editor@chinet.UUCP (Alex Zell) (09/27/87)
Everyone has heard of "Manhattan Project." One sees that reference in newspaper stories about the "atomic bomb" of WW2, in magazine articles, and even here on the net, the domain of the most knowledgeable and sophisticated people (ask us) on the planet. The time has come to correct that usage, because "Manhattan Project" never existed. There was a project labeled officially "Manhattan Engineering District," usually shortened in most documents to "Manhattan District." I bring this up because it is another example of historical revisionism resulting from carelessness in checking original sources, or just careless dissemination of information from less than authoritative sources. Thus it is with "fubar" and "foo." In the early days of WW2, newspapers were full of feature stories about the experiences of civilians in a new culture, the military service. A notable aspect of that culture was its virtually entirely male constituency, and the development and use of language in that environment. (Yes, there were the WAACS (later WACS) and WAVES and the service organizations, USO, Salvation Army, Red Cross, but they accounted for an insignificant proportion of females within the ambience of the military establishment of the day.) The stories told of servicemen returning home on furlough and asking Mom to "pass the <*******> butter." I never did understand why the language of barracks was considered any worse than the language of the shop (also at the time dominated by males), but that is not an issue here. A popular subject of the stories was the language of the military, and the etymology of certain words, phrases and abbreviations. "GI" came in for much discussion. The usual explanation was "government issue," although some writers stretched for more fanciful sources. Another was "jeep." Debate was rather heavy on that, but consensus was that it was derived from "general purpose" ---> gp ---> jeep. The official name of the thing was "truck, 1/4 ton, 4 by 4," if memory is faithful. High priority was given to the study of "snafu." At one of its first appearances in public print in 1942 no newspaper would have dared print the meaning of the acronym: "Situation normal, all fucked up." Most stories used the expression "fouled" and let it go at that. Some even dared to suggest coyly that "fouled" was a euphemism for another word -- not even suggesting that the "other word" began with the same letter. Later on came competitive attempts in searching for better and funnier acronyms to describe the condition of the services. "Fubar" came on the scene soon, and later (I was in Camp Shelby, Miss. at the time) I broke up when somebody suggested "fubarso." The appended "so" stood for "see overlay," directing attention to the overlay, a transparency to be placed over a map. For some reason "fubarso" never gained much popularity.... ---- So what has all this to do with "foo?" Nothing. The two expressions were totally unrelated in their origins. The use of "foo" in computerology was initiated simultaneously by many hundreds of computerists. When we first received our IMSAI-8080 without disk drives, and with a defective copy of ALOS-8, we entered programs by front panel paddles. One would read the list while another did the entries. Whenever I came to an entry such as "B000" or "F000" I would pronounce "boo" or "foo" and would be corrected by son Pete: "No, you should always spell it out "ef-zero-zero-zero" or we may end up with errors." (You have no idea how rigid very young teenagers can be. "What's right is right.") *** "Foo" is not a new word. "Foo" and its cognates, "pfui" in German and many other languages, and "fooey" in English, are well established. Its use in English seems still to be unrecognized by lexicographers, but "pfui" is found in a 1914 edition of Muret-Sanders German-English dictionary which gives "pish!, faugh, ugh, few, fie" but does not offer "fooey" or "foo," an oversight which I am sure will be corrected when U.S. lexicographers bring it up at least to "vulg." or "cant," and perhaps some day even "slang" or "informal." Yep, I do recall "foo" sprinkled in Smoky Stover cartoons. Indicates that it was in use before WW2. -- Alex Zell ihnp4!chinet!editor I'd rather be on Pictou Island, N.S.