# "Like a Continental soldier" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2003, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097 "2003-10-23T12:53:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/21 "2003-10-23T18:46:29Z")
Um, testicles _are_ balls–literally. So I don’t imagine that such an accurately descriptive word would be a modern invention. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/22 "2003-10-23T18:54:44Z")
I always heard it as “Like a sailor going home” Which we assumed was the duffel bag thrown over your shoulder when your going home… It makes the most sense to me ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/23 "2003-10-23T21:06:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LordVor \* > \*\*Was “balls” even a slang term for testicles when the song was written? > > -lv \*\* I believe balls (or “ballocks”) was used by Elizabethan playwrights, like Shakespeare & Marlow, who wrote about 100-150 years before this song. So I’d think it certainly would have been a slang term by then. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/24 "2003-10-23T21:13:23Z")
My guess would be that the line “Like a Continental [or Regimental] soldier” resulted from an attempt to come up with something that rhymed and scanned with “Can you throw them over your shoulder,” and not from any actual military customs or practices. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/25 "2003-10-23T21:30:53Z")
There was an underware commercial that showed boxers and briefs hanging on the line while in the background, you heard, “Dooo yoouuur _boys_ hang low? Do they wobble too and fro? . . .” I had a clip of the commercial, but I can’t seem to find it. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/26 "2003-10-23T22:02:11Z")
I always thought it was a bowdlerization of the original `lousy fucking soldier’. No, it is not a kid’s song. I figure it was sung by the troops when they were route-marching. ---
**Author:** ![whatwould\_JC\_do](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e0b2c6/32.png) [@whatwould\_JC\_do](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatwould_JC_do)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/27 "2012-07-29T00:41:43Z")
As a kid hearing this song the words “like a dead soldier” were used instead of “like a continental soldier”. This makes more sense as a dead soldier was often thrown over the shoulder to carry him. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/28 "2012-07-29T01:00:13Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Do you have a cite that “balls” was the _original_ lyric? While “balls” fits in well with the other lyrics, the idea of throwing them over one’s shoulder like a Continental soldier is nonsensical. That’s why it is funny, it is a humorous exaggeration. > [@](#): > > Unlike the depictions of long hair, which could have been thrown over the soldier’s shoulder, I have seen no evidence that these soldiers or any other Colonial were in the habit of slinging their testicles over their shoulders. This leads me to presume that “hair” was the original lyric, and “balls” was substituted later. So that’s where Willow Smith ripped her song off from: “I whip my hair back and forth, (like Continental soldier.)” ---
**Author:** ![tesseract](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@tesseract](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tesseract)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/29 "2012-07-29T05:11:15Z")
> [@curly\_chick](#): > > Am I the only person who has heard _Regimental_, rather than **Continental** as the type of soldier with extendable whatever-they-ares? We sang it as “Yankee Doodle Soldier.” As far as throwing them over your shoulder, doesn’t it make sense that it would be because if you threw something over your shoulder(s) it would look like their [uniform](http://revolutionarywarantiques.com/Continental-Army-Uniforms) in the back, with the white strap going down diagonally across the back from each shoulder? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/30 "2012-07-29T05:45:27Z")
Do zombies have balls? ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/31 "2012-07-29T16:34:02Z")
> [@LordVor](#): > > Was “balls” even a slang term for testicles when the song was written? [Balls as slang for testicles dates to the 14th century.](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=balls) The precise origins of this song are not clear, although it clearly was derived from Turkey in the Straw, a staple of the early 19th century minstrel circuit. It most likely dates to the civil war era, and the boobs/balls variations came later. ---
**Author:** ![listedmia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@listedmia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/listedmia)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/32 "2012-07-30T02:28:45Z")
I always thought “Continental” referred to “The Continent”, Europe as opposed to Britain. The thought of Continental soldiers in the Revolutionary War did not cross my mind. ---
**Author:** ![kleeem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/50afbb/32.png) [@kleeem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kleeem)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/33 "2012-09-21T18:08:02Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > [Balls as slang for testicles dates to the 14th century.](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=balls) > > The precise origins of this song are not clear, although it clearly was derived from Turkey in the Straw, a staple of the early 19th century minstrel circuit. It most likely dates to the civil war era, and the boobs/balls variations came later. According to Online Etymology the term balls was used in 14th century. well before the continental war. so it is quite possible that the original lyrics were about balls, and during the continental war. And, as mentioned before, soldiers (or in fact any man) exaggerating the size of their junk is quite common and endures to today. [Search 'balls' on etymonline](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=balls) ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097/34 "2012-09-21T20:53:06Z")
Well, I first learned “Do your balls hang low?” in the Army (US, that is) in 1945. The second verse, which was very common then was, “Is your cock in line, With the center of your spine, Is it long, is it short, Is it little liee mine? Do your balls hang loooow?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-continental-soldier/209097.md?page=1)