Tuesday’s column described how the pandemic and other big events in recent history leave their marks on language. Over time, original contexts tend to fade; we forget where they came from, even if we still use them.

War is a common originator of slang, because slang can make describing horrific experiences less difficult. Some of the stories behind these war words and phrases got a bit stretched in development. Others may be true but bear less resemblance to their meanings and uses today.

Taken from the dictionary, military history sites, and language historian L. C. Douglas, here are a few examples:

Die hard: Bruce Willis might attest to its modern meaning — having an almost fanatical passion and motivation for something. Reaching back to the Napoleonic era, it was meant quite literally. At the Battle of Albuerra a British officer urged on his men with the cry, “Die hard, 57th, die hard!” Three-quarters of the battalion was lost, and the regiment was nicknamed the Die Hards.

Cooties: World War I was brutal for soldiers in very personal ways. Spending weeks in trenches meant filthy and unhygienic conditions, so lice was common. Those with an infestation had “the cooties.” Now, cooties is a children’s term for germs in general.

Basket case: A WWI rumor claimed soldiers who became quadruple amputees were carried off the battlefield in wicker linen baskets — perhaps because a stretcher might not be secure enough. The Surgeon General in 1919 disclaimed the story, but the term stuck (and was soon considered offensive). Over time it evolved to mean someone helpless or incapable of functioning normally, finally denoting one so overwhelmed by stress and anxiety as to be crazy.

Other slang from the Great War includes over the top (rising out of the trenches to fight), being in No Man’s Land (venturing out in the dangerous open), funk (depression), and pipsqueak (small caliber shell).

Zero hour: Ironically, this term did a 180. Today, the zero hour is the moment something momentous begins. In 1945 the Germans called the time at the close of WWII “nullpunkt” or zero point — zero hour. A time of nothing, when they saw their society as completely obliterated. I suppose in a way that’s a tabula rasa, but they didn’t see it so hopefully.

Bail out: WWII pilots (as today) were trained to bail out of a plane with a parachute to escape fire or a crash. Today, a bailout is an alternative or a rescue, especially in the financial sense.

For now I’ll just bail out of this column. Geronimo!

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who really did bail out of a plane once. It was a real gas.