why "pillbox"?

A very interesting question. I think it's because its form (when round) resembles a pillbox for medical pills.

Thanks for your input, geoyo!

geoyo I think it's because its form (when round) resembles a pillbox for medical pills.

Interesting....
My first thought was it could be an allusion to the "deathly pills" flying out of the loophole...

Just have a look at these two images:

Edit: Sorry, I cannot post the image links, it does not seem to work in this forum

grease gun (an inexpensively-made, American .45 caliber submachine gun, which looks vaguely like an automotive "grease gun")

Tommy gun (an American .45 caliber submachine gun; "Tommy" is an abbreviation of "Thompson," the company that manufactured it)

Ma deuce (an American .50 cal. heavy machine gun)

concertina wire (barbed wire; the name apparently comes from the carrie

That is so interesting, thank you

Hi

Great post by anon

Army meat rations could also be Bully Beef, which is apparently from the French 'Boeuf Boulli' I find it difficult to believe that your average soldier knew that, but apparently so

Dave

It's not unusual for soldiers to pick up local words, some of which become a permanent part of the language, like khaki and flak.

Very interesting list indeed! Tank you so much, Anon!

Anonymouspineapple (American hand grenade, because it looks like the fruit)

Curiously, my fellow countrymen call this kind of hand grenade "lemon".
Why? My guess is that at the time this jargon word started becoming common in Russian very few Russians soldiers (most of whom were just recruit

Hi

I've since found that World War One soldiers would have known the song 'Boiled Beef and Carrots!' And that may be why they recognised the French phrase

As you may know, this kind of thing gets discussed in England at the moment, because of the anniversary of the start of that war

Dave