Word: strafing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1920-1929
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Gott strafe Versailles...
...your issue of Nov. 19 you translate "Gott strafe England," as "God Damn England." A far more accurate translation would have been: "God punish England," the meaning back of the word "strafe" being that punishment is merited. Had your version been intended the German would have been one of two expressions, "Gott verdammt sei England," or, "Gott verdamme England." There is quite a difference between invoking punishment and invoking damnation...
Further potent recollecting was performed, in Berlin, by Poet Ernst Lissauer, composer of the famed Hymn of Hate, popularizer of the exclamation "Gott Strafe England...
...Gott strafe* England...
...London, it was announced that the new Oxford English Dictionary, now being compiled, would include and define English slang expressions coined during the War, such as: "dud," "doughboy," "strafe." The expression "Getting the wind up," meaning "to become nervous," was said to be puzzling the lexicographers, who finally decided to leave its origin indefinite. Common belief is that this phrase originated with the British air forces. Aviators, to whom wind meant danger, used "getting the wind up" as an equivalent for "borrowing trouble...