SNAFU
Encyclopedia
SNAFU is an acronym that stands for situation normal: all fucked up. It is sometimes bowdlerized
to all fouled up or similar. In simple terms, it means that the normal situation is in a bad state, as it always is, therefore nothing unexpected. It is usually used in jest, or as a sign of frustration. The acronym is believed to have originated in the US Army
during World War II
.
In modern usage, snafu is sometimes used as an interjection
. Snafu also sometimes refers to a bad situation, mistake, or cause of trouble. It is more commonly used in modern vernacular to describe running into an error or problem that is large and unexpected. For example, in 2005, The New York Times
published an article titled "Hospital Staff Cutback Blamed for Test Result Snafu".
in their September 1941 issue. Time
magazine used the term in their June 16, 1942 issue: "Last week U.S. citizens knew that gasoline rationing and rubber requisitioning were snafu." Most reference works, including the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, supply an origin date of 1940-1944, generally attributing it to the U.S. Army. Rick Atkinson
ascribes the origin of SNAFU, FUBAR
, and a bevy of other terms to cynical GIs ridiculing the Army's penchant for acronyms.
The attribution of "SNAFU" to the American military is not universally accepted. It has also been attributed to the British
.
In a wider study of military slang, Elkin noted in 1946 that there "are a few acceptable substitutes such as 'screw up' or 'mess up,' but these do not have the emphasis value of the obscene equivalent." He considered the expression to be "a caricature of Army direction. The soldier resignedly accepts his own less responsible position and expresses his cynicism at the inefficiency of Army authority." He also noted that "the expression ... is coming into general civilian use."
Prog
band East of Eden published an album called Snafu
in 1970.
Carole Landis
and Martha Raye
performed a skit about SNAFU sometime during the war.
The Army and Warner Bros. Cartoons
produced training cartoons during WWII featuring a character called Private Snafu
who always did the wrong thing.
Robert Anton Wilson
discusses the meaning of his "SNAFU" principle in his Illuminatus! Trilogy through the character Hagbard Celine. He also explains it in Prometheus Rising
.
Snafu
was the name of a British rhythm and blues
/rock
-band of the 1970s.
Snafu
was a game published for the Intellivision
gaming console (Mattel Electronics) and featured "snakes" that had to box each other in or eat each others' tails to win.
A character in the HBO Miniseries The Pacific
is known as SNAFU: Cpl. Merriell Shelton, played by Rami Malek
.
The game Screwball Scramble
was once released in the U.S. under the name Snafu.
In other media, the song Space Olympics by The Lonely Island features the acronym.
context, was first recorded in American Notes and Queries
in their September 1941 issue. Most reference works, including the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, supply an origin date of 1940-1944, generally attributing it to the U.S. Army. Rick Atkinson, an American battlefield reporter, ascribes the origin of SUSFU, SNAFU, FUBAR and a bevy of other terms to cynical GIs ridiculing the Army's penchant for acronyms.
Expurgation
Expurgation is a form of censorship which involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive, usually from an artistic work.This has also been called bowdlerization, especially for books, after Thomas Bowdler, who in 1818 published an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's work that he...
to all fouled up or similar. In simple terms, it means that the normal situation is in a bad state, as it always is, therefore nothing unexpected. It is usually used in jest, or as a sign of frustration. The acronym is believed to have originated in the US Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In modern usage, snafu is sometimes used as an interjection
Interjection
In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
. Snafu also sometimes refers to a bad situation, mistake, or cause of trouble. It is more commonly used in modern vernacular to describe running into an error or problem that is large and unexpected. For example, in 2005, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published an article titled "Hospital Staff Cutback Blamed for Test Result Snafu".
Origin
As used in a military context, "SNAFU" was first recorded in American Notes and QueriesNotes and Queries
Notes and Queries is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to "English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism". Its emphasis is on "the factual rather than the speculative"...
in their September 1941 issue. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine used the term in their June 16, 1942 issue: "Last week U.S. citizens knew that gasoline rationing and rubber requisitioning were snafu." Most reference works, including the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, supply an origin date of 1940-1944, generally attributing it to the U.S. Army. Rick Atkinson
Rick Atkinson
Rick Atkinson is an American journalist and author whose contributions led to four Pulitzer Prizes.-Life:Atkinson was born in Munich. His father was an United States Army officer and he grew up at military posts. He earned his bachelor degree from East Carolina University in 1974 and a master of...
ascribes the origin of SNAFU, FUBAR
FUBAR
FUBAR is an acronym that commonly means "fucked up beyond all recognition/any repair/all reason".-Etymology and history:The Oxford English Dictionary lists Yank, the Army Weekly magazine as its earliest citation: "The FUBAR Squadron.....
, and a bevy of other terms to cynical GIs ridiculing the Army's penchant for acronyms.
The attribution of "SNAFU" to the American military is not universally accepted. It has also been attributed to the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
In a wider study of military slang, Elkin noted in 1946 that there "are a few acceptable substitutes such as 'screw up' or 'mess up,' but these do not have the emphasis value of the obscene equivalent." He considered the expression to be "a caricature of Army direction. The soldier resignedly accepts his own less responsible position and expresses his cynicism at the inefficiency of Army authority." He also noted that "the expression ... is coming into general civilian use."
In popular culture
At least three songs from that era can be traced that either are titled "SNAFU" or feature "SNAFU" as part of discussion including:- Leonard FeatherLeonard FeatherLeonard Geoffrey Feather was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.-Biography:...
/Shorty SherockShorty SherockClarence "Shorty" Sherock was a prominent swing jazz trumpeter.Sherock attended the Illinois Military Academy before becoming a soloist with Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra and later with Gene Krupa's Orchestra, together with saxophonist Sam Donahue.He was a featured soloist at the first concert of...
's "SNAFU" — a jazzJazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
instrumental composition. - Glenn MillerGlenn MillerAlton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
's "SNAFU Jump".
Prog
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band East of Eden published an album called Snafu
Snafu
Snafu may refer to:* SNAFU, an acronym* Snafu , an English rhythm and blues band of the 1970s* Snafu, a 1970 album by East Of Eden* Snafu , a 1981 Intellivision video game title published by Mattel Electronics...
in 1970.
Carole Landis
Carole Landis
Carole Landis was an American film and stage actress whose break-through role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. Landis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1765 Vine Street....
and Martha Raye
Martha Raye
Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....
performed a skit about SNAFU sometime during the war.
The Army and Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the in-house division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical...
produced training cartoons during WWII featuring a character called Private Snafu
Private Snafu
Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional cartoon shorts produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The character was created by director Frank Capra, chairman of the U.S. Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit, and most were written by...
who always did the wrong thing.
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
discusses the meaning of his "SNAFU" principle in his Illuminatus! Trilogy through the character Hagbard Celine. He also explains it in Prometheus Rising
Prometheus Rising
Prometheus Rising is a book by Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1983. It is a guide book of "how to get from here to there", an amalgam of Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness, Gurdjieff's self-observation exercises, Alfred Korzybski's general semantics, Aleister Crowley's magical...
.
Snafu
Snafu (band)
Snafu was a British rhythm and blues/rock band of the 1970s featuring vocalist Bobby Harrison and the talented slide guitarist Micky Moody.-History:...
was the name of a British rhythm and blues
British rhythm and blues
British rhythm and blues developed as a major musical movement in the early 1960s in London and other urban centres in the UK as predominately young white male musicians attempted to emulate the style and recordings of African American rhythm and blues artists...
/rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
-band of the 1970s.
Snafu
Snafu (video game)
Snafu is a video game released by Mattel for its Intellivision video game system in 1981. One of a number of similar video games released in the early 1980s, Snafu features players controlling ever-lengthening serpents as they attempt to corner their opponents and trap them.-Gameplay:Snafu contains...
was a game published for the Intellivision
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1979. Development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. The word intellivision is a portmanteau of "intelligent television"...
gaming console (Mattel Electronics) and featured "snakes" that had to box each other in or eat each others' tails to win.
A character in the HBO Miniseries The Pacific
The Pacific (miniseries)
The Pacific is a 2010 television series produced by HBO, Seven Network Australia, Sky Movies, Playtone and DreamWorks that premiered in the United States on March 14, 2010....
is known as SNAFU: Cpl. Merriell Shelton, played by Rami Malek
Rami Malek
Rami Said Malek is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the gay teenage next-door-neighbor, "Kenny" on the FOX comedy series The War at Home; for his role as Merriell "Snafu" Shelton in the HBO miniseries The Pacific; and for his role as the pharaoh Ahkmenrah in the feature films...
.
The game Screwball Scramble
Screwball Scramble
Screwball Scramble is a toy made by TOMY that involves guiding a 1 centimeter metal ball bearing around an obstacle course. A player guides the ball by using various buttons, dials and levers that affect parts of the course. If a mistake is made a player must start again...
was once released in the U.S. under the name Snafu.
In other media, the song Space Olympics by The Lonely Island features the acronym.
SUSFU
SUSFU is an acronym for Situation unchanged: still fucked up, but can also be bowdlerized—just like SNAFU—to Situation unchanged: still fouled up or similar. It is used in a militaryMilitary
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
context, was first recorded in American Notes and Queries
Notes and Queries
Notes and Queries is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to "English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism". Its emphasis is on "the factual rather than the speculative"...
in their September 1941 issue. Most reference works, including the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, supply an origin date of 1940-1944, generally attributing it to the U.S. Army. Rick Atkinson, an American battlefield reporter, ascribes the origin of SUSFU, SNAFU, FUBAR and a bevy of other terms to cynical GIs ridiculing the Army's penchant for acronyms.
See also
- BOHICABOHICABOHICA is an acronym that stands for "Bend Over, Here It Comes Again". It is used colloquially to indicate that an adverse situation is about to repeat itself, and that acquiescence is the wisest course of action. It is commonly understood as a reference to being sodomized...
- FUBARFUBARFUBAR is an acronym that commonly means "fucked up beyond all recognition/any repair/all reason".-Etymology and history:The Oxford English Dictionary lists Yank, the Army Weekly magazine as its earliest citation: "The FUBAR Squadron.....
- Tarfu
- List of government and military acronyms
- Private SnafuPrivate SnafuPrivate Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional cartoon shorts produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The character was created by director Frank Capra, chairman of the U.S. Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit, and most were written by...
External links
- Acronym Finder's SNAFU entry
- How the term SNAFU originated
- SNAFU Principle
- Internet Archive: Private SNAFU - The Home Front (1943) - This is one of 26 Private SNAFU cartoons made by the US Army Signal Corps to educate and boost the morale of the troops.
- The SNAFU Special - Official website of the C-47 #43-15073
- Episode 101 (MP3 6M) of Command Performance from 15 Jan 1944 includes a song about SNAFU by the Spike JonesSpike JonesMel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...
band.