Alleyman
English
Etymology
French Allemand (“a German”), with alteration after alley, man.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈa.li.mən/, /ˈa.li.man/
Noun
Alleyman (plural Alleymans or Alleymen)
- (military slang, now historical) A German, especially during the First World War. [from 20th c.]
- a.1918, ‘I Want to Go Home’ (song):
- Take me over the sea, where the Alleyman can't get at me. Oh my, I don't want to die, I want to go home.
- 1941, Blackwood's Magazine, vol. 250, p. 220:
- In the trenches the men of both races shared their cigarettes and rum rations, and exchanged the most impossible yarns of what they had done, or would do, to the 'Alleyman!'
- 1954, Henry Williamson, How Dear is Life, page 239:
- "Why don't the naval guns fire back?"
- "They only fire when the Alleyman attacks, mate."
- a.1918, ‘I Want to Go Home’ (song):