An ad in Life magazine noted that WWII-era servicemen were fond of claiming that "[w]hatever beach-head they stormed, they always found notices chalked up ahead of them, that 'Kilroy was here. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable notes that it was particularly associated with the Air Transport Command , at least when observed in the United Kingdom.
Many sources claim origins as early as This began leading Hitler to believe that Kilroy could be the name or codename of a high-level Allied spy. At the time of the Potsdam Conference in , it was rumored that Stalin found "Kilroy was here" written in the VIPs' bathroom, prompting him to ask his aides who Kilroy was. The phrase "Foo was here" was used from —45 as the Australian equivalent of "Kilroy was here".
Kilroy — , [16] an American shipyard inspector, as the man behind the signature. The New York Times indicated J. Kilroy as the origin in , based on the results of a contest conducted by the Amalgamated Transit Union to establish the origin of the phenomenon. The builders, whose rivets J. Kilroy was counting, were paid depending on the number of rivets they put in.
A riveter would make a chalk mark at the end of his or her shift to show where he had left off and the next riveter had started. Unscrupulous riveters discovered that, if they started work before the inspector arrived, they could receive extra pay by erasing the previous worker's chalk mark and chalking a mark farther back on the same seam, giving themselves credit for some of the previous riveter's work.
Kilroy stopped this practice by writing "Kilroy was here" at the site of each chalk mark. At the time, ships were being sent out before they had been painted, so when sealed areas were opened for maintenance, soldiers found an unexplained name scrawled.
Thousands of servicemen may have potentially seen his slogan on the outgoing ships and Kilroy's apparent omnipresence and inscrutability sparked a legend. The slogan began to be regarded as proof that a ship had been checked well, and as a kind of protective talisman. Francis J.
Kilroy, Jr. James Maloney, wrote the phrase on a bulletin board. Maloney continued to write the shortened phrase when he was shipped out a month later, and other airmen soon picked up the phrase. Francis Kilroy himself only wrote the phrase a couple of times. The figure was initially known in the UK as "Mr Chad". Chad would appear with the slogan "Wot, no sugar", or a similar phrase bemoaning shortages and rationing.
Chatterton was nicknamed "Chat", which may then have become "Chad. A theory suggested by a spokesman for the Royal Air Force Museum London in was that Chad was probably an adaptation of the Greek letter Omega , used as the symbol for electrical resistance; his creator was probably an electrician in a ground crew.
Chad" was based on a diagram representing an electrical circuit. One correspondent said that in at RAF Yatesbury a man named Dickie Lyle drew a version of the diagram as a face when the instructor had left the room, and wrote "Wot, no leave? No electrons? It is unclear how Chad gained widespread popularity or became conflated with Kilroy. It was, however, widely in use by the late part of the war and in the immediate post-war years, with slogans ranging from the simple "What, no bread?
Chad along with the phrase "Wot—no Fuehrer? As rationing became less common, so did the joke; while the cartoon is occasionally sighted today as "Kilroy was here", [8] "Chad" and his complaints have long fallen from popular use, although they continue to be seen occasionally on walls and in references in popular culture. It is a common misconception that the graffiti was tied to the Berlin Wall , "Chad" long pre-dated the wall.
Writing about the Kilroy phenomenon in , The Milwaukee Journal describes the doodle as the European counter-part to "Kilroy was here", under the name Smoe. Word of the Day. Meanings Meanings. Kings Cup. Examples Origin Usage. Pop Culture dictionary Kilroy was here or Kilroy [ kill -roi wuhz heer] What does Kilroy was here mean?
What's hot. Where does Kilroy was here come from? Popular now. Who uses Kilroy was here? Note This is not meant to be a formal definition of Kilroy was here like most terms we define on Dictionary. Redefine your inbox with Dictionary. Other then that, terrific blog! Thank you… you are right I am having some issues. I will definitely digg it aand inn my view suggest to my friends.
Pingback: Honor the Brave. Your blog is wonderful. Thank you for your work and the great story. Now I know I was not wasting chalk on a trivial person. Thank you for your lovely comment, and how lucky your great-grandkids are that you are creating such a document. And yes, Kilroy is very worthy of chalk and stories! In gambling slang, Chalk means the betting favorite. You reminded me. Horseracing getting to be almost as much a thing of the past as Kilroy. Things are changing.
Thanks for the additional information. Your email address will not be published. Table Of Contents. Who was Kilroy?
0コメント