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Show Even Staid British Must 1 Coin Few War Words ! i "The English are self-conscious j about adopting new words, which j may partly explain the absence of any startling new war vocabulary in Britain," says Henry L. Mencken Menck-en in "War Words in England," a glossary of words encountered in British newspapers with reasonable reason-able frequency. Among them are: "badoglio," a surrender; "bae-decker," "bae-decker," an air raid on a place of historical interest; "browned off," fed up; "chatter-bug," a civilian ci-vilian who spreads military secrets; se-crets; "dicky-bird," a gas mask; "flitter," one who sleeps away from home to avoid air raids; "gussie," a barrage balloon; "I thengyow," a catch phrase used in unpleasant situations, i.e., the close explosion of a shell; "ma-con," "ma-con," old bacon or bacon made from mutton; "shiver-sister," a scared civilian; "telefootler," a selfish person who monopolizes the telephone; and "vackie" or "vack," an evacuated child. American words like "snackbar" "snack-bar" have become popular, but "jitterbug," to the Englishman, means a nervous person. The restoration of peace will prove which words are temporary and which are here to stay, he says. It is significant of this war that its most permanent word addition ad-dition to date has been "quisling." |