|
|
Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>
> Horace LaBadie wrote:
> > In article <1167450300.464167.286720@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> > "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > > A sub movie in English wouldn't be called "The Boat."
> >
> > That's likely due more to the marketing department's realization of the
> > public's unfamiliarity with submariner's parlance, in which the sub is
> > commonly "the boat." The term does show up in dialogue, however. A sub
> > is also called a ship, however, in some circumstances. I seem to recall
> > both being used in "Ice Station Zebra."
> >
> > I think that there is a Navy dictum that goes, "Officers fight the boat,
> > chiefs run the boat, and the crew works the boat."
>
> In that case, the German public is more familiar with submariner's
> parlance than the American and British public, right?
>
> In Chicago, the term "U-boat" is known, because the U-505 has been on
> display at the Museum of Science and Industry for 50 years or so. Did
> the term persist in English usage elsewhere for any appreciable time
> after the cessation of hostilities?
I certainly learned it in Vancouver in the 1950s, though whether that's
an appreciable time I can't say. It referred specifically to German
submarines of WWII. Of course there was a lot more talk about the war
then, and lots more people around who had lived through it.
Come to look it up, it's right here in the Concise Oxford Dictionary.
Must be pretty well known.
Ross Clark
|
|