Swearing Like A Trooper

In September 1939, much military slang still dated to the trenches of 1914-18 - for instance words such as 'Berthas' (meaning big breasts), taken from the German Big Bertha gun . But World War II soon gave birth to a new wave of armed forces slang such as 'wizard prang', D.S.O (Dick Shot Off), and bazookas (back to breasts again). Some British terms came from the army's links with India, for instance 'zig-zig' or 'jig-jig' meaning sexual intercourse. Officers' euphemisms had to be acceptable in