"The Story Behind the Phrase "Kilroy Was Here"." The phrase may have originated through United States servicemen, who would draw the doodle and the text "Kilroy was here" on the walls and other places they were stationed, encamped, or visited. Aah Foo. Foo Dogs vanished for … foo (jargon) /foo/ A sample name for absolutely anything, especially programs and files (especially scratch files). Here's a portrait of our beautiful dog "Foo": This was a Christmas present to my wife. Strauss, Bob. [ Jargon File] (1998-04-16) Share. The only information that is exposed cross-origin is the size information provided in memoryMeasurement.bytes and memoryBreakdownEntry.bytes. This was 100% of all the recorded Foo's in the USA. Their first appearance was in Chinese art, which dates back to approximately 208 BC to about 221 AD. In 1840 there was 1 Foo family living in Wisconsin Territory. The Story Behind the Phrase "Kilroy Was Here". https://www.thoughtco.com/killroy-was-here-4152093 (accessed March 14, 2021). I do recall reading or hearing a long time ago that foo was derived from fu (oo) bar, but perhaps the true origin will remain a debatable mystery for years. As a last name Foo was the 19,282 nd most popular name in 2010. Kilroy was here is een uitdrukking die tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, meestal in de vorm van graffiti, in veel landen door soldaten werd aangebracht.De uitdrukking werd vaak vergezeld door Mr. Chad, een kaalhoofdig mannetje dat met zijn grote neus over de rand van een muur staart.Er ontstonden ook veel varianten op de graffiti, zoals het Australische equivalent Foo was here. This was about 60% of all the recorded Foo's in the UK. London had the highest population of Foo … Find your family's origin in the United States, average life expectancy, most common occupation, and more. In 1944-45, the term ‘foo fighters’ was in use by radar operators for the kind of mysterious or spurious trace that would later be called a UFO (the older term resurfaced in popular American usage in 1995 via the name of one of the better grunge-rock bands). Here are the sidebars to history. The Beatles is in fact a pretty poor pun, while The Sex Pistols is an example of tittering, school boy humour. Cross-origin information leak. Invocations of the XMLHttpRequest or Fetch APIs, as discussed above. The rules of origin requirements are some of the most important provisions that your business needs to understand and comply with, under the UK's deal with the EU. Another candidate is Francis J. Kilroy, Jr., a soldier in Florida, sick with the flu, who wrote "Kilroy will be here next week" on the wall of his barracks; since this story only appeared in 1945, though, it seems doubtful that Francis, rather than James, was the source of the Kilroy legend. Very probably, hackish "foo" had no single origin and derives through all these channels from Yiddish "feh" and/or English "fooey". Smokey was a fireman, or “foo fighter”, who traveled to incidents in his “Foomobile”. When you stop to think about it, some of the biggest bands on the planet have had silly names. Everlong" It stands to reason that "Everlong" is The Foo Fighters' biggest hit. One place “ foo ” is known to have remained live is in the U.S. military during the WWII years. From Chinese 福 (fú, “fortunate; prosperity, good luck”), via its use as 福星 (Fúxīng, “Jupiter”) in Chinese statues of the Three Lucky Stars, picked up from c. 1935 as a nonsense word in Bill Holman's Smokey Stover comic strip, whence it was picked up by Pogo, Looney Tunes, and others. The objects flew alongside aircraft at 200 mph; they were red, or orange, or green; they appeared singly or with as many as 10 others in formation; and they often out-maneuvered the airplanes they were chasing. Bob Strauss is a science writer and the author of several books, including "The Big Book of What, How and Why" and "A Field Guide to the Dinosaurs of North America. RFC 3092 Etymology of "Foo" 1 April 2001 nonsense phrases such as "Notary Sojac" and "1506 nix nix". The gay executive who fought to make the drag classic To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Ambassadors and emissaries from central Asian kingdoms such as Samarkand and Yuezhi brought the first recorded Asiatic lions to the Han Dynasty court of the second century B.C.E., in the form of live tributes, pelts and other crafts.There are also accounts by traveling monks and merchants from the same time period, when trade began to expand along the Silk Road routes. Around the same time Kilroy was popping up in unexpected places in the U.S., another doodle, "Mr. Chad," was appearing in England. The most Foo families were found in the USA in 1880. 美國 符氏族譜 is for those interested in Foo Genealogy. He was chalked on the side of railway carriages, appeared in probably every camp that the 1st AIF served in and generally made his presence felt. Reader Alec wrote in to say, “I’d like to know the origin of Kilroy was here, with the man looking over a fence. And "Kilroy was here" was inscribed on so many pieces of American ordinance recovered by the Germans that Hitler wondered if Kilroy was a master spy, along the lines of the yet-to-be-invented James Bond! Foo and other words like it are formally known as metasyntactic variables . The Story Behind Kilroy, the Morale-Boosting Meme From WWII, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foo_was_here&oldid=996330562, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020, Articles lacking reliable references from April 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 25 December 2020, at 23:21. There is also evidence that using the term foo derives from the World War II-era phrase FUBAR, as it is not unusual to see "foo" and "bar" both used as metasyntactic variables alongside each other, as shown below: int max(int foo, int bar) { int result; if (foo > bar) result = foo… They may get used a lot together, but foo is _not_ derived from FUBAR. But the original legend of Kilroy dates to World War II and a man named James J. Kilroy (1902-1962), who lived in Quincy, Massachusetts. “Foo was here” was a popular piece of graffiti drawn by Australian soldiers in WWII, and possibly even WWI, that depicts a little man poking his head and large nose over the wall à la Kilroy. How unique is the name Foo? Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable notes tha… Foo Dogs can be traced as early as the Han Dynasty. "same-site" and "same-origin" are frequently cited but often misunderstood terms. However, assuming that the origin of "foo" is "FUBAR" because of the association is like saying that the origin of the word "slash" is from "Slashdot." Old memes never truly go away; they persist out of historical context, so that a six-year-old watching "Adventure Time" or reading a Peanuts comic strip from the 1970s will be aware of this phrase, but not of its origins or its connotations. Wisconsin Territory had the highest population of Foo families in 1840. This cross-origin sharing standard can enable cross-site HTTP requests for:. Salted pork belly first appeared on dining tables thousands of years ago in China. Period sources reported that `FOO' became a semi-legendary subject of WWII British-army graffiti more or less equivalent to the American Kilroy . Foo is commonly used slang term in computer programming as a term to express different variables, functions and other specific concept commands. He was shown (usually) as a little bald headed man peering over a stone wall, with the simple inscription "Foo was here". I saw this all over Germany as an Army dependent in 1954. Adjective used to describe anything that is just a little to frilly, fancy, or "upper crust". The Foo family name was found in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Scotland between 1840 and 1920. The origin of Foo Dog mythology can be traced back to Buddhism in the Chinese Han Dynasty, from the second century B.C. Things weren’t often exotic in rural Pennsylvania. "Foo was here" is an Australian graffiti signature of popular culture, especially known for its use during World War I, but also became popular among Australian schoolchildren of post-war generations. ; Web Fonts (for cross-domain font usage in @font-face within CSS), so that servers can deploy TrueType fonts that can only be cross-site loaded and used by web sites that are permitted to do so. Some historians point to James J. Kilroy, an inspector at the Fore River Shipyard in Braintree, MA, who supposedly wrote "Kilroy was here" on various parts of ships as they were being built (after the ships were completed, these inscriptions would have been inaccessible, hence "Kilroy"'s reputation for getting into impossible-to-reach locations). In 1944-45, the term ‘foo fighters’ was in use by radar operators for the kind of mysterious or spurious trace that would later be called a UFO (the older term resurfaced in popular American usage in 1995 via the name of one of the better grunge-rock bands). “Imagine having a cup of coffee in Tokyo and scanning a QR … A slang word commonly used by the Hispanic population to identify a friend or homie. Meiers gave these objects a name, taking a nonsense word used by characters in the popular “Smokey Stover” firefighter cartoon: “foo fighters.” Reports kept coming in. Spoiled little lap-dogs, $1000 designer handbags, and pink capri pants worn by men all qualify as foofoo. The term was in common usage by the 1930’s, even showing up in a Daffy Duck cartoon. FOO is an abbreviation of Forward Observation Officer, a British Army term in use as early as the First World War. Much like the "Hello World”, words “foo” and “bar” are used in computer programming examples. The four years of World War II were a tough, dangerous, and often lonely slog for America's servicemen, who needed any form of entertainment they could get. Well, graffiti itself has been around for thousands of years, but the Kilroy drawing seems to have derived from a similar graffito, "Foo was here," popular among Australian servicemen during World War I; this was also a depiction of a big-nosed cartoon figure peering over a wall, but it was not accompanied by any words. The oldest recorded birth by the Social Security Administration for the name Foo is Sunday, August 2nd, 1874. [1][better source needed], It has been claimed that "Foo" probably came from the acronym for Forward Observation Officer, but this is likely to be a backronym. Foo Dog Mythology Significance. From fun quizzes that bring joy to your day, to compelling photography and fascinating lists, HowStuffWorks Play offers something for everyone. Strauss, Bob. ”) When the fad faded, the origin of “ foo ” was forgotten. Unfortunately, it was later revealed by one of the show's consultants that the vault footage was "recreated" (i.e., completely made up), which should make you think twice about the historical accuracy of anything aired on this cable channel! ", ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. While the origins of this foo are unclear, it appears to be unrelated to Holman’s foo. [citation needed], It may have inspired the later "Kilroy was here" graffiti. Real Surnames that would raise eyebrows every time-(Found in the digger indexes) Attaway Bagelhole Bald Barby Bastard Batty Bogan Bomford (my car) Boozene Bugg Bums Brittle Cartledge Chegdwedden Clutterbuck Cobbeldick Crapp Daft Dagg Diaper This is specific for those who have linkage with Foo Hong 大焕 (31-73-110): means he is the 31st generation from 有辰(You3 Chen2), 73rd from 雅(Ya3), 110th from 周公(Zhou1Gong1),120th from 黃帝(Huang2Di4), . Dig in! Of course, that's saying a lot since Dave Grohl and his band are still producing amazing hits.But thanks to "Everlong" the former Nirvana band-member has made a massive fortune.And, more importantly, built an incredibly dedicated fanbase that eats up each and every one of their songs. A whole family of these terms came into widespread use during the North African and Sicilian campaigns (1942-43). Foo as a Metasyntactic Variable (Score: 1) by Brian Ristuccia. The phrase may have originated through United States servicemen who would draw the picture and the text "Kilroy was here" on the walls and other places where they were stationed, encamped, or visited. See also bar, baz, qux, quux, corge, grault, garply, waldo, fred, plugh, xyzzy, thud. Frequently Asked Questions, 251 to 300: Who was "Foo"? ; WebGL textures. The URLs and other string values that appear in the result are guaranteed to be known to the origin that invokes the API. Wisconsin Territory had the highest population of Foo families in 1840. The U.S. and British militaries frequently swapped slang terms during the war. As the war progressed, "Kilroy was here" became an emblem of pride, carrying the message that no place, and no country, was beyond the reach of America's might (and especially not if "Kilroy was here" happened to be painted on the side of a missile penetrating deep into enemy territory). The Chad doodle may have derived from the Greek symbol for Omega, or it may have been a simplified adaptation of a circuit diagram; whatever the case, it carried the same "someone is watching" connotation as Kilroy. Interesting, wonderful stories, myths and mysteries. For the best results, select a … In 1840 there was 1 Foo family living in Wisconsin Territory. According to one Buddhist legend, the truth sermons of the Dharma bear a resemblance to ‘roaring like a lion’, which essentially eliminates all distractions and silences the other voices within. [citation needed] It may have inspired the later "Kilroy was here" graffiti. Foo and bar come from the US Army WWII acronym FUBAR, "F-ed Up Beyond All Recognition". Things that are foofoo might also be a bit on the delicate side, or too elegant by half, or even offensively fruity. Kilroy has had a robust afterlife. In this meaning it also can derive from the German word furchtbar, which means awful and terrible and described the circumstances of the Second World War. A few months ago, I had the great pleasure of collaborating with Nom Nom Paleo on a magazine piece about egg foo yong. The famously paranoid Stalin was reportedly unsettled when he glimpsed a "Kilroy was here" graffito in a bathroom stall at the Potsdam Conference in Germany; presumably he instructed the NKVD to find the individual responsible and have him shot. The debate over the origin of hummus is old–probably as old as hummus itself. Well, graffiti itself has been around for thousands of years, but the Kilroy drawing seems to have derived from a similar graffito, "Foo was here," popular among Australian servicemen during World War I; this was also a depiction of a big-nosed cartoon figure peering over a wall, but it was not accompanied by any words. Not my Chinese friend, but foo. In this regard, "Kilroy was here" functioned as a morale booster—when U.S. soldiers landed on a beachhead, they would often see this meme inscribed on a wall or fence nearby, presumably planted there by an advance reconnaissance team. “Foo was here” was a popular piece of graffiti drawn by Australian soldiers in WWII, and possibly even WWI, that depicts a little man poking his head and large nose over the wall à la Kilroy. Origin; Redeem your PC and Origin codes > Learn all about Product Codes, promotional codes, and how to redeem your PC codes to your EA Account. This was 100% of all the recorded Foo's in the USA. Running the above Makefile with, as before, FOO set to foo in the environment and the -e command-line option gives the output Makefile:2: foo environment override. For a few years during and after World War II, he was ubiquitous: a doodle of a big-nosed man, peering over a wall, accompanied by the inscription "Kilroy was here." While the origins of this foo are unclear, it appears to be unrelated to Holman’s foo . Where did the meme—and that's exactly what it was, 50 years before the invention of the internet—"Kilroy was here" come from? Foo Fighters drummer Dave Grohl has revealed how he managed to come across the band's name. Rick Atkinson's excellent Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 gives a list of these. Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination and Its Impact, Famous Black American Men and Women of the 20th Century, Inscriptions - Articles on Inscriptions, Epigraphy, and Papyrology, Converse History: The Story Behind the Iconic Chuck Taylors, Sociological Definition of Popular Culture. Lucky for you, HowStuffWorks Play is here to help. "Hello, I've waited here for you. Fun Facts about the name Foo. The most Foo families were found in the USA in 1880. Wasting Light wound up as a smash success for the Foos , debuting at number one on the Billboard charts, going gold in the U.S. and garnering the band another four Grammy Awards. As to the derivation of the name "Kilroy," that's a matter of some dispute. foo (in software programming): Foo (pronounced FOO) is a term used by programmers as a placeholder for a value that can change, depending on conditions or on information passed to the program. I also recall Kilroy from cartoon panels in Cracked & Mad magazines in the 70’s. There isn't really a compelling reason to choose it besides the fact that no language reserves the word foo and that it's easy enough to type/read. [better source needed] For example, they are mentioned in the context of page transitions, fetch() requests, cookies, opening popups, embedded resources, and iframes. (2020, August 28). It's not only the case that "Kilroy was here;" Kilroy is still among us, in comic books, video games, TV shows, and all sorts of pop-culture artifacts. Used by Jack Speer as … The best of the books about the war years - then and now. Foo Fighters drummer Dave Grohl has revealed how he managed to come across the band's name. FOO WAS HERE. An ad in Life magazine noted that WWII-era servicemen were fond of claiming that "whatever beach-head they stormed, they always found notices chalked up ahead of them, that 'Kilroy was here'". The supposed origin of foo and bar is that "FUBAR" was WWII slang for F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition. In 1891 there were 3 Foo families living in London. Worcestershire sauce has a history to go with its usefulness in flavoring drinks and food such as bloody marys, Caesar salads, steaks, oysters, and deviled eggs. The magazine went kerfluey and the story never got published, but I wanted to share it with you. Foo Fighters reconvened for 2011's Wasting Light, a Butch Vig production that doubled as the official return of Pat Smear, who hadn't played on any of the band's albums since 1997. At the height of his popularity, Kilroy could be found just about everywhere: in bathrooms and on bridges, in school cafeterias and on homework assignments, in the holds of Navy ships and painted on the shells of Air Force missiles. Reader Alec wrote in to say, “I’d like to know the origin of Kilroy was here, with the man looking over a fence. I remember foo. The etymology of "foo" is obscure. At this point, we should mention a 2007 "documentary," Fort Knox: Secrets Revealed, which aired in 2007 on the History Channel. ThoughtCo. Things weren’t often exotic in rural Pennsylvania. Where British troops went, the graffito "FOO was here" or something similar showed up. Discover the meaning of the Too A Foo name on Ancestry®. Egg Foo Yung is a Chinese egg omelet. Gremlins, Foo Fighters, book reviews, even Lena the Hyena. The Foo family name was found in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Scotland between 1840 and 1920. Interesting, wonderful stories, myths and mysteries. London had … Dig in! Between about 1930 and 1952 it appeared in the comic Smokey Stover by Bill Holman, who stated that, he used the word due to having seen it on the bottom of a jade Chinese figurine in San Francisco Chinatown, purportedly signifying "good luck". • These objects were dubbed “foo-fighters” by a radar operator, Donald J. Meiers, who named them after a then-current comic strip called Smokey Stover. This is Foo with all his favourite things — food, Kong, lead for walkies, his squeaky rubber chicken and chicken leg, 'Wilson' (the ball he stole from children at the park), and his blanket, otherwise known as the 'Boochu Shroud'. First on the standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/killroy-was-here-4152093. Here are a some of even earlier F00s but I think they're coincidences/false positives: ... "foo-foo valve". A few months ago, I had the great pleasure of collaborating with Nom Nom Paleo on a magazine piece about egg foo yong. [citation needed], Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Rock and Gravel Row Mounds/Aggregate Harvesting near Historic Railroads in the Desert and Basins Regions of California and Nevada". Check out our foo was here selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops. History of the Foo Dog. How remarkable! Egg Foo Yung (also spelled Egg Foo Young and Egg Fu Yung) is made with beaten eggs and most often ham, but—as with the omelet we are all familiar with—a variety of meats and seafood as … When you stop to think about it, some of the biggest bands on the planet have had silly names. The most Foo families were found in the USA in 1880. If true this is related to the Chinese word fu ("福", sometimes transliterated foo), which can mean h… The Foo family name was found in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Scotland between 1840 and 1920. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/killroy-was-here-4152093. An ad in Lifemagazine noted that WWII-era servicemen were fond of claiming that "[w]hatever beach-head they stormed, they always found notices chalked up ahead of them, that 'Kilroy was here.'" Worcestershire sauce follows in the tradition of fermented fish sauce found in many cultures, such as garum in ancient Rome. Our award-winning website offers reliable, easy-to-understand explanations about how the world works. The premise of the show is that Fort Knox was loaded with gold in 1937, but only made accessible to the public in the 1970s—so the producers at the History Channel could uncork part of the fort's innards and visit a time capsule of pre-war America. The Beatles is in fact a pretty poor pun, while The Sex Pistols is an example of tittering, school boy humour. I saw this all over Germany as an Army dependent in 1954. This was about 60% of all the recorded Foo's in the UK. Here are the sidebars to history. Bacon in Ancient and Medieval Times . The name is Cantonese and means "hibiscus egg." Randeep Melhi wants to rethink the relationship between food consumers and producers. Chinese or Imperial guardian lions are a traditional Chinese architectural ornament. It takes 18 months to get the fermented sauce that graces the steaks of so many. In 1891 there were 3 Foo families living in London. Genealogy- Victoria- Births, Marriages, Deaths, Tasmanian Federation Index, Marine BMDs in Victoria, plus links to other BMDs The Foo family name was found in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Scotland between 1840 and 1920. How Popular is the name Foo? At some point shortly before the outbreak of World War II, it seems, Foo, Chad, and Kilroy merged their memetic DNA and mutated into the classic "Kilroy was here.". The Greeks like to claim it as their own, but the Arabs are equally adamant in their … The words, “Kilroy was here,” alongside a drawing of a long-nosed, bald fellow peering over a fence still pop up occasionally on walls and buildings today. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our. When was the first name Foo first recorded in the United States? The best of the books about the war years - then and now. Amusingly, neither Josef Stalin nor Adolf Hitler, two dictators not known for their sense of humor, could quite make sense of "Kilroy was here." Origin # FUBAR => FOOBAR => Foo and Bar. A classic Bugs Bunny cartoon from 1948, "Haredevil Hare," shows just how deeply Kilroy had penetrated into pop culture: thinking he's the first rabbit to land on the moon, Bugs is oblivious to the slogan "Kilroy was here" prominently etched on a rock behind him. The word foo on its own was used earlier. Of course, it's also possible that neither James nor Francis Kilroy were involved in any way, and that the name "Kilroy" was conjured up from scratch by a bored G.I. This was common on ships by the early nineteenth century. O serviço gratuito do Google traduz instantaneamente palavras, frases e páginas da Web entre o inglês e mais de 100 outros idiomas. The magazine went kerfluey and the story never got published, but I wanted to share it with you. Strauss, Bob. Gremlins, Foo Fighters, book reviews, even Lena the Hyena. "Foo was here" is an Australian graffiti signature of popular culture, especially known for its use during World War I, but also became popular among Australian schoolchildren of post-war generations. As a little thank you from the Foo Fighters’ camp, bandleader Dave Grohl has kindly taken the time to talk us through the origin stories of every song on the nine-track Medicine At Midnight, from punchy opener Making A Fire through to the emotional set closer Love Dies Young. In the documentary, "Kilroy was here" can be seen written on a wall inside the vault, which would imply that the origin of this meme dates to no later than 1937. The most Foo families were found in the USA in 1880. If you know of another definition of FOO that should be included here, please let us know. These dogs have magnificent aesthetic appeal and a rich history of legend and tradition. "The Story Behind the Phrase "Kilroy Was Here"." Other definitions of FOO: All of our slang term and phrase definitions are made possible by our wonderful visitors. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable notes that it was particularly associated with the Air Transport Command, at least w… Pork curing methods spread throughout the Roman Empire, and Anglo-Saxon peasants cooked with bacon fat.Until well into the 16th century, the Middle English term bacon or bacoun referred to all pork in general. ‘Some RCAF buddies talk about the foo fighters they saw over Europe in the last real war.’ Origin 1940s from ‘Where there's foo there's fire’, a nonsense catchphrase from the US Smoky Stover cartoon strip. One place “foo” is known to have remained live is in the U.S. military during the WWII years. Julie Newmar gives us a delicious slice of '90s Hollywood. Foo_was_here.jpg (453 × 265 pixels, file size: 10 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. The etymology of foobar could be derived from the military slang from the World War II era FUBAR, which was bowdlerised to foobar.