Where did "Jeesh" come from?

Discuss all things pertaining to the EnderVerse milieu.
ImperialSelf%HotSoup
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Oct 14, 2006 10:34 pm

Where did "Jeesh" come from?

Postby ImperialSelf%HotSoup » Sat Oct 14, 2006 11:18 pm

I absolutely love these books, but where did the random slang come from in the Shadow series? We never saw that in Ender's Game or Shadow, but in the later Shadow books, "jeesh" is there along with words like "kuso"(I like that one, though), "oomay", "eemo" and others.

So I guess my question is, why did Orson Scott Card feel the need to add in this slang out of nowhere?
"Real respect takes longer than official respect."-Valentine

Arlecchino
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:26 pm

Postby Arlecchino » Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:14 am

Haha, we had a three page topic on this subject before the forumes changed ofcourse.

I think it was just OSC's way of making it seem more realistic. In my school now we have are own slang and I tend to take it home with me so I would assume a group of highly intelligent kids who lived in school for years would make there own way of speaking and bring it home aswell.

Why didnt we see any of it in the first books? Well I like to rule that on Ender and Bean both being 'to good' for slang while at battle school. Though in Ender's Shadow Bean has pointed out there was a slang and used it in order to 'be cool':P

This answer your question? Or make you more confused? Haha sorry.


By the way... I like Kuso too, I use Kuso all the time but my friends havent read the Ender books so I look like a crazy man.

ImperialSelf%HotSoup
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Oct 14, 2006 10:34 pm

Postby ImperialSelf%HotSoup » Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:51 am

Eh...I'll figure it out.

I play Animal Crossing, and a few of my animals call me by slang names. One uses oomay, and another uses Falante(I know, not slang, but Portuguese). I think another calls me a careerist. (Ten points if you remember the scene.)
"Real respect takes longer than official respect."-Valentine

Hegemon
Former Speaker
Former Speaker
Posts: 643
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 8:54 pm

Postby Hegemon » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:24 am

Sounds like someone Peter said in a scene over dinner with his parents and Bean.

ImperialSelf%HotSoup
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Oct 14, 2006 10:34 pm

Postby ImperialSelf%HotSoup » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:26 am

It has to do with Bean and Suri.
"Real respect takes longer than official respect."-Valentine

Jayelle
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Posts: 4027
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:32 pm
Title: Queen Ducky
First Joined: 25 Feb 2002
Location: The Far East (of Canada)

Postby Jayelle » Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:08 pm

I think it was just OSC's way of making it seem more realistic.
If by "realistic" you mean "crappy", I'll agree with you.
One Duck to rule them all.
--------------------------------
It needs to be about 20% cooler.

eriador
KillEvilBanned
Posts: 2512
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:02 pm
Location: North Plains, OR (read Portland)

Postby eriador » Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:22 pm

I remember something about it coming from Brazilian Portugese....

but I have no idea where that came from and I'm probably wrong.

Lady_of_Path
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:37 am
Location: Greensboro, NC (and lovin' it)

Postby Lady_of_Path » Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:01 am

Some of the slang I believe is Dutch. If I remember that's where Bean came from. The "oomay" and such seem Dutch to me anyway. *shrugs*

Dragonteen
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:21 pm

Postby Dragonteen » Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:37 pm

well my jr. high had a similar relationship between 7th and 8th graders as between soldiers and launchies. the were "little seveys". I believe it says in either Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow that the slang is Brazilian.

User avatar
wigginboy
Soldier
Soldier
Posts: 277
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:38 am
First Joined: 0- 2-2004
Location: Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Postby wigginboy » Sun Nov 19, 2006 3:01 am

It mentions in ES that much of the slang was Portuguese, but as I recall, in the subsequent books, words were revealed to be from a myriad of nations, just as the children were. If there are young children from across the world gathered in a small space and made to interact with eachother, there is bound to be mingling of languages. Kids are sponges for language and everything new and cool sounding becomes part of the speech. I remember in school when tthe word 'awesome' was so cool. Lame, I know, but it was anew word and we loved it. Even today, kids speak internet lingo like its their first language. I cant count how many people I hear say things like 'OMG' or 'LOL' or the biggest one 'BRB', in public. As well, specialized groups, like cliques at school (clique being used from a sociological standpoint described as a small exclusive group of close friends with similar interests) or service clubs like Cadets in canada and Scouts in the states have their own language. When I was on an Air Cadet course a few years ago, there were six week course cadets and two week course cadets. So we on the six week course called the two weeks tweekies. That or CLITS, because they were the Cold Lake Intro to Survival. Wherever you have people speaking, there is going to be specialization of speech. Battle school would be no different. As for it not being in the first books, well, Ender's Game was written in 1985 and OSC probably didnt realize he would be writing ES because it didnt happen for another fifteen years afterward. As well, there was no need for BS slang in the next three books, even if Ender did use it because he wanted to leave BS behind anyway, and it was (for him) thirty years into the furure. In the Shadow series, all the people use the slang because to them, it has only been a few years since the war, and they are still used to it. I have been out of cadets for almost a year now, and I still call people in band 'bandylanders.' Language is something you dont easily give up once its there.

puppets
Soldier
Soldier
Posts: 190
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 10:33 pm
Location: cumberland, md

Postby puppets » Fri Nov 24, 2006 1:33 pm

Was it Ender's Game where they said it was Portugese, but after so many years of mixing the kids in battle school, it changed slightly? I don't remember, but one of the books, could swear Ender's Game, mentioned it.
"I knew you were searching for him. I didn't want to interfere until you found him. Just in case you think you were really smart, young man, we intercepted four street thugs and two known sex offenders who were after you."

Sister Carlotta

fawkes
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 915
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2006 3:53 pm
Title: punk
Location: Denver, Colorado
Contact:

Postby fawkes » Fri Nov 24, 2006 6:05 pm

Well, I know "kuso" is Japanese, so I would assume those words came from the kids from all over the world that were sent to battle school, as sort of a melting pot of slang.
Step one, take off your shirt. Step two ... Step three, PROFIT!

TacticalCity
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:45 pm

Slang in Isolated Groups

Postby TacticalCity » Tue Jan 16, 2007 5:16 pm

Jesh is an Arabic term for Soldier. Jeesh refers to multiple soldiers, or an Army. The battle school culture is a mixture of students from all over the planet. Many of their host nations retain their language. From other related stories, we know that battle school is several generations old. So at one time, a large number of the students may have been Arabic, or Japanese, or Portuguese. So it would only be natural for their slang to creep in.

Being of Italian decent I use a lot of "dirty words" from my ancestrial homeland. My friends use them as a result of hearing me say them. Almost none of them are Italian.

Likewise, growing up in California I've used Spanish slang and swear words my entire life. My hispanic friends found it amusing to see a little kid swear in their language, and since most adults in my life didn't speak Spanish I could swear and not get spanked. This made learning a foreign slang all that more appealing. Of course, my generation knows which words are dirty so our kids are out of luck.

Not all the terms have to be "dirty" for the group to pick them up, however. Nor do they need to be real words at all. Some could be entirely made up, and have no coloration to other languages. The military does this a lot. Many of these terms continue to be used, even when the back story behind them is long sense lost. Some are words that have entirely different meanings when used in a different context. They are understood only by the context in which they used.

Having served in the military, I can tell you they cling to slang that makes no sense to outsiders. Some of my favorite from my time in the military were...

TERM / TRANSLATION
Whisky Tango Foxtrot? – What the “BLANK”? (My favorite).
Hero – Idiot
Sunshine – (Same as above).
Slick – (Same as above).
Make a Hole – Move out of the way.
Pull Chalks – Hurry up, we need to leave right away.
Roger That – I agree with you, or I understand and will comply.
Back in the Nam – Used to let people know you’re about to tell a tall tale.
Stand Easy! – Shut Up!
Tango – Bad guy, or when partying a cute girl.

The enemy often gets a disparaging nick name. Many people consider them to be curse words. Notice I am not listing the name American GI’s gave to the Vietnamese. This is because that term is actually considered a swear word. Same with term given to the Japanese.

TERM/ TRANSLATION
Jerry – Germans
Skinny – Somalis (very rude since it refers to the fact that they are starving).
Hajji – Iraqis

Many terms have made it into common slang amongst those who never served in military. Most of which are ways of swearing without actually swearing. Example …

FUBAR –

SuriyawongsARMY
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:34 pm

Postby SuriyawongsARMY » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:00 pm

I think its just a cool group name they came up with so they would have a name for the "team" that killed the buggers.
It's hard to win when your oppenent holds all the cards, I didn't think my face was readble.

irnstad
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:25 pm
Location: Maryland

Postby irnstad » Tue Mar 13, 2007 5:41 am

He says the meaning of jeesh in the book Empire, and where it comes from.
The David method of eliminating guilt is simple. All of your problems are caused by invisible people named Juan and Cindy. All you have to do is find them and kill them.

SaintDrogo
Soldier
Soldier
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 1:01 pm
Location: North Carolina (no, really!)

Postby SaintDrogo » Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:08 am

When I read it I was never so much concerned with where the word came from and all as much as "when did THAT start?" It seemed like all of a sudden Ender's closest friends from Battle School were defining their allegiance to him and that one binding fact with a word that Ender himself never used. Maybe he would've liked to have known about the cool word for his team.

Damascene
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:23 pm
Location: Alberta Canada

"jeesh"

Postby Damascene » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:31 pm

This term shows up in Empire as well...is it a real Military term? :?:

Jayelle
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Posts: 4027
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:32 pm
Title: Queen Ducky
First Joined: 25 Feb 2002
Location: The Far East (of Canada)

Re: "jeesh"

Postby Jayelle » Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:24 am

This term shows up in Empire as well...is it a real Military term? :?:
No, it's not. Google it and the things that come up are EG related.
One Duck to rule them all.
--------------------------------
It needs to be about 20% cooler.

User avatar
mazer
Soldier
Soldier
Posts: 203
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:55 pm
Title: Rackham
Location: In a box... somewhere...
Contact:

Postby mazer » Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:01 pm

I rember in one interview OSC said he wrote the script for some game and used some of the words from that as battle school

Petra_Arkanian
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:32 pm

Not totally out of nowhere, it seems.

Postby Petra_Arkanian » Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:49 pm

Actually, not all of the slang was "out of nowhere." Most of it, surprisingly, came from japanese words. Having just realized this myself, last night, incidently, I happend across this.
http://www.geocities.com/enderjeesh/slang.html
Hope it helps.

User avatar
wigginboy
Soldier
Soldier
Posts: 277
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:38 am
First Joined: 0- 2-2004
Location: Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Postby wigginboy » Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:32 am

you kids really need to read more Ender books, and that means all of them, like the forewords, afterwords and acknowledgements. Plus read OSC's other books, some of them explain things in others. A lot of the themes are repeated in a lot of his books.

christine
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:23 pm

Postby christine » Sat Aug 09, 2008 1:58 pm

I don't think it's so important where it came from but why it was in there. I also don't think OSC included it to make the story more "realistic". The slang used only by those in battle school, or more importantly Ender's friends, emphasizes how incredibly different these children are from those raised on Earth. And I'm not just talking about their unusually high intelligence, but their experiences together which shape who they become.

User avatar
locke
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Posts: 3046
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:07 pm
Contact:

Postby locke » Sat Aug 09, 2008 7:00 pm

one of the best things pweb used to have on the main site was a complete dictionary of enderverse slang, as provided by OSC. quite a bit of it never made it into Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow, though a lot of the unused slang was used in OSC's circa 2002 screenplay drafts.

http://web.archive.org/web/200009010713 ... chool.html

ETA: the slang was also used in Advent Rising.
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

User avatar
shadow_8818
Soldier
Soldier
Posts: 80
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2008 5:31 pm
Location: Earth

Postby shadow_8818 » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:28 pm

sweet site what happened
Daniel- you know speaking in the third person has proven that your crazy.
Rodney- crazy like a fox

musegirl
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:06 am
Contact:

Arabic!

Postby musegirl » Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:12 am

The word "jeesh" is Arabic for "army," I believe.
<span><span>[[Image:Sig.PNG]]<span>[[User:Vampiregirl|<span>&nbsp;</span>]]</span></span></span>

User avatar
starlooker
Commander
Commander
Posts: 3823
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2006 4:19 pm
Title: Dr. Mom
First Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Location: Home. With cats who have names.

Postby starlooker » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:16 am

sweet site what happened
Big giant crazy major crash in 2006.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

Kriegsspiel
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:31 am

Postby Kriegsspiel » Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:47 am

A couple people have said it, jeesh comes from the arabic word جيش, meaning "army."

Achilles de Flandres
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:12 pm

Re: Where did "Jeesh" come from?

Postby Achilles de Flandres » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:16 pm

I absolutely love these books, but where did the random slang come from in the Shadow series? We never saw that in Ender's Game or Shadow, but in the later Shadow books, "jeesh" is there along with words like "kuso"(I like that one, though), "oomay", "eemo" and others.

So I guess my question is, why did Orson Scott Card feel the need to add in this slang out of nowhere?
The word "Jeesh" is the Arabic translation of the English word Army. Speculation of course, but it may have come from Ender's relationship with Alai who is Muslim. This word is also used quite frequently in OSC's Empire book. If you havent read it, read it. This is the book that turned me onto Military Science Fiction.
AH-SHEEL

User avatar
Jeesh_girl15
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 851
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:23 pm
Title: Procrastination Fairy
Location: Wherever I wanna be

Postby Jeesh_girl15 » Fri May 01, 2009 4:34 pm

Some of the slang I believe is Dutch. If I remember that's where Bean came from. The "oomay" and such seem Dutch to me anyway. *shrugs*
Am I the only one who noticed this? By the way, not to be rude or anything, but Bean is an African Greek boy. His mother's mother was an Ibo diplomat i believe. Seriously, not trying to be rude.
You musn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

User avatar
Eskarina
Soldier
Soldier
Posts: 92
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:50 pm

Postby Eskarina » Sat May 02, 2009 2:04 pm

However, if we want to get technical, Lady_of_Path said 'came' from, and it's true, Bean really came to Battle School from Netherlands, regardless of his origins otherwise.

User avatar
Jebus
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 1300
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:53 pm
Title: Lord and Saviour
First Joined: 07 Nov 2001

Postby Jebus » Sun May 03, 2009 7:33 pm

Some of the slang I believe is Dutch. If I remember that's where Bean came from. The "oomay" and such seem Dutch to me anyway. *shrugs*
Am I the only one who noticed this? By the way, not to be rude or anything, but Bean is an African Greek boy. His mother's mother was an Ibo diplomat i believe. Seriously, not trying to be rude.
That was seriously rude, Jeesh_girl15. Who do you think you are, correcting someone like that? And as if that wasn't bad enough, you got it wrong too. You owe L_o_P an apology.

User avatar
Jeesh_girl15
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 851
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:23 pm
Title: Procrastination Fairy
Location: Wherever I wanna be

Postby Jeesh_girl15 » Sat May 09, 2009 3:20 pm

I wasn't trying to be rude! Seriously! It kinda just slipped out, and I really am sorry.

I'm known for my obstinate rudeness.
You musn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

BennoBlue
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:01 pm

Postby BennoBlue » Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:20 am

Great thread -- thanks for the info & links posted about the meanings of the various slang words!

One thing I can contribute in return -- For those who were asking about why OSC had the Battle School kids using slang, I recommend to you his story "The Originist" in his short story collection _Flux_ (paperback) or _Maps_In_A_Mirror_ (hardback containing the contents of _Flux_ as well as additional work). Though it's not an Ender / Battle School story, it makes points about the use of language that suggest answers for Battle School as well. (And is just a really good story in its own right!)

JeffersonSteelflex
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 8:43 am

Postby JeffersonSteelflex » Wed Sep 09, 2009 8:54 am

I see alot of people seem to agree that "jeesh" is derived from arabic. From what I learned from comedian Yakov Smirnov, it's a take on the russian word "geez" which is the US equivalent of an element or ecelon. If you don't know what those are, it's just like saying army, but refers to smaller group, similar to a battalion. So scale it down. Army begets regiment begets platoon and so forth. A jeesh would be when you see a smaller force lined up at attention standing in their respective ecelons. It wouldn't be the entire 3rd Armor Division, but rather, each individual groups that form the division. The basic building block if you will. Not a soldier, but not an army. The bottom of the pyramid would be the jeesh.

Norway
Launchie
Launchie
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:56 pm

EG

Postby Norway » Wed Nov 25, 2009 6:16 pm

Ah but they do mention it in EG, even though it may be something brief that is easily overlooked.
First visit to the Games Room ring any bells?
Ender uses the slang then.
Another reason why it probably is in Shadow but not in the Ender Saga is that Ender never really had any friends - Graff made sure he was always in some form of isolation. So why would he use it? He wasn't really part of the whole battle school. He was Ender Wiggin - above them in their eyes.

I was really quite surprised in Hegemon when all this slang appeared.
It really needed to introduced earlier so that it could be understood.
Half the time I couldn't understand what was being said.
I mean I got Jeesh, because they explained.
Share this dragon.
If you do,
lucky end for
them and you.


Return to “EnderVerse Novels and Stories”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests