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#120839 - 01/22/04 02:31 PM Civilian
inselpeter Pooh-Bah Registered: 03/14/01 Posts: 2379 Loc: New York City	I am looking for a slang synonym for "civilian." The word should be one that a Chandler tough might use. 'Civy' refers to clothing, if I'm not mistaken, and is rendered plural, 'civies.' The term can be either 'period' or contemporary. I wouldn't ordinarily be averse to a stretch, in this piece, but I don't think it would work in this particular case. Thanks.
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#120840 - 01/22/04 02:40 PM Re: Civilian
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13655	He was your typical John Doe; blue suit with brown shoes, that deer-in-the-headlights look and a wad of money in his right front pocket just waiting for some dip to go home with.
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#120841 - 01/22/04 02:43 PM Re: Civilian
Capfka Pooh-Bah Registered: 06/28/02 Posts: 1624 Loc: Utter Placebo, Planet Reebok	Nice to see you back, Insel! It's "civvies" (two 'v's) usually on this side of the pond ...
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#120842 - 01/22/04 03:08 PM Re: Civilian
wwh Carpal Tunnel Registered: 01/18/01 Posts: 13858	Dear IP: way back in WWII, GI's called civilians "feather merchants" taken from a comic strip of the time. I think it was the same one that had "Snuffy Smith" in it.
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#120843 - 01/22/04 04:17 PM Re: Civilian
musick Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/24/00 Posts: 2658 Loc: Chicago	Joe six-pack One of the Jimmy's
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#120844 - 01/22/04 08:35 PM Re: Civilian
Jackie Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 11579 Loc: Louisville, Kentucky	Mark; schmuck; sucker.
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#120845 - 01/22/04 09:31 PM Re: Civilian
inselpeter Pooh-Bah Registered: 03/14/01 Posts: 2379 Loc: New York City	Faldage: isn’t a “John Doe” just a nobody or an anybody? -- I do like the sentence. Is it yours, or did I forget? Thanks Capfka. If I ever claim to know (typed 'no') how to spell, slap me. wwh: I like “feather merchants” but I’m not sure it has the punch I’m looking for. Musick: “One of the Jimmys” might almost work. Can one just say “a Jimmy”? Is it at all well known? Jackie: Abound they may, marks schmucks and suckers, but they do it both in the service and out, no? Thanks all.
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#120846 - 01/22/04 10:06 PM Re: Civilian
Jackie Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 11579 Loc: Louisville, Kentucky	Oh--civvies as opposed to people in the armed forces? (I didn't get the Chandler ref.) And--it has been pointed out to me that schmuck could be very offensive. If it was to anyone, I apologize. I have no acquaintance with Yiddish, really; my associations with the word come from the movie Grumpy Old Men, where it seems to be intended as about the equivalent of "idiot".
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#120847 - 01/22/04 10:13 PM Re: Civilian
Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/30/01 Posts: 6296 Loc: Piedmont Region of Virginia, U...	Why the feathers, wwh?
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#120848 - 01/23/04 07:13 AM Re: Civilian
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13655	I took Rock Island's question to be not what a Chandler type character would call a non-military person as opposed to a military one, but what he would call someone outside of the law enforcer/PI vs law breaker world. Just your normal law-abiding citizen. That's where my John Doe submission was coming from. Was I wrong, RI? And, yes, that sentence was, AFAIK, all mine.
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