Fun

Royal Navy Slang - Do You Know Your Wets From Your Roof Rats?

Royal Navy Reserves uniform anonymous Reserves June 2021

Life in the Armed Forces has many attractive strings to its bow. After all, there have to be solid reasons why so many men and women in the UK opt for a career in the military over any other. Those reasons include the sense of adventure, quality of life and variety roles in the Royal Navy, British Army or Royal Air Force can provide.

But again and again, one word that crops up around why so many professionals find their purpose in the forces is comradery.

There is no workplace in Britain like the Armed Forces when it comes to comradery.

And part of that fundamental matter is little things like the unique lingo men and women speak in each of the three services.

Here, BFBS explores the specific terminology and language used by members of the Royal Navy.

This is all the gen on navy slang.

Sailors on board HMS Tamar DATE UNKNOWN DATE ADDED 200820 CREDIT ROYAL NAVY. — Credit: RN

Does The Royal Navy Have Its Own Language?

In a word … yes.

Take a look at this – can you guess what it means?

"I prefer babies heads over bag meals, although really, I'm a bit of a nutty fiend."

'Babies heads' is navy slang for Steak and Kidney puddings. A 'bag meal' means packed lunch and 'nutty fiend' translates as somebody who likes to eat many sweets. So, the above navy-code sentence translates as:

"I prefer to eat Steak and Kidney puddings instead of packed lunches, although really, I am a big sweets eater."

Sailors including one female prepare the Forecastle as HMS Kent sails as part of the Carrier Strike Group (CSG-21) deployment from HMNB Portsmouth. 10521 CREDIT MOD.j — Credit: MOD

How Can British Military Slang Be Classified?

Writing in his paper 'English Military Slang: Definition, Means of Formation and Thematic Classification, PJ Mitchell considered the notion of "English military slang as a separate vocabulary" and it possessing "certain attributes."

The Tomsk State University scholar's research paper said:

"Slang is considered to be informal speech with evaluative, expressive and emotional connotations standing apart from literary language."

Mitchell proposed a model of classification of English military slang based on thematic groups, which were divided into:

Interpersonal relationships

Everyday interpersonal relationships between military personnel,
Interpersonal relationships between military personal depending on rank, position, armed service and service branch, and
Relations toward military personnel and civilian populations of foreign countries.

The activity of military personnel

Everyday activity and life of military personnel,
Activity during armed conflict and exercise, and
Leave and free time.

A person and his surrounding world

Food,
Clothing and uniform,
Weaponry and military equipment,
State of health and body parts, and
Mood and mental state.

So prevalent is slang in the Armed Forces, Mitchell's paper concluded with a specific recommendation that future military interpreter courses should include modules dealing solely with British military slang.

First sentries from a division of 35 sailors from three fighting arms and from establishments across the UK Guard Windsor Castle Training 27112020 CREDIT ROYAL NAVY.jpg — Credit: RN

What Are The Most Common Navy Slang Words?

Here are some common Royal Navy-specific words and expressions.

Adrift To be late

Anchor-faced Somebody who extremely enthusiastic about their career in the Royal Navy

Bezzy Best mate

Bone Stupid

Bootneck Royal Marine

Chad Valley A piece of equipment that is generally not very good, or the lesser quality of what is available on the market

Crabby Dirty

Crabfat Somebody serving in the RAF

Dhobie Washing (as in laundry)

Dhobie dust Washing powder

Dose STDs/STIs

Flap Panic

Gash Rubbish (can be used for litter or something that doesn't work very well)

Gen Genuine - but also used to brief someone, or meaning study something in detail, as in 'gen up' or 'all the gen'

Heads Toilets

Jenny A member of the WRENs

Matelot Sailor

Minging To be drunk

NATO standard Tea or coffee with milk and two sugars

Necky To be particularly cheeky

Oppo A Royal Navy colleague

Pinged To be seen, typically when not wanting to be

Pit A sailor's bed

Roof Rats Aircraft handlers

Run ashore A night out – usually involving alcohol

Sad on To be unhappy or disappointed

Shippers An onboard colleague

Shitehawk A Seagull

Sprog A child

Sun dodger A member of the submarine service

Thin out To leave or to end one's day in work/duty

Tot A Rum measure

Wet A drink of something (tea usually)

Winger A mate

Woolly pully A service issued woolly jumper

One of HMS Albions sailors stands guard as the tanker ESPS Patino sails past DATE ADDED 191120 CREDIT ROYAL NAVY — Credit: RN

What does Scran mean?

Scran, which almost everybody who has served in the Armed Forces will instantly know to mean food, actually has a deeper meaning.

Its origin comes from the Royal Navy practice of supplementing sailors' diets with additional portions of Sultanas, Currants, Raisins and Nuts – which can be shortened to 'SCRAN'.

According to @OnThisDayRN on Twitter, those supplements were delivered to ship with big SCRAN labels painted on the outside.

The term SCRAN used as slang for food is from @RoyalNavy who used to supplement sailors diets with Sultanas, Currants, Raisins and Nuts, SCRAN. The sacks they came in were labelled, hence SCRAN bags, a term still used today to refer to bags of old clothes #ScranBag pic.twitter.com/j3LDZucpfZ
— On This Day RN (@OnthisdayRN) July 4, 2021

Does The Royal Navy Use Slang To Describe Place names?

Yes. In fact, pretty much any location – past or present – that bears Royal Navy history tends to find itself with a unique matelot nickname. Take a look at some popular place names and their slang equivalents: