One of the strangest moments in a confirmation hearing Tuesday for Pete Hegseth, President Donald J. Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, was when a senator asked the former Fox News host to define the word “Jagoff.”

The question from Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was prompted by a comment Mr. Hegseth made to his military platoon, as he wrote in his 2024 book “The War on Warriors.” This He made the comment during his deployment to Iraq in 2005 after hearing a presentation by a JAG officer or a member of the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, who Defended Army soldiers in legal matters.

After he and his team were briefed by the JAG officer on the proper protocols for firing a rocket-propelled grenade at an enemy, Mr. Hegseth disparaged one of the rules of engagement, saying it would “kill people,” he recalled in his book.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Mr. Hegseth initially refused, with a slight smile, to define the colloquial term. “I don’t have to, sir,” he said. “The men and women watching understand.”

When pressed on this, Mr. Hegseth finally said, “It would be a JAG officer who puts his or her own priorities above the warfighters, their promotions, their medals, and above the backs of those making tough decisions on the front lines.” Lines.”

Mr. Reed suggested that Mr. Hegseth was being disrespectful when he referred to JAG officers by that slang term. “How can you effectively lead a military in which discipline and respect for lawful authority are one of the key elements?” asked Mr. Reed.

The word “jagoff” — rooted in an overtly sexual definition and blurring a more lurid term — has become a catch-all insult for someone who is annoying or otherwise unfavorable. But the importance also has regional connections. In Western Pennsylvania, it can be used to reject someone for their irritating behavior – or to embrace them with a sarcastic but loving compliment.

In Chicago – and elsewhere – it is often used as a slight insult.

“Hey, Jaguar! “You just went through a stop sign,” writer Edward McClelland recalled of a 2019 incident at an intersection in the Windy City. He titled his story with a tongue-in-cheek boast: “Pittsburgh may have invented the term, but Chicago perfected it.”