- etymology - Researching the real origin of SNAFU - English Language . . .
Fred Shapiro has provided evidence that "snafu" was in use at Camp Joseph T Robinson (North Little Rock, Arkansas) in late July, 1941, a sighting that slightly antedates that which the OED provides (I've also found two instances of "snafu" in use in early August, 1941, also with regard to khaki field hats
- When did the word snafu enter the colloquial vernacular?
Snafu is a service slang word compounded out of the initial letters of the words in a phrase politely translated: "Situation normal, all fouled up " Pernicious snafu is somethings called susfu, or "Situation unchanged,still fouled up " By the end of the war, evidently, editors no longer needed to define the term for their audiences
- Is using the word snafu instead of the word problem correct?
A snafu typically doesn't develop over years, but more typically over a period of weeks or months, and occasionally hours or days (The "Charge of the Light Brigade" was a classical snafu, developing in hours due to bungled communications in the command hierarchy )
- Word for abbreviations that have become standard words
The word snafu, for example, was originally an obscene U S Army reference (situation normal -- all f'ed up"), and fad is purportedly originally an acronym for "for a day" Some terms, such as AWOL, seem to be stuck in between-- they are almost used as words, but equally almost always capitalized
- What does something 101 mean? [closed] - English Language Usage . . .
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- What is the term for words that have changed meaning over time?
For example, in relation to this question on Workplace Stack Exchange the term snafu was of military origin and was used to define a person, team, organisation, etc that continually makes mistakes The first time I saw the term was in relation to a data protection leak and this now seems a pretty common usage e g this article amongst the tech
- Whats a word for articulating something and making it sound worse . . .
snafu (situation normal all fucked up) For certain, we know that such a person is maladroit (adjective) We could coin a new word maladroid as the noun for such a person One could see that there subclasses of such situations:
- What is a popular idiom for making a mistake that results in utter . . .
SNAFU: acronym for "Situation Normal All Fucked Up" TARFU: acronym for "Things Are Really Fucked Up
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