The term Leatherneck is a popular term for a Marine.  Its origin is in some dispute among historians, but here a couple to honor the Corps on this Memorial Day: 

  

Excerpt, bits and pieces copied and pasted from:

   

Did the Continental Marines Wear Leathernecks?

http://www.southcoastsar.org/Leathernecks.htm#ety

  

The Continental Marine Color Guard and Fife and Drum Corps wears the 1776 style uniform of the Marines: green coats with white facings. A question has arisen about the use of leathernecks during the era of the Revolution. While undoubtedly later (in the 1800s) such bands of stiff leather were part of the uniform, were they in the period of interest?    

   

Painted representations of the uniforms are unreliable because of the use of cloth bands around the neck during this period. The material of such bands is not obvious upon examination of a painting.    

   

The following material provides some back ground information and some quotes on the topic. As will appear, the leatherneck first formed part of the Marine Corps uniform in 1798. This when the Corps was re-authorized by Congress.

One definition of the word "stock" is:

"A collar or a neckcloth fitting like a band around the neck" [1, page 1873]

Similarly the word "cravat" is defined as:

"A cloth worn about the neck, usually over the shirt. Black was accepted as the most practical color. The cravat was later replaced by the stock." [2, page 130]

And the word stock is defined as: [2, page 129, quoting 3]

"A part of an officer's dress, which consists generally of black silk or velvet, and is worn round the neck instead of a neckcloth. The soldier's stock is of black ribbed leather, and is part of his small mounting. Red stocks were formerly worn in the guards; they are still so in some Prussian regiments."

1.         Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Gramercy Books, New York, 1996

2.         John R. Elting, ed., Military Uniforms in America; The Era of the American Revolution, Presidio Press, San Rafael, 1974

3.         Charles James, A New and Enlarged Military Dictionary ..., T. Egerton, London, 1802  

  

  

Origin of the Nickname "Leathernecks" for the Marines

The following material is from: http://www.grunts.net/usmc/usmclore.html , web site for Marine Corps lore of all sorts. 

 

It is questionable whether the origin of the term "Leatherneck" can be accepted as a legitimate member of the family of legends. More like a tradition, it is. For there can be no doubt of the origin, considering that U. S. Marines of three generations wore leather collars. It is as obvious as the nickname "Red" for a recruit with carrot-colored hair and freckles.    

   

Now accepted by Webster as a synonym for Marine, the term "Leatherneck" was derived from a leather stock once worn around the neck by both American and British Marines--and soldiers also. Beginning in 1798, "one stock of black leather and clasp" was issued to each U. S. Marine annually.    

     

This stiff leather collar, fastened by two buckles at the back, measured nearly three and a half inches high, and it prevented the neck movement necessary for sighting along a barrel. It supposedly improved military bearing, by forcing the chin high, although General George F. Elliott, recalling its use after the Civil War, said it made the wearers appear "like geese looking for rain."     

   

The stock was dropped as an article of Marine uniform in 1872, after surviving through the uniform changes of 1833, 1839, and 1859. But by then it was a part of American vocabulary, a word preserved, like so many words, beyond its original meaning. 

     

Etymology of the Word "Leatherneck"

The following material is from http://wilton.net/etmya.htm , a list of etymologies of various words. Minor editorial changes have been made.  

  

The chief dispute over the origin of this slang term for a marine is whether it originated in the Royal Marines or the U.S. Marines. The term is a reference to the high, leather collars that were once a part of marines' uniforms in both countries. Although Mencken and Morris recount the tale that British sailors called marines leathernecks not because of their collars, but because marines washed only their faces, omitting the rest of their bodies, resulting in an unwashed and leathery neck.     

   

Mencken comes squarely down on the British-origin side, stating that the term crossed the Atlantic during the First World War. He may be right about the British origin, but his dates are clearly wrong. Lighter's earliest American citation is from 1907, too early for the WWI crossing. The earliest unambiguous citation is a reference to the Royal Marines, dating from 1889-90. But Lighter has a British citation from 1823 that refers to U.S. Marines and their "leather neckcloths."     

   

Complicating the arguments of those who claim an American origin, is the fact that the U.S. Marines abandoned their leather neck stocks in 1875, some 32 years before the first attested American usage of the term. It is possible of course, if unlikely, that the slang usage survived those years unrecorded.    

  

Partridge suggests that it may be related to boot-neck, another term for a Royal Marine that dates from the mid-nineteenth century. 

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Read  more at http://www.southcoastsar.org/Leathernecks.htm#ety

 

The topic is fascinating.  And I found this difference of opinion very interesting.  I had come into this research with a much simpler explanation.  In the days of Colonial America, the Marines were Sailor with the special task of hand-to-hand combat when battle was joined at close quarters.  One of the jobs, and skills, was to board the enemy’s ship, often times swinging aboard from the rigging of their own ship, to do battle and capture or destroy the enemy ship.  This was some high-risk swashbuckling duty, not least of because the cutlass (short slashing sword) was still very much in use, primarily in naval warfare.  The Marines wore a leather stocking around their neck to save their neck, literally, from the slash of an adversary’s cutlass. 

  

I like my version of the origin of the term Leatherneck, and that would place it firmly in the Colonial period of our history. 

   

But what do I know?  I wasn’t there.  I’m just an Average Modern Day American.