Interview without coffee

Prince Harry is expected to face “an interview without coffee” according to an article in the Daily Telegraph. An interview without coffee is army slang for a severe dressing-down. The phrase is not in standard dictionaries, but there is one occurrence on the British National Corpus (‘Normally this might earn me an interview without coffee with my Flight Commander ...’), which appeared in a book published in the late 80s/early 90s. There are dozens of posts containing the term on the unofficial website, the Army Rumour Service (ARRSE) (see here).

Comments

[john]

Susan,

FYI, in the US military, there are provisions for similar "non-judicial punishments" under our Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

While all are governed by the UCMJ's Article 15, such punishment is referred to an "Article 15" in the Air Force and Army, a "Captain's Mast" in the Navy, and "Office Hours" in the Marine Corps. Whatever the punishment may be called, for an officer it can be career- limiting if not -terminating.

I suspect that in Prince Harry's case, he "has connections".

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks, John; the different terms are all very interesting.

[Marc Leavitt]

Susan:
I like it. I look at it as a proto-typical example of British understatement. I'm not sure American would take it up, but it's a colorful, snarky alternative.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks, Marc.