How would you describe this in a few words?

SwallowFeather · Oct 24, 2019

The soldiers on this page are wearing these metal plaque thingies on chains around their necks. They're called gorgets. It's not a word I knew, and I don't figure most people know it (what do you all think?).

How would you describe the darn things, briefly, in passing? Just call 'em gorgets and try to give a bit of a visual so people at least know it's a shiny metal thing? Call 'em metal plaques on their chests? Something else? Anybody? ... Bueller? (OK, I'm old...)

Any ideas welcome...

mccardey · Oct 24, 2019

In Australia (don't get me started) things like these were given out to Indigenous leaders who, for various reasons, might be compliant with the colonialists. They were called kingplates. Which makes me think if you find the role associated with yours, and add the suffix, maybe that would work?

Breastplate is also used, but I think that might suggest more of a protective covering than a titular one.

Brightdreamer · Oct 24, 2019

I know the word. It's not uncommon, especially to fantasy readers used to plate or mail armor. These look like decorative pieces, though. You could describe them as you would a necklace: "The gorgets hung on heavy chains around their necks, broad metal plates inscribed with their rank and unit."

CRMooney · Oct 24, 2019

I wouldn't use gorget because that has a specific meaning in armour; it's a tight neck-protector. I think Brightdreamer has the right idea in terms of describing them but maybe come up with another name for them?

Helix · Oct 24, 2019

A crescent of [metal] engraved with [whatevs] and hung around the neck on a chain.

frimble3 · Oct 24, 2019

Brightdreamer said:
I know the word. It's not uncommon, especially to fantasy readers used to plate or mail armor. These look like decorative pieces, though. You could describe them as you would a necklace: "The gorgets hung on heavy chains around their necks, broad metal plates inscribed with their rank and unit."

CRMooney said:
I wouldn't use gorget because that has a specific meaning in armour; it's a tight neck-protector. I think Brightdreamer has the right idea in terms of describing them but maybe come up with another name for them?

Yes, but since the days of armour, it's been commonly used to describe the decorative neckpiece form. Presumably because of it's symbolic beginnings. I wouldn't blink at it in whatever sort of role it's playing in a military uniform, as long as it was described so I knew what it was naming. (Although, setting may do the job for you - in a WWII story I wouldn't be expecting actual armour.)
Something like Brightdreamer or Helix's examples.

As to actual name, is the gorget going to play any bigger part in the story than a brief description of a soldier's uniform? If so, I'd just call it a gorget or leave it unnamed.

quicklime · Oct 25, 2019

a lot depends on the narrator, probably moreso than the correct terminology. At a glance these looked WWII-era or thereabouts, so for example

a fifteen year-old teen of today, shot back there in some sort of time loop, is probably going to see "some sort of shiny thingy on a chain, a decorative piece somewhere between a regular necklace and a breastplate in size" or whatever,

and a 70 year-old German, looking through his father's photos, is likely to see "Dad, standing tall in his full uniform and wearing the Gorget on his chest; it must have been a dress occasion..."

SwallowFeather · Oct 25, 2019

Thanks for your help, all! Yes, it's true it does depend on the narrator. She's halfway between your examples, quicklime--a French girl who knows roughly what the gorget means for her (that this is a German train-station guard who will probably ask for her papers, yes it is WWII--not quite the iconic WWII image! but apparently these were actually all over the darn place) but likely not the word. Hm, so I should embed the description in her mental notion of "that thing the station guards wear."

Really fascinating history, mccardey, thanks for the link.

let me see... "the sun glinted off the eagles on his chest-plaque, that odd metal crescent the station guards wore..." hm. Something like that. I'll look at it again in revision.

Thank you all!

frimble3 · Oct 25, 2019

I gather you aren't using the perspective of the soldier. Which could be interesting - according to the link, a lot of them were regular soldiers, sent to work the train stations. Does the individual soldier think of his gorget as a ticket to a safe job, away from the front, or is he humiliated by being 'demoted' to station-guard?

SwallowFeather · Oct 26, 2019

frimble3 said:
I gather you aren't using the perspective of the soldier. Which could be interesting - according to the link, a lot of them were regular soldiers, sent to work the train stations. Does the individual soldier think of his gorget as a ticket to a safe job, away from the front, or is he humiliated by being 'demoted' to station-guard?

You're right, that is an interesting question! (Though no, I'm not using his POV so it's not one for this time...) There's such a mystique about WWII German security forces that upon finding that page I felt surprised they had ordinary soldiers doing what I assumed was security work... so that inclines me to feel like there's a certain prestige to guard work, but that may be a perspective distorted by all the years between him & me & all that slew of French Resistance stories (of which I am writing another... but at least I'm not writing to the myth--the Gestapo was stretched thin, the Resistance was more than half foreigners and communists, I could say more...) Still, the gorgets also look pretty cool, and also, as you say, safer. My guess is he's not bummed.

How would you describe this in a few words?

SwallowFeather

Oops I just swallowed a feather

mccardey

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist

CRMooney

Helix

socially distancing

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

quicklime

all out of fucks to give

SwallowFeather

Oops I just swallowed a feather

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

SwallowFeather

Oops I just swallowed a feather