AWOL

先日、韓国から国境を越えて北朝鮮に入国した米兵のことがニュースになりました。

北朝鮮側で拘束されたものと見られますが、その後の状況ははっきりしないまま時間が経過しています。

記事を引用しますが、ここで、AWOLという略語が出てきます。

The American-led U.N. Command in South Korea said Monday a conversation was started with Pyongyang about a U.S. soldier who ran into North Korea last week across, amidst nuclear-submarine movements in the area.

“None of us know where this is going to end,” a British lieutenant general and deputy commander at U.N. Command, Andrew Harrison, said during a news conference in Seoul.

（中略）

Harrison refused to give more details on a timeframe, or whether the conversation was constructive with the North Koreans, citing the sensitivity of the discussions. He also declined to comment on the AWOL Pvt. Travis King’s condition.

(UN Command confirms contact with N. Korea over AWOL U.S. soldier. i24 News. July 24, 2023.)

突然北朝鮮側へ越境するという奇行とも思える行動を取った米兵のことをAWOLと言っているものですが、これは、

absent without leave

を略したものです。（WOは"without"を略したもので、w/oと書かれることもあります。）

さて、その"absent without leave"とは、無断（無許可での）離隊、と辞書にありますが、いわゆる無断外出、無許可で持ち場（職務）を離れる、という意味です。

"absent"とはその場に居ないということ、「欠席」で、"leave"はここでは、許し、許可、の意味の名詞です。

辞書には軍事の用語として載っていますが、軍事か否かに関わらず用いられます。

A Tesco sales assistant who had worked at the supermarket for 26 years was unfairly dismissed after she was “erroneously” declared absent without leave while she was on holiday, a tribunal has ruled. 

The London South Croydon tribunal found Julie Churcher was unable to respond to the letters inviting her to disciplinary hearings, nor could she appeal her eventual dismissal, because she was away. 

(Elizabeth Howlett. Customer sales assistant sacked for being AWOL when she was actually on holiday was unfairly dismissed, tribunal rules. People Management Magazine. July 24, 2023.)

ここでは無断欠勤の概念に近いでしょうか。