Origin of "flak"

[Steve D McDonald]

I'm 55 years old and all my life I've used and heard others use the
phrase, "Don't give me any flak..." Only in the past month or so did I
discover that it's a wartime acronym for the unwieldy German word:
fliegerabwehrkanone (flier defense gun). I knew it meant antiaircraft
fire, but never knew the German word until I ran across it by accident
under "flak" in Webster's dictionary.

-- Steve M

[Chris Croughton]

On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:49:06 GMT, Steve D McDonald

Post by Steve D McDonald
I'm 55 years old and all my life I've used and heard others use the
phrase, "Don't give me any flak..." Only in the past month or so did I
fliegerabwehrkanone (flier defense gun).

Interesting. The Concise OED gives it as "Flug(zeug)abwehrkanone",
literally anti-air(craft) gun. It could have been both, of course.

The WW1 term (at least amongst British fliers) was 'Archie', I've heard
(but not seen confirmed) that it may have been a word used for the
letter 'A' in signalling (similar to the "Able Baker Charlie Dog"
alphabet), it may also have been a softening of "ack-ack" (AA or
Anti-Aircraft).

Post by Steve D McDonald
I knew it meant antiaircraft
fire, but never knew the German word until I ran across it by accident
under "flak" in Webster's dictionary.

I'm glad other people run across words "by accident" in the dictionary.
I always imagine that it was a dictionary Hamlet was reading when he
replied "Words, words, words"...

Chris C

[John Dean]

Post by Chris Croughton
On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:49:06 GMT, Steve D McDonald

Post by Steve D McDonald
I'm 55 years old and all my life I've used and heard others use the
phrase, "Don't give me any flak..." Only in the past month or so did
fliegerabwehrkanone (flier defense gun).

Interesting. The Concise OED gives it as "Flug(zeug)abwehrkanone",
literally anti-air(craft) gun. It could have been both, of course.

And OED on CD-ROM says [G., f. the intials of the elements of
fliegerabwehrkanone 'pilot-defence-gun'.]
My Collins German-English has the same as the Concise Oxford.

Post by Chris Croughton
The WW1 term (at least amongst British fliers) was 'Archie', I've
heard (but not seen confirmed) that it may have been a word used for
the letter 'A' in signalling (similar to the "Able Baker Charlie Dog"
alphabet), it may also have been a softening of "ack-ack" (AA or
Anti-Aircraft).

OED again : " 1922 Raleigh War in Air I. 343 The anti-aircraft guns got
their name of 'Archies' from a light-hearted British pilot, who when he
was fired at in the air quoted a popular music-hall refrain-'Archibald,
certainly not!' "

Post by Chris Croughton
I'm glad other people run across words "by accident" in the
dictionary. I always imagine that it was a dictionary Hamlet was
reading when he replied "Words, words, words"...

Or when Troilus answered "Words, words, mere words, no matter from the
heart"