ARMY SLANG

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1941, Page 14

ARMY SLANG

Although the Army in the first German war made some use of rhyming slang, it was not allowed to displace many of the old soldiers' words derived from service in India. Some of them, it is true, are still current: in the battalion in which I am now serving, writes a correspondent of the ''Manchester Guardian," porridge is always "burgoo" and jam is "pozzie," but instead of "rooty and muckin" for bread and butter we hear of "Uncle Ned" or "strike me dead," and "roll-in-the-gutter." The rot had begun twentyfive years ago. Tea was then almost always known as "char," but even so I can well remember a sergeant's saying he had got some "Tom Thumb in his i-diddle-dee," when he had scrounged some rum and put it in his tea. But "looping-the-loop" for soup must be a new phrase; it is certainly prevalent today. "I want some squad halt in my looping-the-loop" is the modern way of asking for salt in your soup.