H.L. Mencken (1880–1956). The American Language. 1921.
Page 371
The war-slang of the English, the French and the Germans was enormously richer, and a great deal more of it has survived. One need but glance at the vocabulary in the last edition of Cassell’s Dictionary17 or at such works as Gaston Esnault’s “Le Poilu Tel Qu’il se Parle”18 or Karl Bergmann’s “Wie der Feldgraue Spricht”19 to note the great difference. The only work which pretends to cover the subject of American war-slang is “New Words Self-Defined,” by Prof. C. Alphonso Smith, of the Naval Academy.20 It is pieced out with much English slang, and not a little French slang.
