Trivia 7-25-19

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This term was used by nearly every veteran of the Civil War when referring to one another after the war, especially at reunions. This term took on a negative meaning in the 20th century in the U.S. and is rarely used by U.S. veterans today. What is the one word term?

credit: @SWMODave
 
comrades
"They and the two great armies they represented had fought each other on a thousand battlefields; yet now they called each other comrades as they talked over those battles. They chatted and laughed, and sometimes they embraced and cried over each other, as a Federal found the Confederate, or a Confederate found the Federal, who had risked his life to give him a cup of water or to drag him out of the range of danger as he lay
wounded in the line of fire." https://archive.org/stream/gettysburgpeacem00unit/gettysburgpeacem00unit_djvu.txt
 
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Love the question. How many of us will get it right?

My educated guess is the term is Comrade. Both North and South veterans commonly used this word in greeting one another. Also many reunion speeches began by addressing the audience as "Comrades". In the 20th century the term became largely associated with Communism in Russia, hence it took on a negative meaning in the U.S. and slowly dropped from our salutation vocabulary.

1564068178561.png

"COMRADES MONUMENT"
Cedar Grove Cemetery
638 Broad Street
New London, CT
Dedicated: ca.1900
Type: Granite two-stage pedestal and figure with Classical Revival details
Height: Approximately 23'
 
This term was used by nearly every veteran of the Civil War when referring to one another after the war, especially at reunions. This term took on a negative meaning in the 20th century in the U.S. and is rarely used by U.S. veterans today. What is the one word term?

credit: @SWMODave
Comrade.
 
I will say that this is an extremely difficult question for non native English speakers like me, who have only limited access to today's servicemen's and -women's lingo.

My guess is the word comrade.

It was wisely used during the Civil War, as this book title suggests:
For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, by James M. McPherson

But although the word is still in use, I guess nowadays the US Marines veterans among my friends would not address each other as "comrade", because that word had been hijacked by the communists.

From Reddit (highlighting by me):
"Comrade, from French camarade, is attested from the XVII century with the meaning of "companion", "room-mate" (it's ultimately from Latin camera, "chamber"). This original meaning is preserved in French, where camarade is also a schoolmate.
It spread then to the military world, with the meaning "companion in arms", and only in the second part of the XIX century it was adopted by socialist and communist movements."
 
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