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The Kitchen Table

Phrase of the day 4/1

jim_1 (Zone 5B)

5 years ago

Screaming meemies

This phrase has been traced back to World War I, when it was used to describe certain German artillery shells with a high-pitched whine. Then it came to mean the disordered mental state of a person who had been exposed to the noise too long. Gradually during the 1920s, it became practically a synonym for the “heebie jeebies,” something close to delirium tremens. During World War II it was revived in military service to name a small U.S. Army rocket launched from a multiple rocket projector mounted on the back of a jeep or truck.

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Comments (4)

stacey_mb
5 years ago
According to what I've read, people in Britain became alerted to certain German bombs that made a shrill noise as they fell during WW II. It was a dreadful kind of warning.
Elmer J Fudd
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Ditto, both what I've read and what I recall, the 'screaming mimi" was a World War 2 German rocket so-named by the Allies because of its distinctive sound.

Stacey, I think you're referring to another World War 2 German weapon, the V-1 flying bombs used against England. These were called "buzz bombs", also because of the sound they made.

Another terrifying WW2 sound came from German dive bombers, which were fitted with passive sirens on their bodies that would produce a characteristic siren sound when they were diving to attack.
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Never heard the expression, but it's not that it's so dire that it would keep the cook from his duties. It's that it's so dire that every single hand is needed--and normally the cook does absolutely nothing but cook and would be outraged to act outside his hired role except in a real emergency.
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Annie Deighnaugh
5 years ago
stacey_mb
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The V-1 was also called the Doodlebug. According to Wikipedia, The V-1 was the first of the so-called "Vengeance weapons" series (V-weapons or Vergeltungswaffen) deployed for the terror bombing of London.

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