World War I Military Slang
May 3rd, 2010
World War I brought about with it a lot of new things into the military, new methods of fighting, new technologies, new vehicles, new weapons, new horrors, and new ways to die on the battlefield. The soldiers down at the front had to find new words to describe their new found reality. From the World War I Gallery are some of the words used by our fighting men defending life and liberty:
- Ammo for ammunition, usually refers to rifles, and occasionally refers to artillery
- Big boys, for the big artillery guns or the shells they fire.
- Bleeder or blighter is Cockney slang for a fellow; roughly similar to “guy”
- Blighty for England
- Blighty one refers to the wound that will take a soldier to Blighty.
- Carry on, is to go ahead with the matter at hand.
- Click, used with a variety of meanings, which could be: to die, to be killed, to kill, or to draw some disagreeable job.
- Cushy, is easy or soft.
- Devil Cogs, the nickname given by the Germans to American soldiers they fought with at the Beaulieu Wood.
- Diggers, is the name Australian soldiers gave themselves. It derives from the Australian slang for gold prospectors.
- Doss, for sleep.
- Dud is an unexploded shell.
- Fritz is an affectionate term for the German soldiers.
- Night ops, short for night operations.
- No Man’s Land refers to the area between the trenches.
- Out or Over There (for somewhere in France)
- Over the Top, is to go over the top of one’s own trenches and into No Man’s Land in order to attack the opposing forces’ trenches. The chances of surviving such an attack were very slim since most attackers die or sustain injuries from machine gun fire.
More slang words from other participating nations (Australia and New Zealand) in World War I available at Digger History.
World War I brought about with it a lot of new things into the military, new methods of fighting, new technologies, new vehicles, new weapons, new horrors, and new ways to die on the battlefield. The soldiers down at the front had to find new words to describe their new found reality. From the World War I Gallery are some of the words used by our fighting men defending life and liberty:
- Ammo for ammunition, usually refers to rifles, and occasionally refers to artillery
- Big boys, for the big artillery guns or the shells they fire.
- Bleeder or blighter is Cockney slang for a fellow; roughly similar to “guy”
- Blighty for England
- Blighty one refers to the wound that will take a soldier to Blighty.
- Carry on, is to go ahead with the matter at hand.
- Click, used with a variety of meanings, which could be: to die, to be killed, to kill, or to draw some disagreeable job.
- Cushy, is easy or soft.
- Devil Cogs, the nickname given by the Germans to American soldiers they fought with at the Beaulieu Wood.
- Diggers, is the name Australian soldiers gave themselves. It derives from the Australian slang for gold prospectors.
- Doss, for sleep.
- Dud is an unexploded shell.
- Fritz is an affectionate term for the German soldiers.
- Night ops, short for night operations.
- No Man’s Land refers to the area between the trenches.
- Out or Over There (for somewhere in France)
- Over the Top, is to go over the top of one’s own trenches and into No Man’s Land in order to attack the opposing forces’ trenches. The chances of surviving such an attack were very slim since most attackers die or sustain injuries from machine gun fire.
More slang words from other participating nations (Australia and New Zealand) in World War I available at Digger History.
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