THE FIRST WORD

Doodles
Re-enacting has brought them closer together, they say. Even as an American, she takes pleasure in mocking her counterpart U.S. re-enactors with calls of "Doodles" or "Pumpkins"—Revolutionary War era slang for U.S. soldiers.

The word "doodle" meant "fool," as did "pumpkin"; more complimentary terms for Colonial soldiers were "buckskin" and "blueskin."