Sixty years after it ended, the second World War continues to influence everyday language. "Civvy Street", the civilian life to which soldiers returned, has a long tradition of absorbing military expressions and slang.
Some turn out to be "ninety-day wonders" - a phrase used by US naval crews when contemptuously referring to newly commissioned officers - but many endure often long after their martial association has faded or been forgotten altogether.
"D-day", which refers, of course, to the Allied invasion of France launched on June 6th, 1944 was subsequently used in the count-down to Decimal Day, February 15th, 1971, when Ireland and Britain switched from the old £.s.d (pounds, shillings and pence) to a new currency.
The American military brought many new words and phrases to Europe along with "nylons" and "chewing gum". "Snafu", an acronym of situation normal - all fouled up, to mean chaotic, has slowly fallen out of use and the once ubiquitous graffiti "Kilroy Was Here" (scrawled at locations world-wide to indicate that a US soldier had been present) is now rarely seen. But the tendency to refer to all small four-wheel drive vehicles as "jeeps" has survived. As has "gung-ho", meaning excessively enthusiastic, of Chinese origin and adopted by the US marines to exemplify their efficiency and zeal.
"Uncle Sam", of recruiting poster fame, meaning the United States or its people, once evoked approval but, with the growth of anti-American feeling, European usage is now mostly derogatory. "GIs" themselves were also once extremely popular. The term originally referred to Government Issue - the words stamped on military supplies from soap to guns - but in the early 1940s the term was extended to refer to the soldiers themselves. The many women who married American servicemen billeted in Britain and Northern Ireland became known as "GI brides".
Certain German expressions also entered the language and are now accepted as "English" words in dictionaries, including "ja wohl" (yes, indeed) and "schnell" (quick). "Blitz" (an attack or bombing from the air), still recalled with horror by those who lived through the experience, is now used to describe an intensive campaign - in advertising or electioneering. The word is derived from Blitzkrieg, the lightning war conducted by Germany against Poland in 1939. And while it remains socially acceptable to accuse an overbearingly bossy person of being a "little Hitler", to accuse someone of Nazi tendencies is still the gravest insult.
The earlier Great War of 1914-1918 had an even more profound impact on the language - as it resulted in the greatest disruption of society that Europe had ever experienced. One of the main causes of the war was the German Kaiser's demand for "a place in the sun" for his country - a "fair" share of colonies in Africa.
The horror once evoked by the phrase "trench warfare" has been sanitised by the phrase's use to describe protracted and acrimonious business negotiations which sometimes get bogged down in the bleak spaces of "No Man's Land", the neutral area between the heavily fortified lines of the opposing armies.
Possibly the most emotive phrase to survive is "going over the top" - when hundreds of thousands of soldiers climbed over trench parapets, or "over the bags" (sandbags), and straight into enemy fire.
But contemporary usage, often abbreviated to OTT, to mean excessive or extreme behaviour, can seem almost disrespectful. The unfortunate soldiers' fate cruelly fulfilled an ominous warning in a German newspaper of 1914 that they would end as Kannonenfutter - "cannon fodder".
Many soldiers on the Western Front had never been abroad, let alone away from home. Wine was a novelty for many and "plonk" was discovered. The word is thought to derive from vin blanc but some sources attribute its etymology to Plonques, a company which imported poor-quality Algerian red wine. "Parleyvoo", the soldiers' slang word for both the French and their language, and "Boches", for the Germans, appear to be almost obsolete.
"Gerry" or "Jerry", as a collective noun is still heard among the elderly in Britain, some of whom still occasionally complain of "feeling crummy" (out of sorts); not surprising as to soldiers in Flanders it meant covered in lice.
They may also denounce whingeing youngsters as "Moaning Minnies" - the shells fired from the feared German Minenwerfer mortars created an intensely irritating shrieking noise while in flight. Mrs Thatcher once famously used the term to deride her critics. Nicknames, like "The Dirty Shirts" to describe the Royal Munster Fusiliers (not at all derogatory - but a badge of honour; derived from an episode when the regiment stormed a fort in India and had their shirts soiled by blood, sweat and dirt); and "The Skins" for the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (reputedly surprised by a party of French cavalry while bathing in Italy, they abandoned their swimming and went into battle naked) have long ago drifted out of the public consciousness.
But "the Micks" (an affectionate term for the Irish Guards, which remains a regiment of the British army to this day) are alive and well and judged to have "had a good war" (served with distinction).
Most soldiers simply wanted to survive and return to "Blighty". This was erroneously assumed to be synonymous with England - the word, in fact, meant home and was simultaneously used to describe a wound which might necessitate evacuation there.
Many came back to "Sweet F*** All" - a corruption of "Sweet Fanny Adams" which was originally naval slang for tinned meat named after the notorious murder and dismemberment of a girl bearing that name.
The most poignant neologism was "ceasefire", - first used in 1918 to order an end to hostilities.
This was supposed to be a war to end war. But two decades later, "The Great War" itself was renamed World War I, as historians put the event into historical perspective and it assumed its dreadful place in the chronology of 20th century wars.