Gyrene

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yeah, this is Sean. How are you doing?

Hi, Sean. Doing well. And you?

Yeah, I’m loving life.

Loving life.

Oh, that’s nice to hear. Where are you loving life?

I am at Camp Pendleton, California.

Oh, well, how do you do?

And I have an inside job when the weather is bad, so…

Oh, nice. What do you do there?

I’m a public affairs officer for Marine Corps Installations West.

What can we do for you today?

Well, I’d, yeah, the word I was interested in, I’ve heard it just very periodically throughout my career, is the word gyrene, and it’s an old term. I don’t think it’s been used probably, you know, probably at least since the Vietnam era, supposedly for marine. I think it’s World War II slang, or maybe a little bit earlier. And just, you know, over the years, occasionally I look around and do a little bit of research on it, and I’ve just never come to a real conclusion as to the origin.

Sean, how are you spelling it?

That’s G-Y-R-E-N-E, and then pronounced gyrene. But it’s still sort of out there, you know, perhaps in the ancient terminology of the Marine Corps, and I just happened to have it nailed down its origin.

Yeah, it is really ancient. It predates the Korean War. It predates World War II. It predates World War I.

Okay.

The first uses of it start appearing in print in the 1890s. I mean, according to what I’m reading, this is a period in which the Marine Corps is actually smaller than the New York City police force. So this is definitely kind of early days. And the theory that you propose that it’s GI plus marine is the most common theory, but it has been successfully debunked as far as I’m concerned.

I like debunking.

Yeah, me too, because I always like to get to the truth.

Right.

There’s a fellow by the name of Dr. Jonathan Leiter who worked on the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, and I worked alongside him, and he specializes in military slang. And so he’s the man who drafted this entry for the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, and this is a scholarly work. He says, origin uncertain, but perhaps a jocular adaptation of a Greek word, G-Y-R-I-N-O-S, which means tadpole or poliwog. And so this is a joke about the, you know, the literal marine nature of these fighting troops.

Interesting. Sure. Because our stock and trade is our amphibious capability. And there are similar words in Italian and Portuguese and Latin that are spelled more or less the same. And they mean tadpole.

The great thing about it is it just kind of clicks for you when you hear it, right? You’re like, okay, I could see how you might try to belittle a man by saying that he wasn’t really this awesome seafaring fighting force. He was just a tadpole. He’s a pollywog.

And even more interesting, in the early days, this term was used in the Navy as well. It wasn’t just exclusive to the Marines. And it even shows up a little bit in an army literature.

Referring to army soldiers?

Yeah, gyrene. Yeah, gyrene’s referring to Army soldiers and to seamen in the Navy.

Interesting. Some of the stuff I’ve seen suggested is a derogatory term, you know, when applied to Marines. But, you know, within the service, we’re always happy to take what other people think is a derogatory term and call each other that happily.

Oh, sure.

Well, you know, there was a fellow by the name of Albert Moe, M-O-E, and he wrote an article in their Journal of American Speech in the 1960s. And he claims that the term never really was completely derogatory. And it didn’t even start out that way. And the derogatory uses usually came from a misinterpretation of the term from the outside, usually friendly.

There’s a great quote that I love from 1919 in the Literary Digest. And I have to read this to you because it says, if you find a fellow with a rooster on top of the earth, on his hat, he’s one of them gyrenes. And look out, he’s a bad man.

Wow, I want to be critical.

And that’s from 1919. So, you know, Marines clearly had earned a reputation by that time of being, you know, tough fellows that you didn’t want to mess with. You didn’t want to cross the street when they’re coming your way, I guess.

I like it.

Thank you so much for calling today, Sean.

No, thank you for taking the call. I appreciate it. Especially your research. That’s great.

All right.

Take care.

Good talking with you.

Bye-bye.

Thanks.

Bye.

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