Has anyone ever heard of a snafu or snafoo? I heard this word/acronymn used and I have no clue what it is. I’ve asked other people and they have heard it used too but don’t know what it is or what it refers to.
army term. SNAFU = “Situation Normal - All Fouled Up.”
I don’t know the exact origin though.
“Situation Normal - All F***ed Up”.
For the “***” above, you could substitute “uck” as you might expect, or “oul” in polite company.
Arnold is right, except that he’s cited the G-rated version. The original didn’t use “fouled”.
Geez. That was quick. Thanks!
A related term is FUBAR – Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition. There are a few others but I can’t recall them at the moment.
A word I’ve always liked is a Polynesian (Maori) term: “pakaru” (pronounced “puckaroo”), meaning “broken”, as in “She’s pakaru for sure!”
“I used to think the brain was the most important organ in the body, until I realized who was telling me that.”
Emo Phillips
…there’s no prize…?
FIGMO
“F**K it! I got my orders!”
BOHICA
“Bend over. Here it comes again!”
“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry
Are you a turtle?
SNAFU and FUBAR have another relative, FUJIGMO, “F.U., Jack, I Got My Orders.” Never made it out of the military.
I thought FUBAR was F’ed Up Beyond All Repair.
Don’t leave out TARFU for "things are really f’d up!
What, no one has yet mentioned Private Snafu, the animated military man who taught soldiers how NOT to do things during World War II? Some legendary animation figures worked on the Private Snafu shorts, which were recently collected and rereleased by, as I recall, Bosko Video.
In one short, Snafu, an Army man, mentions his brothers in the other branches, Tarfu in the Navy and Fubar in the Marines.
WAFWOT - What a f***ing waste of time. (The “G” version uses fantastic)
When I was in the “Pearl of the Orient” (Vietnam). We wore GIRB clothes, ate GIRB food and indeed were GIRBS.
GI Rat Bastards that is.
There was a team in our industrial softball team called WOGAF. It’s a (sorta) acronym for who-gives-a-f. The team’s main concern was a steady supply of cold beer.
AskNott
"Measure twice, cut once. Dang! Measure again, cut again.
And I’d always heard that it was “…beyond all recall”. Regional differences, I guess.
I once had a college professor write “FUBAB” across on of my papers, which he later explained to me meant “…beyond all belief”.
Not to mention JANFU – Joint Army-Navy F** Up.
Kilroy was here.
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.
While we are on the subject of interesting abbreviations, here are a couple more common in my trade (emergency medicine):
GAFMO - get a f***ing move on
FITH syndrome - f***ed in the head
PFO - pissed and fell over
CRAFT disease - can’t remember a f***ing thing
LOPS - lonely old person syndrome
There are couple more bbut I can’t recall them right now.
Knock softly but firmly, 'cause I like soft firm knockers…
What about CRS disease? ‘Can’t Remember Shit’.
Some days you’re the dog, some days you’re the hydrant.
The only one I remember from my Navy days that y’all haven’t covered is TAFFAARD.
Take A Flying F**k At A Rolling Doughnut
-David