'Have a Caaaaaare!!!'

[Mark Griffin]

Whats the first use of this phrase?

By tradition I can go no further back than the 1920's but haven't looked at anything written yet.

[Merlon.]

OED states:-

[Mark Griffin]

Thanks for that. What i meant was (sorry for not being clearer) was in ref to a warning before weapons are fired.

[acecat999]

Why.

are the MOD telling snipers to shout it now

[Mark Griffin]

Because I'm interested in knowing? Call it idle curiosity prompted by my full time work in historical reconstruction and the wish to understand how and why re-enactors do and say things whilst saying it's empirical fact.

[Sasha]

I've never thought it to be anything other than a reenactorism designed to make other people aware you're about to fire a piece of ordnance. Translated into Mummerset because 'Fire in the Hole!' would be difficult to explain outside the late C20.

Nobody told me this, incidentally, it just seemed the only logical explanation. We have to to do stuff that people on real battlefields didn't because they were really trying to hurt someone.

[Mark Griffin]

Thanks for that Sasha. So that's now to the mid 1970's catered for...

[ceejy]

It has been used in the mock gunning session on board the Golden Hinde for as long as I can remember Griff, accompanied by getting people to put their fingers in their ears and open their mouths to mitigate the damage to ears caused by the sound waves. Whoever devised the program in the mists of time put it in, so that brings you up to Elizabethan - its followed by "Give Fire!"

Best

Clive (Greenwood)

[Simon Atford]

It has been used in the mock gunning session on board the Golden Hinde for as long as I can remember Griff, accompanied by getting people to put their fingers in their ears and open their mouths to mitigate the damage to ears caused by the sound waves. Whoever devised the program in the mists of time put it in, so that brings you up to Elizabethan - its followed by "Give Fire!"

Best

Clive (Greenwood)

We always tell people to cover their ears rather place their fingers inside in case the shock causes them to stab themselves in the brain or something.

[Mark P.]

Fortification and Military Discipline 1688
Exercise of the Fire Lock
The Soldiers are to have a care to make no motion until the word of command be given and ended; for that the handling of Arms and the motion must be done at the same time.
Musqueteers have a care to the Exercise; ......blah blah, 37 motions later etc....

[Mark Griffin]

yes, but that's nothing to do with a warning about they are about to fire anything. Its just a note to do the drill properly.

[Sasha]

Apologies for the monster link but here is it being used in the sense of 'attention'. Still not directly an artillery warning though.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wEl ... ds&f=false

[Mark Griffin]

Thanks for that. I'm pretty confident that I can file it in the massive drawer marked 'reenactorism'....