Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 August 5

= August 5 =

Thank you for your service
Where did it come from?

I ask as an Australian, because my perception is that it began in the USA, and is now being used in Australia in place of more traditional ways of showing respect to military and ex-military people. I find the usage here a bit sad. To me it makes the expression little more just a platitude that one says automatically upon seeing someone in uniform, or a photo of one from the past.

Is the origin known? HiLo48 (talk) 05:23, 5 August 2023 (UTC)


 * I wouldn't expect a "known origin" for a rather mundane acknowledgement. I've never heard this expression in the UK. Shantavira|feed me 10:57, 5 August 2023 (UTC)
 * It was and is a common expression also used to thank a servant or civil officer, like here a member of the US House of Representatives thanking the Postmaster General in 1993, or here in an English historical novel from 1821, where Queen Elizabeth thanks a young gentleman for spreading his cloak for the Queen to walk upon. An early (but most likely by no means the earliest) use in writing for thanking a military officer is seen here in an English play first published in 1647 but produced much earlier, where the Duke of Muscovia thanks the eponym, the General of the Muscovites. So the expression did not originate in the US and does not necessarily have a military connotation. A military US use from 1982 is seen here, where a member of the US House of Representatives thanks two WWI veterans. It may be true that the thoughtless obligatory use first took off in the US, what with the need of politicians to cultivate a patriotic public image, similar to the now obligatory display of US Flag lapel pins. This would be hard to document though; how does one distinguish a heartfelt display of gratitude from an acted "thank you"?  --Lambiam 16:39, 5 August 2023 (UTC)


 * A quick Google shows that this is a widely used phrase to service personel and veterans in the US, sometimes viewed as a platitude; this 2017 article dates its first use to about 20 years ago. See also Why Saying ‘Thank You for Your Service’ Makes Some Veterans Feel Awkward. As stated above, it's not a known idiom in the UK, but these things have a way of finding their way here eventually. Alansplodge (talk) 17:01, 5 August 2023 (UTC)