minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (03/05/86)
The following was posted to Usenet about 3 years ago: The term FUBAR actually first appeared during the reign of Queen Anne of England (1702-1714), the last ruling sovereign of the Stuart Dynasty (1603-1714). The Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), John Churchill, Sir Winston's great great... grandfather, after his great victory at the battle of Blenhiem (August 13, 1704) against the French, in Austria, had some captured French dispatches translated. The translator, unfortunately unknown, but believed to be a Lance Corporal in the Royal Guards, having some difficulty translating a slang French expression used by Marshall Tallard, the defeated French general gave up in despair and wrote in FUBAR, although not literally translating the dispatch, expressed the French general's analysis of the situation. Smith-Huxley,J.P., "The Augustan Age of Good Queen Anne", pp 386-387, R. Clay Ltd, London, (1903) SBN 384-82210-2. ---- The term probably remained in Signal Corps slang until WWII, then passed into telecommunications, then to Dec computer slang. Fubar became FOOBAR because early file systems had 6 character file names, then split into FOO and BAR. Comments and criticizms by mail, please as I don't read net.nlang. Martin Minow decvax!minow