Military slang

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Military organizations, like nearly all large exclusive organizations, develop slang as means of self-identification.

Military slang is also used to reinforce the (usually friendly) interservice rivalries. Some of these terms have been considered derogatory to varying degrees and attempts were made to eliminate them. Those attempts have failed because many service members take a certain perverse pleasure in the sense of shared hardship which the nickname implies.

Military slang has often been incorporated into the wider usage. See also: List of US Army acronyms, American English, British English

Military slang includes phrases such as:

Table of contents

1 A
2 B
3 C
4 D
5 E
6 F
7 G
8 H
9 I
10 J
11 K
12 L
13 M
14 N
15 O
16 P
17 Q
18 R
19 S
20 T
21 U
22 V
23 W
24 X
25 Y
26 Z

A

B

;Beans and Bullets: (US) The general term for all types of supplies.

; Blanket-stacker : (UK) Any storeman (even if he doesn't deal with blankets). Also applied to the Royal Logistics Corps in general, even though their duties include everything from catering to bomb-disposal as well as storekeeping.

; Blue Force: (US) The friendly force, the opposite of the Opfor.

; Blue on Blue Contact: (US/UK) A friendly fire incident.

; Butterbar: (US) A Second Lieutenant a reference to the insignia of rank - a single gold bar.

C

;Cannon Cocker: (US) An artilleryman.

; Chair Force: (US) the US Air Force, referring to the fact that a relatively small percentage of Air Force personnel ever see combat.

; Chief: (US) The familiar form of address for any US Army warrant officer or US Navy petty officer.

; Chief of Smoke: (US) The senior enlisted man of an artillery battery after the First Sergeant.

D

; Dogface: A US Army infantryman - common in World War II

; Doughboy: Also a US Army soldier - this term is almost exclusively used in the context of World War I

; Dropshort : (UK) An artilleryman, or the Artillery in general. Artillery will often fire over the heads of friendly troops, who will certainly not appreciate a round that drops short.

E

F

; First Shirt: (US) A First Sergeant.

G

; G.I.: (US) A US Army soldier. When used as a verb it means to clean thoroughly as in to GI the barracks. This phrase is often thought to come from "General Issue". The phrase actually comes from the initials for Galvanized Iron which were stamped on the trashcans during WWII. ; Grunt: (US) A US Army soldier - sometimes, but not always, specifically refers to an infantryman.

; Gun bunny: (US) A US Army artilleryman - often specifically a cannon crewman

;Gun-plank:(UK) An Artillery term for a junior officer, implying that they would be more useful wedged under the wheels of the gun to prevent it sinking into the mug than in their current role.

H

; Hardball: (US) Any hard-surfaced road.

; High-speed, low drag: (US) Excellent, particularly of equipment.

; Hit the silk: (US) To abandon an aircraft mid-flight by means of a parachute. For example, "Johnson's plane took a lot of flak, but he hit the silk just in time!"

I

J

; Jarhead: A US Marine - a reference to the "high and tight" haircut

;Jet Jockey: (US) A pilot.

K

L

M

;Mike Mike: (US) Millimeter, from the phonetic alphabet.

;Millers: (US) An attempt to pronounce the acronym MLRS for Multiple Launch Rocket System.

N

O

; The Old Man: The unit commander

; Opfor: (US) The exercise enemy at the American National Training Center in California. By extension, the enemy.

P

Q

R

;Redleg: (US) An artilleryman.

; Ruptured duck: (US) The Honorable Service award given to US service members who were discharged under honorable conditions during WWII. Also used to describe the recipient.

S

; Scaley, or Scaleyback: (US) A signaller. It is suggested that this term comes from the figure of Mercury on their cap badges, who appears to have fish-like scales on his back.

; Sierra Hotel: The NATO phonetic alphabet abbreviation for Shit Hot. It is considered high praise and is the pilot's favorite and all-purpose expression of approval. For example, "That Sierra Hotel pilot just shot down six MiGs and an ICBM!" This is the "polite" military way to say that something is very impressive, and has fallen into use outside the military.

; Shit on a shingle (sometimes abbreviated S.O.S.): (US) Chipped beef on toast.

; Stand Tall: (US) A verb for to be proud, or to present a military appearance.

; Squid: (US) A US Navy sailor

; Swabbie: (US) A US Navy sailor

T

;Teflon-coated (US): Excellent, especially a piece of equipment.

; Those People: (US) A euphemism used for the enemy forces by Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War. Oddly the term is still widely used.

; Throttle-jockey: (US) A jet aircraft pilot, particularly one with a penchant for speed.

; Tommy Atkins : A generic name for a soldier in the British Army (now obsolete).