Bun Stranglers: Increase Ya Vocabulary

ague	Any fever, such as malaria, that recurs at regular intervals (from Medieval Latin febris acuta, literally, sharp fever)
ammunitions	Boots (later usage)
beef, beer, and lust	What British civilians thought British soldiers were too full of.
beer, bum, and bacca	Pleasures of the sailor's life, circa 1870, "bacca" being tobacco.
black death	The plague. A virulent contagious bacteria often found in rats. Humans can get the disease from fleas.
black water fever	A type of African malaria that causes anemia and brown or black urine due to the destruction of red blood cells.
blimey	From Gorblimey!, meaning "God blind me"
blue jacket	British sailor
BOR	British Other Ranks, non-officers
brew	Tea
brevet	A temporary higher rank, for example, a captain being a brevet colonel.  It was not unusual for British colonial officers on loan to another regiment to be temporarily classed as a higher rank in that regiment but to paid for the lesser rank of their actual regiment. (Old French, diminutive of brief letter)
brollly	Umbrella, circa 1873

bun strangler	Non-drinker
caravan	Travelers on a journey through hostile regions (Italian caravana, from Persian karwan).
catarrh	An inflammation of the nose and air passages that produces drainage (from Greek katarrhein to flow down).
char	Tea.  (Hindustani char)
charpoy	A bed, frame strung with tapes or light rope (Hindustani carpai)
cinematrograph	Early motion pictures c. 1900. Also known as viagraph or bioscope.
chee-chee	Half-caste, mixed race of British and Indian. Also the sing-song accent of same, from the early influence of Welsh missionaries.
cheroot	Cigar (from Tamil, curuttu, roll. [About 1679])
cholera belt	A body wrapping of flannel worn to supposedly prevent cholera. Used in India until about 1920.
chota peg	Small drink, a gin and tonic
chota wallah	Little guy
class regiment	Indian Army regiment whose members were all recruited from one ethnic group such as Sikhs, Gurkhas, etc.
clobber	Uniform, clothing
college	Prison (as in, "I've been to college.")
consumption	Pulmonary tuberculosis or any other wasting-away disease that "consumed" its victims.

croaker	A dying person, a corpse, or someone who has given up.
cushy	Easy (Hindi khush pleasant, from Persian khush [1915]
daisy-roots	Boots
dekko	To take a look (Hindi, deckna, to look)
dhobi  wallah	Indian who did the washing
dhoolie wallah	Indian dhoolie carrier
D. O.	British District Officer
doggo	To lie doggo, to hide. Probably from "dog" [1893]
donkey walloper	Infantry disparaging term for cavalry
dyspepsia	Indigestion (Latin, from Greek, from dys- + pepsis digestion )
enteric fever	Typhoid fever
Fishing Fleet	Unmarried British women sent to India each year by their parents during the cool weather to find  husbands.
fossick	To search for gold or gemstones typically by picking over abandoned workings (Australian and New Zealand)
galloper	Officer used by commanders to carry messages.

Gardner Gun (machine gun)	A one- to five-barreled machine gun used by the British Army from 1880. Operated by turning a crank which loaded and fired each barrel in sequence.
General Services Enlistment Act	One of the causes of the Indian Mutiny. It required Indian troops in British service to to go overseas, if required. Hindus would break caste if they did so.
graft	Work
god wallah	Priest or chaplain
goolie	Testicle, late 19th century (Hindi gooli, a pellet)
grippe	Influenza (from French, seizure)
havelock	Cloth cap cover that hung on the back to  protect the neck from sunlight (named after Sir Henry Havelock)
heliograph	Communication device using mirrors to flash sunlight.
hot or cold	Ways of attacking. By shooting (hot) or by bayonet (cold);
Imperial Yeomanry	British volunteer cavalry force recruited from locals for the Boer war. Little or no training, but they had much enthusiasm.
kip	Bed (Danish kippecheap tavern)
liberty-men	Sailors on shore leave.
loot	Plunder (Hindi lut  [c.1788])

malaria	A disease transmitted by mosquitoes that causes periodic severe attacks of chills and fever, thought at one time to be caused by miasma (Italian [1740], from mala aria, bad air)
matlow	Self-adopted name of British sailors (blue-jackets)[1880](from French matelot, sailor)
Maxim Gun	British - .303 caliber. Recoil-operated machine gun. First used in Matabele war of 1893-94. Bought and copied by almost all nations, although often under other names. The standard MG during the Great War. Named after the British (American-born) inventor, Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim.
miasma	A heavy vapor emanation or atmosphere believed to cause malaria or other diseases common in swampy areas (Greek, defilement, from miainein to pollute [1665])
murrain	A plague that infects domestic animals (from Latin mori, to die)
Mussulman	A Moslem or Muslim (Turkish müslüman, Persian musulman, modification of Arabic muslim)
nappy wallach	Barber
Nordenfelt Gun	Although Nordenfelt produced other types of guns, when used in a colonial setting the term usually refers to a multi-barreled machine gun (2 to 10 barrels) operated by a lever which was moved back and forth. First used in the 1880's.
old sweat	Veteran
on the cot	Changing one's ways
on the peg	Under arrest
paddy	Rice field (Malay padi [1623])

P. and O.	Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company. The main line for British travelers to India and the East
pannier	Donkey load. A large basket or container carried on the back of an animal or on the shoulders of a person (13th century, Latin, panis, bread
piquet	A small guard post with about 12 men or less.
Per mare, per terram	"By land, by sea", motto of the Royal Marines. AKA "Poor Mary on the terrace"
pith helmet	Sun helmet made of cloth-covered cork.
Pom or Pommie	Derisive Australian soldier's term for British officers or British men in general (from pomade - hair dressing)
poodle-faker	A man who spent too much time in the society of women, engaging in such activates as tea parties, balls, etc.
pop-wallah	Non-alcohol drinker, a drinker of soda pop
pukka	Genuine, authentic, first-class (Hindi pakka cooked, ripe, solid, from Sanskrit pakva)
pukka sahib	Excellent fellow (used for Europeans only)
puggaree	Muslin cloth wrapped around a pith helmet ( Hindi pagri turban)
punk	Inferior, as in "played a punk game", "feeling punk" (ill) (1896)

punkah wallah	Indian employed to work a fan, usually by a string attached to their toe or thumb.
pusher	Girl friend
Queen's shilling, the	Bounty paid to a new recruit for joining the army.
R.M.L.I.	Royal Marine Light Infantry
rooky	New recruit
sawney	Scotsman (circa 1700 on)
shako	Stiff, tall military hat (French, from Hungarian csákó)
shrapnel	Anti-personnel shell that exploded in the air and scattered small lead balls. Also, later on, any piece of metal from any type shell. (After the inventor, Henry Shrapnel [1806])
skof	Food
sleeping sickness	A serious disease transmitted by tsetse flies, common in much of tropical Africa. Sleeping sickness saved parts of Africa from being settled by Europeans in the 19th century because it killed their cattle and horses.
slingers	Hard tack and coffee
snotty	Midshipman [Royal Navy]
spyglass	Telescope
stoppages	Money deducted from a soldier's pay ("stopped") as a punishment
subaltern	A junior officer in the British army, just below lieutenant.

swaddy	Soldier.
Ticker	Soldier who owned his own personal watch (early usage)
tiffin	Lunch or snack (obsolete English tiff to eat between meals)
to fire into the brown	Originally referred to hunters firing into a covey of game birds without aiming at any particular bird, but was later used for soldiers firing into a charging mass of natives.
topee	Helmet (Hindi topi)
Tommy	Tommy Atkins. Name for the British common soldier
vapors	A Victorian belief that emanations from bodily organs (such as the stomach) could affect the physical and mental condition of people, especially women. Vapors were often blamed for women fainting, although fashions that included binding women's bodies so tight that they could barely breathe would seem to be a more likely cause.
VC	The Victoria Cross, the highest British medal
vedettes	Mounted sentries
wad	Cake
wallah	Person associated with an activity--for example, god wallah for priest
wizard	Excellent, as in "a wizard time"
wet	Tea, as in, "have a wet",

wog	Derogatory term for Indians or Arabs. Sometimes also Wiley Oriental Gentleman or Westernized Oriental Gentleman (Origin uncertain. Either Westernized Oriental Gentleman or from Golliwogg, a living black doll in children's books by the American writer Bertha Upton.)
yellow fever	A disease transmitted by mosquitoes that causes jaundice, among many other symptoms
yellow jack	Yellow fever

For those of you still with us at the end of this educational post - these are terms and slang used by Victorian riflemen of the 19th century. I thought some of them were a hoot.