WASHINGTON — Like their fellow soldiers in Germany, Vietnam or Korea, those deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq have created a language all their own, filled with black humor, cultural references and even the occasional crudity.

Most of us have heard of RADAR — originally a military acronym standing in for the cumbersome term “Radio Detection and Ranging.” We may even have encountered, or experienced, the occasional SNAFU, for “Situation Normal: All (Fouled) Up.”

But what on Earth is a “death blossom”? Or a “fobbit”?

The Department of Veterans Affairs has published a list detailing the vocabulary of Operation Iraqi Freedom — a list that contains such entries as “death blossom,” a term originating in the 1984 science-fiction film “The Last Starfighter.” It is used by service members to describe fire sprayed indiscriminately in all directions.

“Soldiers use these terms because they try to make the best they can of their situation and give things kind of a humorous angle,” said Lt. Col. Charles Kohler of the Maryland National Guard.

The list also includes the terms “Mortaritaville” and “Bombaconda,” both referring to LSA Anaconda, a base near Balad, Iraq, that is frequently the target of mortar attacks.

The term “Mortaritaville,” a reference to the Jimmy Buffett song “Margaritaville,” is only one of many terms soldiers use to take the edge off an environment that is potentially frightening and often beyond their control, said Indiana University linguist Michael Adams.

“It’s making a really terrifying experience manageable by attempting to make it familiar,” Adams said.

Adams has studied slang for years and said it can prove vital for social cohesion among soldiers.

“It’s language for them made by them to consolidate their social relationships,” he said. “In war, people’s survival depends on (these relationships).”

Military slang is versatile and can refer to anything in a soldier’s environment — equipment, locations or people.

Maj. Liam Kingdon, who works for the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at the University of Maryland in College Park, said he has heard fellow service members referred to as “fobbits.” The word is a contraction of Forward Operating Base (FOB) and “hobbit,” a creature from “The Lord of the Rings” known for its sedentary habits.

“It’s basically a soldier, sailor or airman who never leaves the base,” Kingdon said. “You’ve got people there who leave the base all the time to go on patrol, and you’ve got people who literally just stay on the base.”

Slang terms referring to features of a base are also common — for example, a sign someone put next to an oil-filled puddle on a base in Afghanistan reading, “Rainbow Lake.”

Other terms link life in the military to items or concepts familiar from other environments — often, the environment is home, or a favorite movie. For example, improvised vehicle armor made from scrap metal is also known as “hillbilly armor” and a truck with large amounts of add-on armor may be designated a “Frankenstein.”