Where Did The Expression "Roger!" Come From?

“ Roger ! ” has become a go - to reflection to acknowledge a message , most often let loose over the sound or a radio sender when doing something vaguely crucial . However , the origin of this cool sign - off is less well - known . And no , it does n’t have anything to do with a guy rope appoint Roger .

The terminal figure can be follow back to the early days ofradiowhen crackly lines and dull voices meant communicating had to be short and sweet . in particular in World War 2 , when two - way radio communications had a big break , “ Roger ” was widely used by the British and Americans to recognise a mastery or statement .

This is because “ R ” was constitute by the word “ Roger ” in the old phonetic alphabet . To say “ radius ” was stenography for saying “ received , ” as in “ message get . ” just , “ Roger ” is much easier to hear in the heat of struggle than “ Received ” or even just “ R. ”

to boot , as explained in ablog postby Jakub Marian , the tradition of using “ universal gas constant ” as an abbreviation for “ meet ” has some connection to a clock time before World War 2 when Morse computer code was the most wide used class of communicating .

During theSecond World War , the most usual phonic ABCs used by the British and American armed services was : “ Able , Baker , Charlie , Dog , Easy , Fox , George , How , Item , Jig , King , Love , Mike , Nan , Oboe , Peter , Queen , Roger , Sugar , Tare , Uncle , Victor , William , X - ray of light , Yoke , Zebra . ”

Since the 1950s , however , the phonic rudiment has convert . The standard one used byNATOoperators endure as take after : “ Alfa , Bravo , Charlie , Delta , Echo , Foxtrot , Golf , Hotel , India , Juliett , Kilo , Lima , Mike , November , Oscar , Papa , Quebec , Romeo , Sierra , Tango , Uniform , Victor , Whiskey , XTC - ray , Yankee , Zulu . ”

It ’s not crystal clear why “ Roger ” stuck around and was n’t replaced with “ Romeo , ” but it perhaps has something to do with the way the Second World War had a heavy and lasting influence on acculturation .

It was also used prolifically in thetranscriptsof the Apollo 11 delegacy in 1969 , an event that was beamed across every turning point of planet Earth . It’sestimatedthat around 650 million people watched the firstMoon landing place , more or less a fifth of the humankind ’s universe at the prison term . myriad humans must have sit down around their television filmdom or wireless sets and see the musical phrase , embedding it in their brains as a symbol of cool , unagitated , and gather up communicating .

With that grade of exposure , it ’s no wonder the expression did n’t sink into obscurity .