Ba-Bi

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Babblers Offsider  See ‘Offsider’.

 

Baby Elephant

World War I Flying. Australian. Attested in Cutlack.

According to Cutlack, the ‘Baby Elephant’ was a nickname for a scout aeroplane, manufactured by Martynside Ltd. in 1915, and used by the No. 1 Australian Squadron in Egypt.

 

*Back Chat  (1) An impertinent bandying of words. (2) To answer back.

(1) General. From 1901 (OED) and probably originally a Services’ term.

(2) From 1919 (Digger Dialects). OED records the verb from 1927.

 

*Back in One’s Cart  Interfere, to ask for more.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Lawson includes this phrase as meaning ‘to intrude’ which is very close to the definition provided here; it is possibly an Australian phrase.

 

Bags  (1) Plenty, a larger quantity. (2) The sandbag revetted parapet of the trench.

(1) General. First recorded in World War I Services’ (1917, OED), but passed into general use. Attested in numerous sources.

(2) World War I. Not otherwise recorded.

An abbreviation of ‘sandbags’, specific to military use. Sandbags lined the top of trenches.

 

Balls in a Knot (to get)  To lose one’s temper.

General. Not otherwise recorded in this form.

Lighter and Partridge record the phrase ‘get one’s balls in an uproar’ meaning to become unduly excited or angry. Partridge attributes this to the Canadian Army during World War I and becoming common in the British Army until the 1970s. This particular form is not found anywhere else, and might be an Australian variation.

 

Banger  Sausage.

General. From 1919 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

Digger Dialects is the first recorded instance of this term. It was possibly originally a Services’ term. By World War II the term was general and widespread in both Australia and Britain (Partridge). It derived from the tendency of sausages to explode, if not pricked when fried.

 

Banjo  Shovel, so called by reason of the similarity in shape and also perhaps, because of the metallic ring of the steel when struck.

General Australian. From 1915 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

Most sources record this as originally Australian, but Partridge suggests that it was also a Durham miners’ and builders’ term. This is probably from a device used for washing tin, in mining (also used in Australia). In Australia, ‘banjo’ also referred to ‘a shoulder of mutton’ from 1897 (AND). In World War I, soldiers used it to refer to entrenching tools.

 

Bank, to

General Flying. From 1911 (OED).

This refers to the action of inclining a machine in flight at an angle to the horizon, usually in order to turn (Digger Dialects, Cutlack).

 

Bare  Exactly so, with nothing to spare. The slang element in its use was due only to the unnecessarily frequent usage to which the word was put rather than to any corruption of orthodox meaning.

General. Standard English from c.1200 (OED).

 

Barrage  (1) A French word officially a name for concentrated artillery, trench mortar, or machine gun fire. (2) In the slang sense the term means a communication; to confound, ‘a gas barrage’, or oration.

(1) General military. From 1916 (OED).

(2) Figurative use of (1). From 1919 (Partridge). Attested in Digger Dialects, B&P, and Partridge.

 

Bass attack  A drinking bout. A humorous corruption of ‘Gas attack’, Bass is a brand of English beer.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

 

Base wallah  A person employed at the base.

General World War I military. 1915–18 (Partridge). Attested in numerous sources.

This was a term that implied that someone was comfortable and safe working at the base, behind front lines. ‘Wallah’ is derived from Hindi (‘connected with’) and means a ‘chap or person’, and was used alone and in various combinations, usually as part of British Army talk.

 

Bastard  A term of endearment.

General Australian. From 1892 (AND).

‘Bastard’ as a term of abuse is recorded in the OED from 1830. Its use in a more good-humoured sense is Australian.

 

Bat  Language. Hindustani, used by Australians in Mesopotamia.

General. From 1887 (OED).

This word was picked up by the British Army in the late 19th century. Its use here suggests it was still current in World War I.

 

Batt  Abbreviation of Battalion or Battery. Officially used in correspondence order, etc.; and vocally as slang.

General military. US from 1862 (Lighter) and British army from late 19th century (Partridge).

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Beachy Bill The Turkish guns emplaced in the Olive Grove (Gallipoli) which caused considerable casualties at Anzac, mostly on the beaches.

World War I. 1915 (Partridge). Attested in F&G and Partridge.

While Partridge does not note this as specifically Australian, ‘Beachy Bill’ clearly has special relevance to the Australian experience of the war.

Bean  A mode of address, as ‘Hello, old Bean’.

General. ‘Bean’ from 1860 (Partridge); ‘old bean’ first used during World War I (1917, OED) but not specifically military.

OED records that ‘old bean’ was first used as an expression of familiarity around the time of World War I. ‘Bean’ alone meaning ‘a man, chap, fellow’ dates back much earlier.

 

Beano  Treat, feast. From ‘bean feast’.

General. From c.1897 (Partridge).

The term ‘bean feast’, according to Partridge, dates back to 1806 as an annual feast given to workmen by their employers. By the late 19th century, the term ‘beano’ was in use to refer to an annual feast or more generally to ‘a jollification’. Dennis includes ‘beano’ in his glossary to The Sentimental Bloke, suggesting some currency amongst Australians during the war period.

 

Beans  WELL! see ‘Tray Beans’, from the French, ‘bien’.

World War I. Corruption of the French. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded. See tray beans.

*Beat it  Hurry away.

General. Originally US. From the late 19th century (Lighter, Green).

 

Beat-off, The  On the wrong track, getting away from the point.

Not otherwise recorded.

 

*Beef it out  Call in a stentorian voice. From the simile of a roaring bull.

General Australian. From 1916 (Dennis). Attested in Lawson and Partridge.

This probably derives from the American ‘beef’ meaning to ‘to talk loudly or to no purpose’ (from 1866, Lighter). It possibly may have an older origin in the flash term ‘beef’ meaning ‘to cry or give beef’, to stop a thief (F&H). Dennis provides the first example of ‘beef it out’ and defines it as meaning ‘to declaim vociferously’.

 

Beer Esses   Flattery, kidstakes. An abbreviation of ‘Bull Shit’.

World War I. Not otherwise recorded.

This is based on signalmen’s pronounciations of ‘b.s.’ See ack.

 

Beer Pull  A control lever in an aeroplane (also beer lever, pump, handle, joy-stick).

World War I. ‘Beer-pull’ attested here and in Digger Dialects but otherwise not recorded.

A transferred use of the Standard English ‘beer-pull’, the ‘handle of a beer-engine’ (‘a machine for drawing or pumping up beer from the casks to the bar’) (OED). The additional sense of beer-lever is recorded by Partridge as an RAF term from the 1930s used in World War II, but its presence here and in Digger Dialects are the earliest recorded instances. See also joy-stick.

 

*Beer-swiper  A drunkard.

Australian. Attested in Digger Dialects and Lawson.

AND includes a variety of terms for a drunkard including ‘beer-chewer’, ‘beer-eater’ and ‘beer-sucker’ but this particular variation is not well attested. It is unclear whether this was a term used only in World War I or if it was current in Australia prior to the war.

 

*Beer-up  A drunken orgy.

World War I, thereafter general Australian (AND).

While Digger Dialects is the first recorded instance of this term, it was almost certainly a term used by Australian soldiers during World War I. The next citation evidence (1921) in AND is from Aussie, a popular battlefield newspaper that continued in the postwar period and represented the language and culture of the Australian soldiers and veterans.

 

Belgium  A fatal wound, as distinct from a ‘blighty’ or an ‘Aussie’.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

 

*Belly-ache  A mortal wound.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but otherwise unrecorded.

 

Bergoo  Porridge.

More commonly ‘burgoo’. General. From 1750 (OED).

This term was originally a seaman’s term for ‘a thick oatmeal gruel or porridge’ (OED). It became widespread to refer to institutional cooking, hence its popularity in the Services during World War I. Partridge notes that while British soldiers preferred the spelling of ‘burgue’, the Australian soldier preferred ‘burgoo’ probably because of the possibility of using it as rhyming slang for stew, to which the word was sometimes attached. The word itself originally was derived from the Arabic ‘burghul’ for ‘cracked wheat’.

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*Bernhardi’s Botts  A Regimental Band. So called from ‘Gen. Bernhardi, the apostle of frightfulness’.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

This was possibly a name applied to a specific regimental band. It played on the name of General Bernhardi (1849–1930), a German officer who was an advocate of German military expansion, and the term bott ‘a cadger’.

 

Bertha  A German long range gun, esp. one of those used by the Germans to bombard Paris. Named perhaps after Mme. Bertha Krupp, friend of the Ex Kaiser.

General World War I. Attested in numerous sources.

German heavy guns and mortars earned the nickname ‘Bertha’ (also ‘Big Bertha’) from the name of the owner of the Krupp steel works that produced much of the war’s weaponry, Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. F&G record that the term was popular with all the Allied Forces and in the press. In particular, the name was applied to those guns which bombarded Paris in March and April 1918 and had extreme range.

 

*Bezooks  Francs.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

 

Biff  To hit or punch.

General. From 1888 (OED).

This term is possibly of US origin (Partridge, Green). The DAE records the first occurrence of the verb in 1892. It has remained a popular term in the US.

 

Billy Harris  Abbreviation of ‘Bilharzia’, a disease common in Palestine.

General World War I. Attested in F&G, B&P, and Partridge as ‘Bill Harris’.

Partridge suggests that this was originally an Australian Army name for the parasitic disease of bilharzia which had the potential to affect troops stationed in Egypt and Palestine.

 

Bimf  See Bumf.

 

Binge  A drunken orgy.

General. From 1889 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

This term had its origins in British dialect (Midlands and Eastern England) in a figurative use of ‘to soak’ (EDD). While this was a term current from the late 19th century, ‘binge’ enjoyed wide currency during World War I. B&P suggests that it was term used more by officers than by soldiers.

 

Bint  Girl (Arabic).

General Services’. From 1855 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

This derives from an Arabic word meaning ‘daughter’. It was widely used in World War I by soldiers stationed in Egypt and surrounding areas. It was generally pejorative and implied a prostitute (F&G, Partridge). However, it also had some currency from about 1920, to refer to one’s girlfriend or simply to refer to a woman. Elting records the non-pejorative sense as being used by American troops in World War II.

 

Bird  (1) A person. (2) A girl.

(1) General. From 1852 (OED).

(2) General. From 1880 (Partridge). Attested in numerous sources.

The general sense of ‘bird’ as a ‘girl’ was current from the late 19th century, but the term was also often specifically used of a ‘sweetheart’, especially in the early 20th century.

 

Birdie  Abbreviation of General Sir Wm. Birdwood and used as a nickname.

World War I. Confirmed in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 7 1891-1939.

Field Marshal William Birdwood (1865–1951) was made commander of the Australian and New Zealand forces serving in Europe in November 1914. In 1915 he oversaw the Anzac contingent in the landings at Gallipoli, after which he oversaw the Anzac troops on the battlefields of the Western Front. In May 1918 he was promoted to command the Fifth Army. He was very popular amongst the Anzac soldiers during and after the war. After his retirement from the Army in 1930, he hoped to become Governor-General, but never achieved this.

 

Birl  To ‘give it a birl’, a fair trial; sometimes a suggestion that a certain proceeding has gone far enough. (See ‘cut it out’.)

‘Burl’, general Australian. From 1919 (AND).

The spelling ‘birl’, given here, is the same as the Scots dialect word from which it derives meaning ‘to spin, twirl’.  See also burl. Digger Dialects  is the first recorded instance.

 

*Birthday  (1) A good time; satiety of good things. (2) An attack, raid, or repulse of an enemy, effected with unexpected ease.

(1) World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

(2) World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

 

Bit – to do one’s bit  To do one’s share, to do something, however small, especially towards winning the war.

General. From 1889 (OED).

F&G note that this phrase was not much used at the front but was very popular on the home front, helping it to become established as a widespread expression.

 

Bit of fluff  Girl.

General. From 1903 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

This term carries something of a pejorative connotation, sometimes applied to a woman of questionable morals. Variations include ‘bit of goods’ (from 1847), ‘bit of stuff’, ‘bit of muslin’ (from 1874), and ‘bit of mutton’ (from 1889).

 

*Bite  (1) To borrow. (2) A borrowing, an attempt to borrow.

(1) ‘Bite’ as a verb is general Australian from 1912 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

(2) General Australian (AND). Digger Dialects is the first recorded instance of the noun.

 

*Bite the Dust  (1) Suffer humiliation. (2) See ‘Come a Gutzer.’

(1) General. From 1750 (OED).

‘Bite the dust’ more often means ‘to die’, but can also mean ‘to fall to the ground; to be abased’ (OED).

(2) See (1) and Gutzer.

 

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