Or dient et content et fabloient

[shewhomust]

I was just skimming past Stephen Moss's article about life on a nuclear submarine (though actually it is worth reading, if only for the bits about the badger) when a column listing items of submarine slang snagged my attention.

"dit," it began, "story, tale, film" (this appears in the text as to spin a dit, to tell a story). It's the same in Old French - not the films, obviously, but a 'dit' is a narrative poem, one which tells a story (from the verb 'dire', to speak, presumably because there poems were spoken not sung). But can they be related?

Chambers - for dead-tree dictionaries are also available - goes for a wander round dite / indite, to disctate and hence compose, and also the Spenserian formulation of dit for a song, presumed to be by analogy with ditty. All of which is apt, but I suspect misleading.

On the other hand, a number of listings of naval slang, this one among them, give: "Dit - (RN) Short written note.". I can't find any suggested origin for this, though a list of Australian English military slang offers a further development: "Dit - A DVD; i.e., 'What's the Dit?'."

Since I have Chambers open in front of me, I offer with no evidence at all the possibility that the sense observed by Stephen Moss, making the most of a story, spinning out a yarn, may be the opposite of that original usage, the redaction of the shortest possible note, the 'dit' of the Morse Code.

ETA: it's only hours after writing this that it occurs to me it would be helpful to know how the word is pronounced!

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

A dit in OF could also be a saying or proverb ie non-narrative, very short, so this is consistent (Or my OF is very bad - both are possible)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Ah, I didn't know that. Even so...

[anef.livejournal.com]

I would have expected a link with on-dit, or gossip, as used by Georgette Heyer.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

To the OF sense, absolutely. But expected in this context? The crew of nuclear submarines whiling away their submerged time reading Georgette Heyer? It's charming, but not exactly convincing!

[hunningham.livejournal.com]

And the imaginary badger is wonderful ... "It's the ability to switch instantly from badger mode to potential nuclear meltdown mode that defines a good crew."

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

How can you be sure the badger is imaginary? Maybe it's a quantum badger - or maybe, like mevennen's badger, it's spending some time as a teakettle.

[hunningham.livejournal.com]

Or a Cheshire badger? One which has made a den for itself under the cruise missiles.