Modern english period

Late modern english: The MilItary and Language

• Wartime has always introduced many new words into the English vocabulary.
• In the Late Modern age, the First World War and Second World War added many new words and slang phrases, which were used originally by soldiers and came straight from the trenches.
• The two World Wars introduced the words: ‘booby trap’, ‘basket case’, ‘to be in a flap’, ‘zigzag’, ‘souvenir’, ‘browned off’, ‘gubbins’, ‘flak’, ‘fed up’, ‘dud’, ‘lousy’, ‘crummy’, ‘cushy’, ‘no man’s land’, ‘dekko’ and ‘blighty’ (both these last words are derived from Hindi).
• Late Modern English also adopted other military-derived words that we use today, including: ‘ambush’, ‘spearhead’, ‘melee’, ‘radar’, ‘siege’, ‘camouflage’ and ‘sortie’, along with the aeronautical-related terms ‘nose dive’ and ‘landing strip’.