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In All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator says,
In the meantime we receive visitors, a couple of wireless-men, who are generously invited to the feed. They sit in the living-room where there is a piano.
Could someone please explain to me what "Wireless-men" means? I've looked on google, and I can't find anything remotely useful. It might just be because I'm bad at using it though :P.
I'd greatly appreciate any help!
The original German text reads, on page 232 in the linked edition:
Inzwischen ist Besuch gekommen, zwei Funker, die freigebig zum Essen eingeladen werden. Sie sitzen im Wohnzimmer, wo ein Klavier steht.
The German word "Funker" means radio operator. (From the German word Funke for spark, funkeln = "to sparkle", etc. The funk morpheme was used in the vocabulary of the early 20th century development of radio, when the "spark gap radio" was the hot technology. It lives on in modern German in the words Funk = "radio", Rundfunk = "broadcast", funken = "to communicate by radio", etc. Cf. the English slang "Sparks" for a radio-man at sea.)
As several of the comments indicate, "wireless man" was used as an informal equivalent of "wireless operator" in the early part of the last century.
