Photo By Kaitlin Knauer | Doc Jargon, cutting through the jargon that is the U.S. Army. Send your Army...... read more read more
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Dear Doc Jargon,
My boyfriend came over the other day and said one of his buddies was seriously dressed down in front of the entire company at final formation. I’m pretty sure there is a strict military dress code and he wasn’t talking about his buddy being given a casual set of clothes to wear. From his tone, I gathered that this was not a positive thing for his friend. I also wondered if this was some sort of hazing thing, but thought that was illegal in the military. I didn’t want to ask and sound dumb to him since we have only been dating a few weeks. Can you tell me what the term dressed down means?
Signed,
Dis-dressed girlfriend
Dear Dis-dressed,
Thanks for asking. The term can be traced back into the 1400s and you are right, it isn’t a hazing and the phrase has nothing to do with clothing. It has its roots in the Navy. Originally it was used without the word down and was an expression used by the Navy to the corrective action of taking down an old sail and re-dressing it with oil and wax so that it holds air and can do what it was designed to do when raised again. Somewhere in the early 1900s, down was added and the term became the combined dressing down we use today to describe a verbal reprimand and is designed to be a corrective measure. I hope your boyfriend’s buddy will also get the chance to rise and do what he is being trained to do.
Sincerely,
Doc Jargon
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 07.25.2022 08:57 |
| Story ID: | 425697 |
| Location: | FORT RILEY, KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 1,101 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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