November 14, 1918 
LAND 6? WATER 
15 
Life and Letters ^ J. C Squire 
Words and the War 
SIR EDWARD COOK'S Literary Recreations 
(Macmillan, ys. 6d. net) is one of the fullest and 
most variegated books about books published since 
the war. Sir Edward's subjects are varied. He 
writes about biography, Ruskin's style, indexing, 
the Cornhill Magazine, "Literature and Modern Formation," 
. "The Second Thoughts of Poets" (a chapter of extraordinary 
interest). Turner's (J. R. W.) verse, and superlatives. But 
his range of quotation and illustration, which seems to cover 
all occidental writings from Homer to yesterday's news- 
paper, gives it a double and delightful variety. His own 
arguments and observations are invariable, sensible, and often 
acute ; but whatever they are and to whatever they may 
relate, he always seems able to fortify them with six excellent 
authorities. Either he has a prodigious memory or he 
indexes his note-books in some peculiarly efficient way. 
His book is as easy to read as a serious book could be. He 
has one topical subject ; and to that I may be allowed to 
devote my sole attention. This is "Words and the War," 
and relates to the new words or new uses of words which 
have come into existence since 1914. The phenomenon is 
not a new one. The Crusaders brought home words, and we 
all remember the words that we acquired during the South 
African War. I do not recall Hhat we invented many new 
ones ourselves, but we took a good many from the Dutch : 
commander, trek, steilenbosched, outspan, kopje, laager, etc., 
and the first two of these, at least, seem to have passed 
permanently into the language. A much larger war, fought 
under new conditions a'nd with new methods, and employing, 
directly or indirectly, the greater part of the population, has 
been much more fruitful. 
****** 
Our acquisitions make a remarkable mixture. How many 
of them will last is another matter ; except for the aerial 
words, most of them seem peculiarly adapted for a belligerent 
atmosphere, and the need for using them will die with the 
war. Conscientious objection (Sir Edward points out, by 
the way, that Parliament has left the job of defining it to the 
dictionary makers) may' survive, but unless cpnscription 
persists it will be forgotten, and the chaste word "Conchy" 
will die. "Cuthbert" is a word fgr war-use only; '<mj is 
"funk-hole"; so is "defeatist" (taken from the French 
eighteen months ago, when defeatism began to raise its 
head); and "Blighty," when the men have come home, 
will probably once more be relegated to its old proprietors, 
the sofdiers stationed in India. "Tank" will survive as long 
• as the vehicle which bears the name ; but we are not likely 
to hear much more about "over-the-top," "Dora" (thank 
• God), and "pill-box." "Gassed" may be retained for 
occasional civilian use, for cases of stifling by fumes ; and we 
may find employment now and then for "dug-out" in both 
senses. " Dug-out " as meaning a refuge in the earth is at 
least a generation old ; but as meaning a metaphorically 
excavated veteran it seems to have come into existence in 
1914. "Archies" will presumably disappear. It is one of 
the most puzzling of terms ; Sir Edward Cook's hazard is 
tfiat it derives from the song-refrain " Archibald— Certainly 
Not," the justification being that in their early days the 
' anti-aircraft guns never hit anything. 
****** 
We owe very little to the enemy. "Old Contemptibles " 
as a nickname for the Mons army will probably be retained 
in the history books, but it cannot have a new application. 
"Strafe" and "Strafing" have been found amusing and 
convenient, but it is doubtful whether they will survive. 
Other words we have grown accustomed to in the last four 
years include "Bolshevik" (which \ve are not likely to forget 
for some little time), "comb-out," "heavies" (applied to 
guns), and " dud." I may be wrong, but I think that " comb- 
out" probably started in the Evening News, which also 
invented "Cuthbert." It was a disgusting term to invent, 
^but undoubtedly vivid. "Dud" should, I imagine, stay; 
there is no other word quite like it, and it is full of flavour. 
Sir Edward Cook notes that we have obtained no new words 
on the model of "shrapnel" and "maxim" ; the Lewis gun 
and the inventions of Messrs. Mills & Stokes continue to 
be describe their full names, whereas most people are 
unaware that the gifted General Shrapnel ever existed. 
Like Captain Boycott, he enjoys an immortality in disguise. 
There are a certain number of terms that Sir Edward has 
failed to note. He gives a number of the terms — which 
were bound to come into being to describe new phases of 
human experience — employed by airmen. But he misses the 
elegant "contour-chasing," which appears to be getting 
popular, and he does not mention "nose-dive" — though I 
may be wrong in supposing this to have been invented since 
the war. "Boche" and "Hun" he, of course, mentions. 
In the early stages of the war (q.v., the song " I Want to go 
Home") "Alleyman" contested it with these; and recently 
" Jerry " has been as popular among soldiers as either. When 
did "jerry" start? What was its origin? Why (if a Christian 
name was wanted) did it cut out "Fritz," once so commonly 
used ? Of the names of particular missiles and their noises 
(none of which, unless war becomes perennial, is likely to be 
permanently embodied in the language) he mentions " Jack 
Johnson," "whizz-bang," "pip-squeak," and others, but 
omits to notice that very significant word "crump." On 
"camouflage" he naturally spreads himself, with a history 
of its derivation, though he leaves it uncertain whether, in 
its present sense, it was used before the war in France. This 
word will stay with us ; we have, extraordinarilj', lacked 
hitherto a comprehensive term for every sort of deceptive 
screen, from verbal bluff to a large beard. Of other words 
from the French, am I right in thinking that the word 
"barrage" is a war importation and that before the war 
curtain-fire satisfied everybody ? "Sector," in the sense of a 
section of a line, is, I think, a French loan during the war ; 
and if all the horrible jargon in our dispatches about "certain 
of our advanced elements occupied certain elements, etc.," 
does not come from French, I do not know where it does 
come from. However, the most notable of the words over- 
looked by Sir Edward Cook is none of these, but a word as 
good as any that the war has given us, and destined, I con- 
ceive, always to be useful — at any rate, I should be sorry to 
live in a world where no application for it could be found. 
I refer to the word "cushy." Comfortable, snug, luxurious : 
a job, or a place, or a billet where a man need not hurry and 
can do himself well : the Castle of Indolence, the hand of 
the Lotus-Eaters, where it is always afternoon : something 
as soft as a cushion. What an admirable coinage ; how 
compact and recognisable a word! "Wangle," 1 imagine, 
may be pre-war ; if so, when did it originate ? It bears all 
the marks of modernity- Dr. Johnson would have perspired 
freely had he heard a man say, as I heard one say a few weeks 
ago, "I am going to wangle leave to fight a hopeless seat." 
Another word Sir Edward does not mention is " supernational," 
which has been freely used in connection with League of 
Nations propaganda, and not infrequently distorted by 
printers into "supernatural," sometimes with most unfor- 
tunate results. 
* * * * * * 
In one plafe Sir Edward Cook makes a notable error. 
"I omitted," he says, 
to make note of the first appearance of profiteering ; but 
•by the time it had caught on, the Spectator was to the fore 
with one of its earnest articles, to point out, more in sorrow 
than in anger, the wickedness of politicians in using words 
without stopping to consider precisely what they mean. 
(June i6th, igiy.) The Prime Minister took up the chal- 
'lenge in a speech on which the Times gave the heading, 
"Mr. Llovd George on Profiteering." Here is the passage 
which will be the locus classicus for definition of the new 
word. 
He proceeds to quote from a speech of July, 1917. But if 
the lexicographers take that speech as the locus classicus 
and 1917 as the year when profiteering began to be called 
a spade, so to speak, they will be very behind the times. 
This word did not come into existence in 1917, or in 1916, 
or in 1915, or in 1914. It is not a war-word at all, though 
its use has become, and with reason, much more general 
during the war. I incline to think that it was coined by the 
editor of the New Age; certainly, long before the war 
it was in common use in the Labour Press. . As for the 
structure of the word. Sir Edward says that "the suffix eer 
emphasises the sneer." "Some worils ending in eer are, 
it is true, void of offence, but in many there is always a 
contemptuous implication." I wonder if there is anything 
in this. It is true that nobody likes being called a sonneteer, 
but volunteer is all right, and he would be a sensitive man 
who should resent being called an engineer. 
