FUBAR: Soldier Slang of World War II by Gordon L. Rottman (Osprey Publishing October 2009, 300 pages)

dgmitchell · #1 (**permalink**) November 15th, 2009, 01:25 AM

Just in time for Christmas, Osprey has published Gordon L. Rottman's FUBAR: Soldier Slang of World War II, the perfect stocking stuffer for the WWII buff in your life. Admittedly, if you are reading this, you probably are the WWII buff in your life but at least now you can tell your family what to put in your stocking!

FUBAR is a compilation of thousands of slang terms and their definitions from WWII. It is a wonderful companion for both new students of the war and experienced historians. Some phrases will be familiar to modern readers. Most of us already know that a "jarhead" is a slang term for a member of the United States Marine Corps. and that "scuttlebutt" is a reference to rumors. You probably did not know, however, that a scuttlebutt was also a water fountain on a ship. Accordingly, "scuttlebutt" seems to embrace the same concept as water cooler conversations.

Rottman's compilation of slang terms is seemingly exhaustive but he did miss an opportunity to offer more than definitions in his dictionary. It would have been very helpful if he had offered the origins of slang terms as well. We can only hope that he will do so in a revised edition.

FUBAR is a lot of fun to read and I have kept it close by my reading chair since I received it. Rarely do I read a book that does not include slang terms that previously I had understood only by intuiting the meaning. Now I have a definitive resource to guide me through the soldier slang of the Second World War.