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Boot camp

Posted by Baceseras on August 13, 2007

In Reply to: Boot camp posted by ESC on August 12, 2007

: : : Boot camp. Anyone know why soldier's basic training is called that?

: : Here is what one reference says.

: : Boot camp -- U.S. sailors serving during the Spanish-American War wore leggings called 'boots,' which came to mean 'a navy (or marine) recruit.' These recruits trained in what were called boot camps." "The Facts on File -- Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997). Page 91. "...since colonial days we had used 'boot' to mean footwear reaching to the knee. 'Boot camp,' a training camp for new recruits, became a popular term by World War I." I Hear America Talking: An Illustrated History of American Words and Phrases by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976). Page 328.

Soldiers' basic training is called basic training. Marines' basic training is called boot camp.

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