A Short History of the U.S. Army's Dictionary

How a blunder at Dunkirk turned into a near-annual publication

Figure 1: New York Times Headline from August 25th, 1942

In 1940, as forces were being evacuated off the beaches at Dunkirk, a command was allegedly mistranslated from French to English. Troops were sent to the wrong location, becoming casualties instead of evacuees. This was one of several communication breakdowns that inspired the U.S. Army to stand up a terminology program. This year is the 80^th anniversary of the U.S. Army dictionary – a manual designed to capture one of the Army’s most underestimated institutional and operational enablers: its professional language.

In 1942, one of the Army’s lexicographers wrote in their notes “the real horror is modern military words.” Military words are often denigrated for causing confusion, but professional language exists for a reason. There are activities, roles, and objects that must be described, for which no standard English word exists. To fill these gaps, the U.S. Army has developed thousands of uniquely Army words. Professional jargon and terminology are the building blocks of military communication, enabling writing, training, command, and dozens of other functions.

Army language is not the uncontrollable morass that it is often perceived to be. Buzzwords and confusing documents do exist, but the Army has been successfully standardizing its professional language for over eighty years. The Army lexicon means little to outsiders but communicates a great deal to others in the profession. This is the (extremely) brief history of the Army’s professional vocabulary.

The Roots of Army Jargon

            The language of warfare has existed for as long as elements of combat have required names. We think of the Army as having an abundance of terms and acronyms, but professional warfighting language is not new, not actually that large, and the Army is far from the most prolific jargon generator. (The medical profession has hundreds of times more terms, and the U.S. Navy has far more acronyms than the Army.) Centuries before the founding of the United States, there were dictionaries of fortification and weaponry, multilingual lexicons of “warr and soldiery,” and records of soldier slang from as far back as the 1400s.

            In 1776, the U.S. Army inherited its starting vocabulary from the British. In 1810, William Duane published the first American military dictionary in Philadelphia. This dictionary was essentially a British military dictionary with Americanized spelling. A smattering of dictionaries would be compiled through the 1800s by civilians and soldiers alike. Anyone could compile a dictionary or coin a military word.

In the early 1900s, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point became a hub of Army professional language. There, instructors were creating glossaries for their students, who then applied and spread that language across the Army. Instructors benefited from the large library, the educated officer corps, supportive leadership, and a mission to educate the next generation of Army officers. Even then, there was a great deal of variation between dictionaries – there was no single organization or actor responsible for managing Army language. It wasn’t until World War II that the Army would stand up its professional terminology standardization enterprise.

The Military Dictionary Project

World War II was raging and the Allies were cooperating… with some difficulty. There was little language standardization and no military translation guidance, so accurate communication was never guaranteed. In response to several mistranslated commands, in 1940, Army intelligence partnered with the Works Progress Administration to stand up the Military Dictionary Project. Under President Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Federal Writers Project had created several dictionary efforts. Among these, the Military Dictionary Project was tasked with producing bilingual military translation dictionaries in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Russian.

Soon, however, they realized that the Army’s language was not even consistent in English. They needed an Army English dictionary to inform the translation dictionaries. As one example, the acronym SNAFU at the time could mean either “situation normal all fouled up” or “situation now all fixed up.” Two expansions of the same acronym with opposite meanings. The Military Dictionary Project began collecting words from doctrine, regulations, memos, white papers, histories, and the public. In newspapers across the United States, notices appeared, stating “Army Dictionary Wants Words.” The public was asked to send in any military terms that they knew of.

Figure 2: Evening Star, Washington D.C. August 20th, 1942

The Military Dictionary Project received over 20,000 words and definitions from the American public. Drawing from this pool, in 1944, the U.S. Army published its first official dictionary of Army terms. Technical Manual 20-205 was a restricted dictionary, laying out over 7,000 professional Army words and their definitions (but no slang or acronyms). This first dictionary was intended for training, describing itself as “a working dictionary for a working Army.” The Military Dictionary Project was dissolved after the end of World War II, but the Army continues to manage its professional terminology to this day.

Field Manual 1-02.1 Today

            From 1944 to 2024, the Army has published a new dictionary about every two years. Over the decades, the Army’s dictionary has been a technical manual, a special regulation, an Army doctrinal reference publication, and a field manual. The Army has the largest doctrine team across the services. Among these professionals, there is an Army Terminologist. These individuals support doctrine writers in every specialty – helping them refine language, develop clear instructions, and capture best practices for the rest of the Army.

            Today, you can find the U.S. Army’s codified doctrinal language in Field Manual 1-02.1 Operational Terms. This manual contains the Army’s officially sanctioned doctrinal language. The most shocking statistic about Army doctrinal terminology is the fact that it is shrinking. Today, there is one eighth the number of official terms as were listed in 1944. The Army’s standardization efforts have successfully screened out a great deal of variation in its professional language, in pursuit of the goal of never again having a mistranslation undermine an operation.

Finding Balance with Professional Language

            The United States Army has the longest and strongest record of terminology standards. Despite these standards, some topics – particularly more specialized activities – require more technical language than others. It is easy to use too much. Even Carl von Clausewitz’ On War includes a warning about professional language. Clausewitz wrote that a “far more serious menace” exists than narrow law-like systems for understanding war – that menace is the “retinue of jargon, technicalities, and metaphors that attend these systems.” Professional language serves an important function, but as writers, we must learn how to recognize the professional vocabulary and wield it selectively and intentionally.

Internal to the Army, professional language creates common references for soldiers, naming those activities for which no word exists in standard English. To be fluent in the language of the Army, one must be able to use the jargon and terms accurately, switching structures and styles as context requires. However, for external readers, jargon use limits the readability and reach of military writing. Professional writing is a craft unique from academic or public-facing writing – many professional journals discuss topics most relevant to Army communities, not the public. To discuss the most pressing issues facing the U.S. Army today, professional terms are required. Rather than simply aiming to kill all jargon, understanding the long legacy of the Army’s professional language allows us to recognize its functions and ultimately seek balance in our own vocabularies.

Dr. Elena Wicker researches military jargon, terminology, and buzzwords and the lives of military documents. Her forthcoming book documents how the services, the U.S. Department of Defense, and international alliances have each standardized their professional military language. Her collection of over two hundred historical American military dictionaries recently won the 2024 Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize.