Cynthia in Austin, Texas, grew up hearing her father say, No soldiering! when the kids weren’t pulling their weight in the kitchen. She was recently reminded of his admonition when she saw a bumper sticker that read no sojering. Both soldiering and its variants sojering and sogering mean “shirking” or “malingering.” This expression dates back to at least the 1840 and likely springs from an old interservice rivalry, in which sailors considered soldiers lazy. The term still turns up in military slang collections and some ribald songs. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Soldiering,” “Sojering,” or “Sogering” Military Slang for Shirking Work”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, hi.
It’s Cynthia Barrett calling from Austin, Texas.
Cynthia Barrett from Austin, Texas.
Well, glad to have you.
What’s up?
Well, thank you.
I’m a recent transplant to Texas.
I grew up in New York and lived there most of my life.
But Mhmm.
I have a question.
I grew up in a big family, five kids, and my dad would often stand when we were doing the dishes.
We all had our kitchen duties, you know, loading the dishwasher or whatever, and he would often stand there looking at us, anybody that was sort of slacking off, not really doing what they’re supposed to be, would use this expression, no soldiering.
So I never really thought about it or questioned it, but he said it often enough that it stuck in my mind.
And I figured the only sort of, guess I had about it was it was probably somewhat, nautical or navy oriented kids.
He was in the, he was in the Normandy invasion of naval officer in World War two, and, my ancestors were whalers in, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, and New Bedford, Massachusetts.
So that’s kind of as far as I got with this.
And, Cynthia, what did he mean by it?
Were you supposed to jump to?
Yes.
I was…
We were supposed to jump to.
I think he was like, Come on.
I see you’re slacking off and snap too.
Got it.
Pull your weight kind of thing.
What he said was no soldiering, s o l d I e r I n g.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
I was biking in Austin this spring and I saw a bumper sticker said no sojuring, but it was spelled s o j e r I n g.
So anyway, what are your thoughts?
My thoughts are that s o j e r is the same word intentionally misspelled to reflect the way that some people say the word soldier, more like a g than a d.
Sometimes you’ll see it spelled s o g e r.
And all three of those, soldiering and sogering and sogering with a G, are all listed in a variety of different reference works and dictionaries, but they all boil down to exactly what you said: shirking, malingering, being a layabout or a slug of bed, you know, just not doing what you’re supposed to do.
And the meaning dates to at least the 1840s, and that naval connection is probably the source of it because it seems to come out of this inter service arrivalry between sailors and soldiers, where the sailors look at the soldiers and think, I can do everything you do, plus I can sail a ship.
You know, the the sailors typically and traditionally see soldiers as as lazy or no better than cattle because the the sailing ships are always hauling the soldiers from place to place, you know, just like their baggage or or cargo or something like that.
So, because it’s particularly galling when you’re in a navy and you see Yes.
Working hard.
You see these army troops basically behaving like noisy, messy animals as far as you’re concerned.
And you’re here running the ship, you know?
You’re making a boat go, so to speak.
And so it comes from that general, this idea that you were behaving like a soldier when a soldier is at its worst or her worst.
I see.
So, yes.
So we were at our worst so we were getting Yeah.
But but then it really, really does come down to just this rivalry that existed as far back as I can see in The US and British military traditions between the navy and and the army.
Right.
Right.
And is it a word that’s, used frequently today?
This or, I mean, when I saw that bumper sticker it made me wonder.
I don’t hear it, but there was that bumper sticker.
It’s still out there.
I can’t say it’s the most popular language, but you will find it pretty regularly in amateur collections of slang where somebody has put together what they themselves here experienced in the services.
And for me, that’s enough of a testament that it’s it’s valid and still being used.
It also pops up in these risking and ribbled songs that soldiers sometimes sing or sailors sometimes sing where they talk about, you know, different sexual escapades or work escapades, the kind of stuff they sing in the bars after after the duty’s over, you know?
Cynthia, I love that somebody put it onto a bumper sticker.
That’s hilarious.
I know.
That was almost fell off my bike.
Yeah.
All right.
You take care, and soldier on, which is a completely different meaning we should work We’ll that off Take care, Cynthia.
Bye bye.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
Bye bye.
Well, quit your sojouring and call us, (877-929-9673, or email us.
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