What does “du me mi” mean? I found a set of decals for Cobra helicopters from Vietnam and one of them has the words “#1 Du Me Mi” as the noseart… I’ve tried to research the translation on my own but have had no luck. If anyone knows what this means in English please like to know.
Thanks!
Sorry, I could hardly get through high school English and never understood very much Vietnamese while I was there. I’ll ask one of our pilots next week, “Te Te” flys one of our S-76’s and he has been in our area lately. I came in with him last Tues.
It’s a sexually oriented threat aimed at the intended target.
CS
Enought said! Maybe I better not ask “Te Te”. Might upset him! Hate to get on his bad side!
I’ve been through this translation fiasco before. The problem is that it isn’t Vietnamese, but rather bastardized French. many Vietnamese didn’t make the distinction between US and French forces and a lot of old phrases from the colonial days carried over because we were just another bunch of tall white people to them.
“du me mi” is roughly translated to mean “Your Momma,” from the words “de maman,” pronounced “doo ma ma.” In the war slang vernacular, it was an insult.
“Te te,” pronounced “tee tee,” means the same as its French parent word, “Petite.”
“bookoo,” means the same in French, “Beaucoup,” which is big or a lot.
It’s all downhill from there …
Works for me… thanks!
Actually, being half Vietnamese myself and fluent in the language, the correct translation is “F” your mother. Can also be translated as mother-F-er as well. Du (f*ck), which depending on the dialect is often pronounced as Di(pronounced dee, which also means whore). As a kid, I usually saw it spelled as Du Ma Mai. I’d ask my mom the correct spelling but she’d probably smack the taste out of my mouth, inspite of my being 28 years of age.
Akira,
Thanks for the insight! I’ve got the original artwork of that bird from Lou Drendel’s 1974 “Gunslingers” book and I profiled it myself in my 2003 book on the Cobra. Always wondered what it meant. Now I can chuckle to myself every time my fiancee says how good the painting looks hanging in our apartment!
Jon
That was the first book I ever bought from Squadron after I came of active duty back in the good ole day’s
that’s great. very interesting…funny too considering the amount of hate that had to exist between foes…F your mother and here comes another few pairs of rocks…
#1 F your mother? I would think it made more sense if ya said #1 Mo. Fo., but I heard it meant crazy a_s. Nevermind, that was dinky dao, I think.
“dinky dao” means crazy. #1 was, of course, the best. Du me mi has been covered here. I do need to build that bird… just need to find a suitable 20mm cannon in 48th scale!
Jon