The military, especially originating with the American, British and Commonwealth armed forces, is an always fresh fount of slang and jargon.

This was particularly true during the world wars, as seen in this colorful gem from the First World War: “napoo.”

It is a purposeful, goofy mishandling of the French phrase, “il n’y en a plus” (or “il n’y a plus”), meaning, “there is no more,” and, as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) reminds us, found such rough linguistic treatment at the hands of British Tommies in the hellish battlefields of 1914-1918.

As an interjection, it means “finished!” or “done for!;” as an adjective, it can mean, somewhat more rarely, “good for nothing,” but also “finished.”

In this sense, it reflects an older word borrowed from the Egyptian interjection, and bit of descriptive slang (and thus originally Arabic), “mafí-š,” transliterated into English as “mafeesh,” and also meaning “done for,” as well as “nothing.”

That roguish rapscallion of a British explorer, Richard Burton (1821–1890), was the first to use this word in written English, in his Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah (sic), published in 1855, which described his serendipitous visit to the two most holy sites in Islam in 1853, incognito.

The line in question is, “When a little boy, presuming that the occasion might possibly open the hand of generosity, looked in my face and exclaimed ‘Bakhshish’, he obtained in reply ‘Mafish’; which convinced the bystanders that the sheep-skin contained a real sheep” (sic).

Interestingly, one “can napoo,” as it were, “to destroy” or “finish off.”

I hope that wasn’t maneesh on napoo, so to speak. Although these Daily posts are nearly at an end, if you have any word ideas or questions, I’d love to hear from you; please send me a note at features@dailyuw.com.