'With you, I will letter it ...'

It seems to me that for many, many years, people have talked and written in a wide variety of slang, shorthand, or jargon that is designed to exclude people who are not part of a particular circle, group, or clique.

First and foremost in my experience was Cockney rhyming slang, which my paternal family – who had lived in the East End of London for two generations – used regularly in everyday speech. I grew up knowing what 'apples', 'the frog', 'the rubber', 'the trouble', 'a ruby', and 'butchers'* meant ... and I was interested to note recently that the slang has continued to evolve. (I heard someone refer to their footwear as 'Angelas' ... which is the shortened version of 'Angela Rayners' or trainers!)

When I began working in a supermarket in the middle of the 1960s, I came across – and began using – shop back-slang. For example, 'feeb' was beef, 'tibbar' was rabbit, 'dlo' (pronounced de-low) was old, and 'krop' was pork. Even when I went to work in private banking and later education, I picked up and used the jargon that went with the job.

As I was working on the forthcoming PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIUM, I began thinking about the acronyms and jargon that we use in wargaming ... and here is a list of the acronyms that I have seen and/or used:

• 2HW: Two-Hour Wargames
• AAR: After Action Report
• ACW: American Civil War
• ADG: After Dinner Game
• AH: Avalon Hill
• ASL: Advanced Squad Leader
• BOGSAT: Bunch of Guys Sitting Around a Table
• CCG: Collectible Card Game
• COA: Course of Action
• CoW/COW: Conference of Wargamers
• CRT: Combat Results Table
• D (followed by a number): A die, with the number indicating the number of sides the die has (e.g. D6 is a die with six sides.
• DBA: De Bellis Antiquitatis
• DBx: Any rules based on the DBA system
• ECW: English Civil War
• GDW: Game Designer’s Workshop
• GW: Games Workshop
• HOTT: Hordes of the Things
• HYW: Hundred Years War
• LoS/LOS: Line-of-sight
• MG: Matrix Game
• MW: Miniature Wargames
• OHW: One-Hour Wargames
• PW: Portable Wargame
• RPG: Role-playing game
• SoA/SOA: Society of Ancients
• SPI: Simulations Publications, Inc
• SYW: Seven Years War
• THW: Two-Hour Wargames
• TTG: Tabletop Game/Table Top Games
• TYW: Thirty Years War
• WD: Wargame Developments
• WI: Wargames Illustrated
• WRG: Wargame Research Group
• WSS: Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy
• WWI/WW1: World War One
• WWII/WW2: World War Two
• ZOC: Zone of Control

This is by no means an exhaustive list and I am sure that there are loads more that I have missed.

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* For the benefit of those of my regular blog readers who are not au fait with Cockney rhyming slang. 'apples' = apples and pears = stairs, 'the frog' = frog and toad = road, 'the rubber' = rub-a-dub = pub, 'the trouble' = trouble and strife = wife, 'a ruby' = Ruby Murray = curry, and 'butchers' = butcher's hook = look.