One of the most stranger moments in a affirmation listening to on Tuesday for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick out to guide the Pentagon, was once when a senator requested the previous Fox Information host to outline the phrase “jagoff.”
The query from Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and the rating member of the Senate Armed Services and products Committee, was once brought about by way of a remark that Mr. Hegseth made to his army platoon, as he wrote in his 2024 e-book, “The Struggle on Warriors.” He made the remark all the way through his Iraq deployment in 2005 after listening to a presentation by way of a JAG officer, or a member of the U.S. Military Pass judgement on Suggest Normal’s Corps, who protect Military squaddies in felony issues.
After he and his crew have been briefed by way of the JAG officer on the correct protocols for firing on an enemy with a rocket-propelled grenade, Mr. Hegseth disparaged some of the regulations of engagement, pronouncing it was once “going to get other people killed,” he recalled in his e-book.
Throughout the listening to on Tuesday, Mr. Hegseth, to start with, declined to outline the slang time period with a slight smile. “I don’t want to, sir,” he mentioned. “The women and men observing perceive.”
When pressed, Mr. Hegseth in the long run mentioned “it might be a JAG officer who places his or her personal priorities in entrance of the conflict opponents, their promotions, their medals, in entrance of getting the backs of the ones making the harsh calls at the entrance traces.”
Mr. Reed implied that Mr. Hegseth was once being disrespectful when calling JAG officials the slang time period. “How can you have the ability to successfully lead an army wherein some of the idea components is self-discipline, recognize for lawful authority?” Mr. Reed requested.
The phrase “jagoff” — rooted in an unmistakably sexual definition, a blurring of a extra lurid time period — has expanded to turn into a catch-all insult for any individual who’s anxious or in a different way detrimental. However the which means has regional contexts, too. In western Pennsylvania, it may be used to push aside any individual for his or her frustrating habits — or to include them with a sarcastic however affectionate praise.
In Chicago — and in other places — it’s continuously used as a gentle insult.
“Hi there, jagoff! You simply blew via a forestall signal,” the writer Edward McClelland recalled of a 2019 incident at an intersection within the Windy Town. He subtitled his tale with a tongue-in-cheek boast: “Pittsburgh can have invented the time period, however Chicago perfected it.”
