Leatherneck Lingo

The Marine Corps Chevron at San Diego gathered and published a glossary of leatherneck slang heavily flavored with Chinese, Tagalog, pidgin English and plain Navy. Examples:

Bean bag--meal pennant aboard ship.

Charlie Noble--smoke pipe from a ship's galley (not to be leaned against).

Collision-mats--pancakes.

Down--to pass ("Down the meat").

Sea dust--salt.

Maggie's drawers--red flag indicating a clean miss on the rifle range.

Maskee--okay.

Ear-banger--apple polisher; yes man.

Gizmo--a term of universal significance, capable of meaning "gadget," "stuff," "thing," "whozis" or almost anything else the speaker wants it to.

Boksok--crazy; berserk.

Brew--beer, the standard Marine beverage.

One brew--a minor-league drinker.

Go-to-hell hat--overseas cap.

Pogie bait--candy.

Pungyo--pal.

Rip ho--How the drill sergeant pronounces "To the rear, march!"

Segoonya--woman.

Shohiza--punk or jerk.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.