I am reading a novel about North African prisoners of war and in it the writer uses the acronym "Ite" to represent a certain AXIS group of Soldiers. The best I can make out is that its the Acronym for Italian. Does anyone know if my assumption is correct. I can't find the answer anywhere on the Internet.
4
-
I think you mean “abbreviation”. If “Ite” (not “ITE”) is used for “Italian”, that is almost certainly the case, but we’d need to see an example to be sure.– StephenSOct 21, 2020 at 15:25
-
1Oxford English Dictionary: One notable feature of the vocabulary of the First World War is the number of (often offensive) terms coined for soldiers of different nationalities. One of these is Eyetie (spelled in various ways, including Iti and Eyety) meaning ‘Italian’.– FumbleFingersOct 21, 2020 at 15:56
-
1Very common in my youth, pronounced 'eye-tie'.– Michael HarveyOct 21, 2020 at 16:55
-
I did mean abbreviation and NOT an acronym. So my understanding was correct in that it means an Italian, a slang way of describing a race would make sense as well in this case as the protagonist of this story, the Allied prisoner, refers to the German officers as Jerries and the locals as Wogs. Thank you for the input!– David HelstenOct 22, 2020 at 18:51
Add a comment
|