, as with beloved cartoon character Old Bill.

DSUE

Nickname for British Army regulars who formed the original BEF.  Few survived the war.

From the Kaiser’s reference to “General French’s contemptible little army…”

M

Outfit

A soldier's unit; usually an infantry regiment or artillery battery.

Has Canadian and Australian roots in the 19th century when the term was applied to a travelling party.

DSUE

Over the top

Going out of one’s trench towards the enemy; in civilian use it was extended to mean taking the final plunge and doing something dangerous or notable.

Popularized  by Arthur Guy Empey's use of Over the Top as the title for his popular World War I account.

CA

Pals battalions

For the Kitchener armies, men from the same town or trade were allowed to enlist and serve together.

Potentially catastrophic for a community if a Pals unit took heavy casualties.

M

Paris Gun

Krupp artillery piece designed to fire over 75 miles to bombard Paris. Sometimes confused with Big Bertha.

The first time the shells landed, air raid sirens sounded in Paris because they did not realize a gun could fire that far. Strictly a terror weapon.

M

Pikelhaube

German spiked helmet used in first half of the war.

M

Pillbox

Low structure for of reinforced concrete usually enclosing a machine gun.

RHD

British nicknames for the 3 standard service medals issued to veterans.

Named after popular cartoon characters of the era.

DSUE

Pipsqueak

Small, insignificant person; any 2nd Lieutenant; also a small German trench gun.

Coined just before WWI

PH

The Tommy’s nickname for the Belgian village of Ploegsteert.

EJ

Poilu

Front line French soldier, literally, hairy-one.

The noun poil is used primarily for the hair of animals. Dauzat points out that the term implies more than just an unshaven man, hair is also a traditional symbol of virility.

EJ

The Tommy’s nickname for Poperinghe, a town 8 miles due west of Ypres.

It was the final rail head en route to the front and home of Toc H.

EJ

British slang for looking sharp.

From the British travelling to and from India by ship in the colonial days. Because of the heat from the sun, the rich passengers secured cabins on the Portside going east and Starboard side coming back to Britain which assured them the coolest part of the ship Therfore it was Port-Out Starbord-Home and finally shortened to POSH to describe goods and services much better than the norm.

W; with details from Contributor John Turk [Real Name].

Nickname for standard German hand grenade; also a nickname for club used in trench raids.

Based on resemblance to the kitchen tool.

DSUE

Push Up the Daisies

To be killed and buried

RDH

Put a sock in it

Imperative telling some one to shut up.

DSUE

Q-Ship

Antisubmarine armed vessel disguised as common steamer.

M

British military policeman.

DSUE

Red Tabs

Slang, British staff officers.

Derived from lapel tabs on uniform blouse of General Staff officers.

M

British. Slang; a mess, a signal failure.

Short for Regimental Foul-Up.

DSUE

Shell Shock

To suffer from an acute neurasthenic condition due to the explosion of shells or bombs at close quarters.

Early description of Battle Fatigue and  Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

EJ

Unpleasantly enthusiastic.

Credited to the Canadian forces.

DSUE

Shoot down in flames.

To refute the argument of an opponent completely.

A metaphor from aerial warfare.

EJ

Slum

Slang, a thin stew eaten by the American soldiers.

Abbreviation of slumgullion.

M

Spanish Flu

Pandemic respiratory infection that spread through out the world during the later days of WWI, killing 20-30 million worldwide.

Originally brought to Europe by the doughboys as a form of swine flu, the virus mutated and became a worldwide killer. Read a recent article about the pandemic by clicking here.

M

Stormtrooper

Specially trained German assault troops used in their 1918 Offensives.

Nickname later adapted by Nazi Brown Shirts.

DSUE

Machine-gunning enemy troops and planes on the ground.

Derived from the German verb strafen, meaning "to punish.".

CA

Tailspin, In a

Out of control; about to crash

From aircraft spinning towards the ground

RHD

Take his name and number.

Place on report.

DSUE

Tanks

Armored, self-propelled vehicle first used in the Battle of the Somme, 1916.

As a deception the original shipping crates of these vehicles were labeled Tanks and the name stuck.

M

To move an airplane along the ground under its own power.

Presumably came from likening the plane's movement to that of a taxicab.

CA

Tin Hat

Slang for British and American model helmet. Battle Bowler was also used by the British forces.

Click here to learn about the Tin Hats worn by doughboys.

RHD

Talbot House at Poperinghe.

A refuge for all soldiers regardless of rank, run by two army chaplains Neville Talbot  and Philip 'Tubby' Clayton.

EJ

British frontline soldier.

Goes back to Wellington’s time when the British soldiers’ specimen pay book was made out for Thomas Atkins;  usage popularized by Kipling.

M

Toot sweet

Americanism for doing things at high speed.

From the French tout de suite.

AMW

Trench

The long narrow excavations used to shelter troops from enemy fire which were pervasive on all World War I battlefields.

The use of trenches to conceal military forces long predates 1914, and indeed they were called "trenches" from about 1500 on.

CA

Trench Coat

Short waterproof overcoat, belted, double-breasted with straps on shoulders and arms.   Originally worn by officers in the First World War, they are still in fashion.

Trenches were frequently, if not always, wet and muddy.  Officers were able to purchase this specially tailored coat.  The ranks just got wet.

CA

Trench Fever

A louse borne relapsing febrile disease which struck soldiers of the Great War; characterized by fever, weakness, dizziness, headache, severe back and leg pains and a rash.

Also called Wolhynian Fever, it is treated with antibiotics today. Read an article about how Trench Fever is making a comeback today in homeless populations.

CA

Trench Foot

Common disabling problem among WWI soldiers.

Also called Immersion Syndrome, it is caused by overexposure to cold, damp conditions; and is treated, like chilblains, by rapid warming.

CA

Formerly called Vincent's Infection, characterized by painful, bleeding gums and bad breath, this was another common affliction among frontline soldiers.

It was caused by poor oral hygiene and nutrition, heavy smoking, and stress--all conditions endemic in the trenches.

CA

Trench Rabbit

Slang, rat.

American contribution.

DAS

Anything which might catch someone or trigger a response.

Troops who advanced close to the enemy line often had to cut wires some of which were strung to set off a trap or an alarm.

CA

German submarine.

From German Unterseeboot, lit. undersea boat.

RHD

In serious difficulties.

Those facing a firing squad are placed against a wall.

DSUE

Wastage

Used as euphemism for killed and wounded by politicians and generals; sometimes used to differentiate casualties in the presumably less productive interim periods from the major battles.

OED

Whiz-bangs

A high speed shell whose sound as it flies through the air arrives almost at the same instant as its explosion; later synonymous with excellent or topnotch.

The purest form of this sound was made by an Austrian Skoda  77mm field piece.

M

Willie

Canned corn beef.

Both loved and hated by the doughboys. Read a poem that captures this attitude.

M

The Tommy’s nickname for Ypres and the Salient.

M

Large rigid airships used for observation and strategic bombing by both German Army and Navy.

Generically applied to all German airships a number of which were not manufacture by Count Zeppelin’s company, and even to Allied airships.

IC

Starting time for a military operation; later – critical or decisive time.

RHD