Military Alibi Meaning

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Michelle Lagos-Young from San Diego, California.

Well, I wanted to talk to you guys about a trend that started at my work a little while ago. Some of my co-workers have started using the word alibi in a way that I hadn’t really heard it used before.

It started with our senior director. As he’s wrapping up a meeting, he would say, “Okay, does anyone have an alibi before we close up?” And then someone would reply with, you know, a little topic that they wanted to touch base about before we close the meeting.

And then shortly after, now everyone else is using term alibi, whereas a meeting is wrapping up, someone will say, “Oh, I have an alibi.” And they’ll bring up a topic that they want to touch base about. And I’ve heard the word alibi used before, and I know the meaning, but I’ve never heard it used as like a subject changer. And so I was wondering if you guys had any information on that.

Michelle, a couple of questions. What’s your sense of the word usually?

So I know it as either being in another location or an excuse or a defense.

Right, right. And can I ask generally what kind of work you do?

We work in government defense, so we’re in the strategic communications and strategic development side of government defense.

So A-L-I-B-I, right?

It’s exactly the same word otherwise. And it is important that you work in the defense industry because that is where it comes from. This is a military term originally.

It’s hard to Google this, but you can find it being discussed in various military forums on the Internet and a few other places. It’s not well chronicled in any of the slang works that I have, and I have all of them.

Originally, it meant an unspent or unfired round in a gun.

Oh.

And here’s what I’ve learned about this. So when you have shooting drills or exercises or for some reason you’ve got to go to a range and fire your gun, something like a jam might prevent you from getting off all your rounds, right? So let’s say that you’ve got to shoot 15 rounds, but you only shoot 14 because it’s a jam.

Instead of trying to clear that, you will just wait until the end. And then whoever is leading the exercise, whoever’s in charge of the range will say, “Do we have any alibis?” And you raise your hand and they’ll come over and talk to you and see if it’s just simply a matter of clearing that round and firing it off or if you just simply are done.

And so I think that the reason that they’re using alibi here is it’s like, what is your excuse for not having fired all your rounds? Because you’re required in certain circumstances to have fired all of your rounds. That is why you’re there.

But in any case, yeah, so it’s from firing weapons, and it’s an unspent round.

Oh, it’s fascinating.

Right?

I would not have got that at all.

Yeah. That is really interesting. I’ve never heard that usage before.

Yeah. But it’s kind of like the one that you haven’t shot yet.

Yeah, yeah. But, again, there’s that really particular circumstance, Michelle, where you’re required to shoot off all your rounds, but you haven’t. And you have to explain why.

Yeah. And it can kind of go for meetings because is there a round that needs to be shot? Is there something that needs to come up? So it’s not really cool. It’s not just new business, right?

So it’s not just new business. It’s like super important new business that has to be put on the table.

Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much. That’s fascinating. It really is.

Glad to help. We’re delighted to get these kinds of calls. And, you know, I bet in your interfacing with the Defense Department and other industries like that, I bet you have a lot of this, and you need to call us with more of it, all right?

Awesome. I definitely will. I’ll keep the ear out for it.

Yeah. Thanks for raising the question, Michelle. I learned something. Take care now.

Thanks, you guys, too.

All right. Bye-bye.

But you’re not going to find this in businesses typically that aren’t military adjacent.

Not yet. Not yet.

Right. This could become the thing that in 20 years we’re like, where did this alibi come from? Can’t we just say new business like we always did?

Right. Right. Because my sense of it always has been the same Latin sense. I mean, the word in Latin means elsewhere, someplace else. You know, if you have an alibi, no, officer, I wasn’t there. No, sir, I wasn’t there. I wasn’t at the scene of the crime.

Yeah. Yeah. Here’s where I actually was. I mean, there are taverns called the alibi.

That’s right.

Yeah. There’s one here in San Diego.

There is indeed. And then there’s the extended use, which some people still grumble about, which just means excuse. So rather than a more legal notion of alibi, it’s just the idea of why didn’t you empty the trash? Well, my alibi is that I couldn’t find my shoes.

Yeah, exactly.

877-929-9673.