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World War I home          Abbreviations        Annotated Home

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Umpteen  Any number of.

General. From 1918 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

Partridge argues that was originally signallers’ slang (see Ack), and ‘umpteen’ was used to disguise the number of a brigade or division. Dennis records the variation ‘umpty’ as early as 1916.

 

*Unexpected Portion  An ironic perversion of the familiar official phrase ‘unexpended portion of the day’s rations’. It originated in times when owing to avoidable or unavoidable causes no rations arrived for the troops.

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

 

*Up Jump  Upstart; interloper.

General Australian. From 1919 (AND).

Digger Dialects is the first recorded evidence of this term (as 'upjump').

 

*Up the Line  In action. ‘Up the line with the best of luck’, a satirical phrase applied to men who after being in safe occupations, were returned to the fighting units.

General World War I. From 1916 (OED).

 

*Up to Putty  Bad; useless; ineffectual.

General World War I. Australian. From 1916 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

This is a play on putty’s flexible consistency and softness (Green).

 

Up to Us  Our turn or responsibility.

Attested here, in Dennis, and in Lawson.

This was probably a short-lived catchphrase, referring to the duty of Australians to fight in the war.

 

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