The Sun has a piece today on slang expressions used by different groups. Cheese and road dog are hip-hop terms for money and good friend, respectively. A haircut is a short sentence in prison slang and a gonkbag is a sleeping bag in army slang. The army is a good source of coined words and slang terms. I can barely understand any of the contributions on this army forum, where soldiers are discussing gonkbags (also spelt gonk bags). They're also called doss bags, jungle bags and desert bags, judging by the posts.
An onion is a sergeant in police slang. That's a modern example of rhyming slang (from onion bhaji, to rhyme with sargie). There's also a list of playground slang; hench means big and strong and a durbrain is a stupid person.
For more slang expressions see the article.
Gonk was in use for sleep in days of my military career, late 1950s. I thought it would have gone out of fashion with the rise of the soft toy called the gonk in the 1960s.
Older soldiers used the term Egyptian PT, a racist slur I fear. They also used the Hindi word 'charpoy' for bed, whereas my generation used 'pit', often with a crude prefix.
The gonkbag didn't exist. We were made of sterner stuff and had to make do with a goundsheet.
Posted by: Jemmy Hope | August 01, 2010 at 03:52 PM
Thanks for that information, Jemmy. I remember the furry gonks. It seems that the dolls have gone out of fashion rather than the army term.
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | August 01, 2010 at 06:48 PM