Constitution

The Constitution is anchored in English liberal thought and the Magna Carta.

The US Constitution was written in 1787.

As the search continued, I developed five criteria for the selection process. The next Chief Justice must have a top-flight legal mind; he must be young enough to serve at least ten years; he should, if possible, have experience both as a practicing lawyer and as an appeals court judge; he must generally share my view that the Court should interpret the Constitution rather than amend it by judicial fiat; and he must have a special quality of leadership that would enable him to resolve differences among his colleagues so that, as often as possible, the Court would speak decisively on major cases with one voice or at least with a strong voice for the majority opinion.

1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 419:

The Constitution is very clear. My job was oversee the session of Congress where objections could be heard. And I made sure that objections would be recognized, so we would hear whatever evidence and other debate there was. But the Constitution says you open and count the votes, no more no less. The Constitution affords no authority to the Vice President or anyone else to reject votes or return votes to the states.

2023 July 5, Mike Pence, 7:52 from the start, in Watch All In With Chris Hayes Highlights: July 6, MSNBC, archived from the original on 2023-07-07:

(law) The supreme law of some countries, such as Australia, Ireland, and the United States.


Democrat

At one point in the debate, the moderator asked a tough question that had the candidates stumped.
Moderator: "This question is for both of the candidates. Those ever-important independent voters who haven’t decided who to vote for would like to know what the real differences between you two are."
Gore: "I think the real difference between Governor Bush and I is that he is in fact a Republican, and I am currently a Democrat."
Moderator: "That doesn’t really answer the question, I am talking about issues."
Bush: "No, he is right. I am a Republican, and he is a Democrat."

2000 October 3, Tim Paluch, “Gore vs. Bush: That's Debatable”, in Iowa State Daily:

(US politics) A member or supporter of the Democratic Party in the United States.

民主黨人

supporter of the Democratic Party of the US


Grit

After the Clear Grits, 19th-century reformers so named because they wanted members who were "all sand and no dirt, clear grit all the way through".

(Canadian politics) A member or supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada or one of its provincial wings (except for the Quebec provincial wing).


Grit

(Canadian politics) Of or belonging to the Liberal Party of Canada.


Joker

...grinning like the Joker, Batman's nemesis, a character described in the story as being a favorite of Douglas's.

2007, Joe Layden, The Last Great Fight, page 217:

He started to laugh that maniacal laugh that sounded like the Joker on speed.

2008, Deborah Eden, The Destroyer, page 82:

I would've liked to have learned more, but the lady working the booth was a monstrous titan with dyed black hair, about ten rings on each hand, and a mouth like the Joker (Jack Nicholson version), and she spooked me.

2011, Steve Hely, How I Became a Famous Novelist, page 185:

Wide and taut, fixed and immobile. Like the Joker from Batman, he thought. Or one of his victims.

2014, Tania Carver, The Doll's House, page 22:

He looks like the Joker, the Latino one, what was his name? Cesar Romero.

2015, Manuel Luis Martinez, Drift: A Novel, page 16:

A fictional villain of DC Comics, noted for his insanity and cunning, who either wears clown makeup or is disfigured to appear as such, and who is archenemy of Batman.


Krypton

(fiction, DC Comics fictional milieu) A fictional planet, the native world of Superman, named after the element krypton.


Hulk

Jack Kirby
Marvel Comics Universe
Stan Lee

The name of a character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for the Marvel Comics Universe, it has since entered the everyday English lexicon. The name itself is most likely derived from the word hulk (“large person or thing”), which predates the character. See the Wikipedia link at the bottom.

Fry: How can you say Lars is more mature than me?
Leela: Well, for one thing, his checkbook doesn't have the Hulk on it.

2007 November 27, Ken Keeler and David X. Cohen, “Bender’s Big Score”, Futurama, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

A fictional Marvel Comics character who gains superhuman strength when he becomes angry.


Hulk

A person resembling, especially physically, the Hulk in the Marvel Comics Universe.


Hulk

Hulk (fictional Marvel Comics character)


Kuna

(Hawaiian mythology) an ancient eel-like dragon


Liberal

(Canadian politics) A member or supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada, or its predecessors, or provincial equivalents, or their predecessors


Muppet

Diane Sawyer
Elmo
Jim Henson
Kevin Clash
Muppet

Coined by Jim Henson as an alteration of puppet. Henson had claimed the word was a blend of marionette + puppet, but later recanted.

One of a group of established puppet characters acting as a sort of repertory company on The Muppet Show, and/or appearing on Sesame Street.


North

The North lost most battles early in the war.

The northern part of a region (alternative letter-case form of north), especially:

(US) The Union during the American Civil War.


Reconstruction

Reconstruction (canonical)
the Reconstruction (canonical)

A proper-noun variant of reconstruction.

Fables of the Reconstruction

A period of the history of the United States from 1865 to 1877, during which the nation tried to resolve the status of the ex-Confederate states, the ex-Confederate leaders, and the Freedmen (ex-slaves) after the American Civil War.


Batman

The province is named after its capital city, and the city is named after a nearby river, Batman River. See Ottoman Turkish باطمان for more information.

The capital city of Batman Province, Turkey.


Batman

From bat + man; originally the Bat-Man. By surface analysis, Bat- + man.

You’re afraid of being ashes. You’re afraid of being forgotten. And you will be forgotten, Joker. Because of me. I am vengeance! I am the night! I am Batman!

2015, Batman: Arkham Knight, spoken by Batman (Kevin Conroy), Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, via Rocksteady Studios:

“But next time—” Night vanished before the guard could finish—just kind of disappeared like Batman—which Viv found almost as annoying as the fact that he'd dragged her down a well. He didn't think he had to explain himself?

2015, Sarah Cross, Tear You Apart, Carolrhoda Lab, →ISBN, page 68:

I watched through squinted eyes as the driver-side door opened and a man stepped out wielding a Maglite, his other hand placed on his Batman-like utility belt. What all did they keep in those things? Surely the pistol, a few clips, handcuffs, ...

2019, Sean Johnson, Strange Like Me, page 212:

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Batman.

A fictional hero and the main protagonist of DC Comics, noted for his intellect and stealth, who uses a bat-themed costume and equipment (including a belt with an array of utilities) and is assisted by his sidekick Robin.


Batman

Holy guacamole, Batman!

Holy nostalgic flashback, Batman! Aly and AJ Michalka, the actor-musician sister duo known for dominating Radio Disney in the late aughts (they’ve also released some very good music since then), just sent us straight back to our tweens by wearing none other than iconic mall brand Limited Too.

2024 July 1, Elizabeth Logan, “Aly & AJ in the New Limited Too Collection Has Me Checking What Year It Is”, in Glamour:

An intensifier for interjections created with the adjective holy, in imitation of dialogue between Batman and his sidekick Robin.


Batman

en-verb

Batman (third-person singular simple present Batmans, present participle Batmanning, simple past and past participle Batmanned)

Batmans (present singular third-person)
Batmanning (participle present)
Batmanned (participle past)
Batmanned (past)

He laughed, Batmanned back up to his last piece of gear and hammered a 5/8-inch angle piton into the crack with an ascending ring like any nail met with a hammer.

2014, Ken Wylie, Buried, →ISBN, page 140:

(slang, mountaineering) Alternative form of batman (etymology 3)


Batman

Southeastern Anatolia Region
Southeastern Anatolia Region#English

Batman (a province of the Southeastern Anatolia Region, Turkey)

Batman (a city, the provincial capital of Batman, Turkey)


Batman

Unadapted borrowing from English Batman.


Rebel

(US) A Confederate soldier; of the American Civil War.


Pony

Ellipsis of My Little Pony, a cartoon media-franchise based on anthropomorphic equines.


Lea

(Hawaiian mythology) a goddess of canoe builders


Roe

From a Middle English nickname meaning a roe.

Ultimately, Ms. Bottone said she just wanted to know whether she could keep driving in the H.O.V. lane for the remainder of her pregnancy, as she said she had in her previous pregnancies, long before the overturning of Roe.

2022 July 12, Luke Vander Ploeg, “Can You Drive Alone in the H.O.V. Lane if You’re Pregnant? A Post-Roe Quandary.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, law, US politics, informal) Ellipsis of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 US Supreme Court case which legalized abortion and reaffirmed the existence of a right to privacy under due process following the 14th Amendment.


Orient

Orient (nominative singular)
Orientu (genitive singular)
Orientowi (dative singular)
Orient (accusative singular)
Orientem (instrumental singular)
Oriencie (locative singular)
Oriencie (singular vocative)

Coordinate term: Okcydent

(politics) East (Eastern Europe, non-Cold War concept)


South

en-proper noun

South (countable and uncountable, plural Souths)

English surname, from the adjective south. Compare Southern.

Many sincere white people in the South privately oppose segregation and discrimination, but they are apprehensive lest they be publicly condemned.

1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “Transformed Nonconformist”, in Strength to Love, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, →OCLC, page 13:

Just when the blacks had had their hopes for equality and justice raised, after centuries of misery and despair, they awoke one morning to discover that their future was in the hands of a President born in the South.

1971, Lyndon B. Johnson, “"I feel like I have already been here a year"”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 18:

Of course, living in the South was never an option—the main problem being they have too much respect for authority; they're soldier-sniffers and cop lovers. I don't respect that, and I could never live with it. There's also way too much religion in the South to be consistent with good mental health.

1997, George Carlin, “WELL, YA GOTTA LIVE SOMEPLACE”, in Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 16:

In the discussions we had sitting around church basements, I learned that, despite the obvious differences in our environments, these kids were more like me than I ever could have imagined. They also knew more about what was happening in the civil rights movement in the South. I had only vaguely heard of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, but these discussions sparked my interest.

2003, Hillary Rodham Clinton, “University of Life”, in Living History, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 22–23:

Tohti described a situation then current in Yeyiq Yezisi (Yeyike) township which is reminiscent of share-cropping in the post-bellum American south.

[2007, James A. Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, London: Hurst & Company, published 2021, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 365:

I should add a story, you know in the South at that time, Governor Barnett was sort of known as a bit of a dim bulb. And two years before, during the presidential campaign, one of the flashpoints in the debates that fall involved two Nationalist Chinese islands just off the coast of China: Quemoy and Matsu. And right after this argument erupted in the campaign, Ross Barnett was out politicking one day and the reporters asked him, "Governor, what about Quemoy and Matsu?" And he looked around sort of lost and said to one of his aides, "Them those two fellers I put on the Fishing and Game Commission last year?"

2012, 42:09 from the start, in Listening In: JFK's Secret Tapes, Thomas Oliphant (actor), John F. Kennedy Library Foundation:

(US) The south-eastern states of the United States, including many of the same states as formed the Confederacy.


Oz

After the fictional land in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

etymid

fictional place envisioned by L. Frank Baum

Ellipsis of Land of Oz, the fictional setting created by L. Frank Baum for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and other works. The term has been extended from the original country of Oz to the entire fictional world of Oz. Subsequently used as a setting by other authors and artists.


Whig

From Whiggamore, possibly from Scots whiggamore (“horse driver”), from whig (“to drive”) + mare.

whig

a member of an 18th- and 19th-century political party

(US politics, historical) An advocate of war against, or independence from, Britain during the American Revolution.

(US politics, historical) A member of a 19th-century US political party opposed to the Democratic Party.


Robin

* (masculine given name): From Middle English Robin, from Old French, diminutive of Robert
* (feminine given name): From the bird, robin
* (given name): From Germanic

"We'll name her Robin," her mother said, and it was as though at her words something of that spring and the bird's song and his gay and friendly and impudent spirit entered into the child.

1949, Adela Rogers St. John, Never Again, and Other Stories, Doubleday, page 25:

A female given name from the Germanic languages, also associated with the bird robin.


Superman

en-proper noun

Superman (countable and uncountable, plural Supermen)

DC Comics
Dragon Con
Jerry Siegel
Joe Shuster

From super- + man. The character, created by Jerry Siegel (1914–1996) and Joe Shuster (1914–1992), first appeared in DC Comics’ Action Comics #1 dated June 1938. The ice-cream flavor is named in reference to the red, yellow and blue of the superhero's costume.

[…] hoping against hope that she, with something like Superman's X-ray vision, might see through the photograph and behind it to the truth about Harris's architecture.

2000, Lisa Germany, Harwell Hamilton Harris, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page vii:

But here's the big question: can this rip-snorting derivative lay 210 bhp down through its front wheels without forcing you to maintain Superman levels of grip on the steering wheel? Yes.

In fact, everyone was used to her Superman-like strength. She made her way through the circuit of machines Mr. Connors had marked for them and ended up at the squat station. As she was placing the weight on the bar, she noticed[…]

2010, Michael Sullivan, The Alliance, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 149:

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Superman.

A fictional comic-book superhero with superhuman strength and speed, X-ray vision, and the ability to fly.

سُوبَرْمَان

a fictional character with superhuman powers


Superman

Unadapted borrowing from English Superman. In Brazil, displaced Super-Homem as the official name in the 1990's.


Stella

(US, numismatics) A gold coin with a face value of $4.00 proposed for use in the United States in the 19th century.


Stella

2018, Bianca C. Williams, The Pursuit of Happiness, Duke University Press, →ISBN:
They often come thinking that Jamaican women are not going to like them, because they have heard from others in the United States that Jamaican women have a bad attitude and are upset that these “Stellas” are taking all of their men.


Vulcano

(astronomy, historical) Vulcan (planet previously theorised to exist in orbit between Mercury and the Sun)


Wall

Wall (disambiguation)#Places
Wall (surname)

en-proper noun

Wall (countable and uncountable, plural Walls)

Of various origins, principally from Old English wælisc etc. ("non-Germanic speaker, stranger") from Proto-Germanic *walhaz (“foreigner, stranger”), the source of numerous other surnames such as Walsh and Wales and from Middle English wall, from Old English weall (“wall, dike, rampart”), from Proto-Germanic *wallaz or *wallą (“wall, rampart”), from Latin vallum (“wall, rampart, palisade”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, wind, roll”). Also from transcribed foreign surnames such as German Wahl and Swedish Wahlberg.

der

A township in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Allegheny County
Allegheny County#English

A borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Pennington County
Pennington County#English

A town in Pennington County, South Dakota.

Tom Green County
Tom Green County#English

An unincorporated community in Tom Green County, Texas.


Republican

en-adj

Republican (comparative more Republican, superlative most Republican)

more Republican (comparative)
most Republican (superlative)

There are Libertarian, Republican and Democratic nominees running for office right now.

(US politics) Of or pertaining to the Republican Party of the United States.


Republican

Famine, pestilence, war… War! I like it!
When did you become a Republican.

1998 November 27, Danita Jones, “Sabrina and the Beast”, in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, season 3, episode 1, spoken by Sabrina Spellman (Beth Broderick as Zelda Spellman and Melissa Joan Hart), Paramount Domestic Television, via ABC:

At one point in the debate, the moderator asked a tough question that had the candidates stumped.
Moderator: "This question is for both of the candidates. Those ever-important independent voters who haven’t decided who to vote for would like to know what the real differences between you two are."
Gore: "I think the real difference between Governor Bush and I is that he is in fact a Republican, and I am currently a Democrat."
Moderator: "That doesn’t really answer the question, I am talking about issues."
Bush: "No, he is right. I am a Republican, and he is a Democrat."

2000 October 3, Tim Paluch, “Gore vs. Bush: That's Debatable”, in Iowa State Daily:

(US politics) A member or supporter of the Republican Party, the more right-wing of the two main political parties in the United States.

جُمْهُورِيّ

supporter of the Republican Party of the U.S.

Republicunt

Member or supporter of the US Republican Party


Union

(locomotive): Derived from the name of the only U.S. company to use that configuration.

threats to secede from the Union

United States of America
United States of America

(US, with determiner, dated, especially 19th century) The United States of America.

Union troops at Gettysburg

(US, with determiner, historical) Those of the United States that did not secede at the time of the Civil War (of the United States of America).


Reaganomics

Blend of Reagan + economics, equivalent to Reagan + -nomics.

Many opponents of Reaganomics, in fact, don't contend that the program can't work over the long run. But they argue that the program can not work the way the President promised and that the resulting social cost isn't worth it.

1982 January 3, Jonathan Fuerbringer, “Reaganomics: The Report Card for 1981, and the Prospects”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

However, until the wheels came off the wagon in 2008, no doubt existed as to the efficacy of Bush's Reaganomics redux in feathering the nests of his wealthy “base.”

supply-side economics
supply-side economics

trickle-down hypothesis
trickle-down hypothesis

The neoliberal, free market economic ideas and policies of the American president Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) and his two administrations (1981–1989), with a focus on reduced government spending, taxation, and regulations (supply-side economics) and granting potential benefits and encouragement to wealthy people and businesses in particular to drive the rest of the economy (trickle-down hypothesis).


D

en-noun

D (countable and uncountable, plural Ds)

D-New York

(US politics) Abbreviation of Democrat, especially preceding the constituent location.


CSA

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America#English

(US) Initialism of Confederate States of America.


R

R-Texas

(US politics) Abbreviation of Republican, especially preceding the constituent location.


W

Abbreviations of various words beginning with W.

(US politics, informal) George W. Bush (born 1946), the 43rd president of the United States (2001–2009).


ER

(US politics) Initialism of Eleanor Roosevelt.


FLOTUS

First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States#English

(US politics) Acronym of First Lady of the United States.


Q

In this fantasy world, all of the far right’s wildest dreams come true: Q promises that Clinton, Obama, Podesta, Abedin, and even McCain are all either arrested and wearing secret police-issued ankle monitors, or just about to be indicted; that the Steele dossier is a total fabrication personally paid for by Clinton and Obama; and that the Las Vegas massacre was most definitely an inside job connected to the Saudi-Clinton cabal.

2017 December 19, Paris Martineau, “The Storm Is the New Pizzagate — Only Worse”, in New York, archived from the original on 2018-12-26:

In a thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, and in subsequent posts, Q established his legend as a government insider with top security clearance who knew the truth about a secret struggle for power involving Donald Trump, the “deep state”, Robert Mueller, the Clintons, pedophile rings, and other stuff.

2018 July 31, Julia Carrie Wong, “What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory”, in The Guardian:

At the end of her report, Coaston concluded, “Most people have never heard of QAnon, or Q — and that includes most of Donald Trump’s supporters.” That’s still the case, but the fact that this book is at the top of some of Amazon’s most prominent recommendation lists means that a far larger share of the population will — at a minimum — stumble across these ideas.

2019 March 6, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “How a conspiracy theory about Democrats drinking children’s blood topped Amazon’s best-sellers list”, in Vox, archived from the original on 2019-03-07:

(US politics) Abbreviation of QAnon (“anonymous poster on anonymous online message boards who originated a pro-Trump conspiracy theory”).


Bisounours

Blend of bisou (“kiss”) + nounours (“teddy bear”).


FOIA

First use appears c. 1968, in the publication Administrative Law Review.

FOIA is what enables regular people to pester powerful federal agencies into handing over information about what they’ve been up to. FOIA’s website calls it “the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government.”

2017 July 23, Michelle Cottle, “The War on the Freedom of Information Act”, in The Atlantic:

w:Freedom of Information Act (United States)

(law, US politics) Acronym of Freedom of Information Act.


AMC

Air Mobility Command
w:Air Mobility Command

(US military) Initialism of Air Mobility Command.


SDI

The new sales pitch for S.D.I. runs smack up against the recommendations of Mr. Reagan's own Commission on Strategic Forces, the panel that so effectively closed the window of vulnerability back in 1983.

1987 August 31, Howard Ris, “Don't Buy the S.D.I. Soap”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative#English

Initialism of Strategic Defense Initiative.


klingon

klingon (nominative singular)
klingonit (nominative plural)
klingon (accusative nominative singular)
klingonit (accusative nominative plural)
klingonin (accusative genitive singular)
klingonit (accusative genitive plural)
klingonin (genitive singular)
klingonien (genitive plural)
klingonia (partitive singular)
klingoneja (partitive plural)
klingonissa (inessive singular)
klingoneissa (inessive plural)
klingonista (elative singular)
klingoneista (elative plural)
klingoniin (illative singular)
klingoneihin (illative plural)
klingonilla (adessive singular)
klingoneilla (adessive plural)
klingonilta (ablative singular)
klingoneilta (ablative plural)
klingonille (allative singular)
klingoneille (allative plural)
klingonina (essive singular)
klingoneina (essive plural)
klingoniksi (singular translative)
klingoneiksi (plural translative)
klingonitta (abessive singular)
klingoneitta (abessive plural)
klingonein (instructive plural)
See the possessive forms below. (comitative)
klingonini (nominative singular)
klingonini (nominative plural)
klingonini (accusative nominative singular)
klingonini (accusative nominative plural)
klingonini (accusative genitive singular)
klingonini (accusative genitive plural)
klingonini (genitive singular)
klingonieni (genitive plural)
klingoniani (partitive singular)
klingonejani (partitive plural)
klingonissani (inessive singular)
klingoneissani (inessive plural)
klingonistani (elative singular)
klingoneistani (elative plural)
klingoniini (illative singular)
klingoneihini (illative plural)
klingonillani (adessive singular)
klingoneillani (adessive plural)
klingoniltani (ablative singular)
klingoneiltani (ablative plural)
klingonilleni (allative singular)
klingoneilleni (allative plural)
klingoninani (essive singular)
klingoneinani (essive plural)
klingonikseni (singular translative)
klingoneikseni (plural translative)
klingonittani (abessive singular)
klingoneittani (abessive plural)
klingoneineni (comitative plural)
klingonisi (nominative singular)
klingonisi (nominative plural)
klingonisi (accusative nominative singular)
klingonisi (accusative nominative plural)
klingonisi (accusative genitive singular)
klingonisi (accusative genitive plural)
klingonisi (genitive singular)
klingoniesi (genitive plural)
klingoniasi (partitive singular)
klingonejasi (partitive plural)
klingonissasi (inessive singular)
klingoneissasi (inessive plural)
klingonistasi (elative singular)
klingoneistasi (elative plural)
klingoniisi (illative singular)
klingoneihisi (illative plural)
klingonillasi (adessive singular)
klingoneillasi (adessive plural)
klingoniltasi (ablative singular)
klingoneiltasi (ablative plural)
klingonillesi (allative singular)
klingoneillesi (allative plural)
klingoninasi (essive singular)
klingoneinasi (essive plural)
klingoniksesi (singular translative)
klingoneiksesi (plural translative)
klingonittasi (abessive singular)
klingoneittasi (abessive plural)
klingoneinesi (comitative plural)
klingonimme (nominative singular)
klingonimme (nominative plural)
klingonimme (accusative nominative singular)
klingonimme (accusative nominative plural)
klingonimme (accusative genitive singular)
klingonimme (accusative genitive plural)
klingonimme (genitive singular)
klingoniemme (genitive plural)
klingoniamme (partitive singular)
klingonejamme (partitive plural)
klingonissamme (inessive singular)
klingoneissamme (inessive plural)
klingonistamme (elative singular)
klingoneistamme (elative plural)
klingoniimme (illative singular)
klingoneihimme (illative plural)
klingonillamme (adessive singular)
klingoneillamme (adessive plural)
klingoniltamme (ablative singular)
klingoneiltamme (ablative plural)
klingonillemme (allative singular)
klingoneillemme (allative plural)
klingoninamme (essive singular)
klingoneinamme (essive plural)
klingoniksemme (singular translative)
klingoneiksemme (plural translative)
klingonittamme (abessive singular)
klingoneittamme (abessive plural)
klingoneinemme (comitative plural)
klingoninne (nominative singular)
klingoninne (nominative plural)
klingoninne (accusative nominative singular)
klingoninne (accusative nominative plural)
klingoninne (accusative genitive singular)
klingoninne (accusative genitive plural)
klingoninne (genitive singular)
klingonienne (genitive plural)
klingonianne (partitive singular)
klingonejanne (partitive plural)
klingonissanne (inessive singular)
klingoneissanne (inessive plural)
klingonistanne (elative singular)
klingoneistanne (elative plural)
klingoniinne (illative singular)
klingoneihinne (illative plural)
klingonillanne (adessive singular)
klingoneillanne (adessive plural)
klingoniltanne (ablative singular)
klingoneiltanne (ablative plural)
klingonillenne (allative singular)
klingoneillenne (allative plural)
klingoninanne (essive singular)
klingoneinanne (essive plural)
klingoniksenne (singular translative)
klingoneiksenne (plural translative)
klingonittanne (abessive singular)
klingoneittanne (abessive plural)
klingoneinenne (comitative plural)
klingoninsa (nominative singular)
klingoninsa (nominative plural)
klingoninsa (accusative nominative singular)
klingoninsa (accusative nominative plural)
klingoninsa (accusative genitive singular)
klingoninsa (accusative genitive plural)
klingoninsa (genitive singular)
klingoniensa (genitive plural)
klingoniaan (partitive singular)
klingoniansa (partitive singular)
klingonejaan (partitive plural)
klingonejansa (partitive plural)
klingonissaan (inessive singular)
klingonissansa (inessive singular)
klingoneissaan (inessive plural)
klingoneissansa (inessive plural)
klingonistaan (elative singular)
klingonistansa (elative singular)
klingoneistaan (elative plural)
klingoneistansa (elative plural)
klingoniinsa (illative singular)
klingoneihinsa (illative plural)
klingonillaan (adessive singular)
klingonillansa (adessive singular)
klingoneillaan (adessive plural)
klingoneillansa (adessive plural)
klingoniltaan (ablative singular)
klingoniltansa (ablative singular)
klingoneiltaan (ablative plural)
klingoneiltansa (ablative plural)
klingonilleen (allative singular)
klingonillensa (allative singular)
klingoneilleen (allative plural)
klingoneillensa (allative plural)
klingoninaan (essive singular)
klingoninansa (essive singular)
klingoneinaan (essive plural)
klingoneinansa (essive plural)
klingonikseen (singular translative)
klingoniksensa (singular translative)
klingoneikseen (plural translative)
klingoneiksensa (plural translative)
klingonittaan (abessive singular)
klingonittansa (abessive singular)
klingoneittaan (abessive plural)
klingoneittansa (abessive plural)
klingoneineen (comitative plural)
klingoneinensa (comitative plural)

Klingon, Klingonese (fictional language)

A Klingon (member of a fictional alien race)


klingon

fr-adj

klingon (feminine klingonne, masculine plural klingons, feminine plural klingonnes)

klingonne (feminine)
klingons (masculine plural)
klingonnes (feminine plural)


klingon

Klingon (artificial language from the Star Trek franchise)


klingon

(science fiction) Klingon (a member of the Klingon species in Star Trek)

(science fiction) Klingon (artificial language from the Star Trek franchise)


PAC

A PAC may contribute no more than $5,000 to a federal candidate in a general or primary election. PACs have grown to become the second-largest source of campaign funds, trailing only individuals (Herrnson 2004).

2006, Peter L. Francia, The Future of Organized Labor in American Politics, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 81:

The new group, called Save America, is a federal fund-raising vehicle known as a leadership PAC that has donation limits of $5,000 per donor per year. […] In that sense, his PAC could become a fan-subsidized machine to perpetuate his agenda and plot his next moves.

2020 November 10, Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman, Rachel Shorey, “Trump Starts PAC for Future Endeavors, Biden Will Speak on Obamacare Case”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

political action committee
w:political action committee

(US politics) Initialism of political action committee.


I

en-noun

I (countable and uncountable, plural Is)

(US politics) Abbreviation of independent.


CR

CR (countable and uncountable, plural CRs)

Most continuing resolutions are temporary measures that expire on the date specified in the CR, or are superseded by enactment of the regular appropriations act.

2004, Allen Schick, The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process, →ISBN, page 228:

A few days later in a meeting with the president, Clinton asked Gingrich for a continuing resolution (CR) to continue funding the government until they could work out a compromise. “If I go back and try to get a longterm CR without a budget from you, the next time you'll be dealing with Speaker Armey," he said.

2008, Steven M. Gillon, The Pact: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and the Rivalry that Defined a Generation, →ISBN:

CRs are a common occurrence because it is highly unusual for Congress and the president to pass all 13 appropriations bills by the start of the new fiscal year.

2014, Robert E. Dewhirst, John David Rausch, Encyclopedia of the United States Congress, →ISBN, page 149:

continuing resolution
continuing resolution#English

(US politics, law) Initialism of continuing resolution.


DNC

Democratic National Committee
w:Democratic National Committee

(US politics) Initialism of Democratic National Committee.


DNC

Coordinate term: RNC

Undoubtedly, there were some who thought that the party, once defined and consolidated, would appeal to “Reagan Democrats,” but there were also many who thought that the liberal groups dominating the party could easily splinter into diverse interest groups if not afforded the opportunity to come together as one. The 1984 DNC was going to be that opportunity.

2020, Theodore F. Sheckels, The Rhetoric of the American Political Party Conventions, 1948–2016, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 103:

Democratic National Convention
w:Democratic National Convention

(US politics) Initialism of Democratic National Convention.


domino effect

An allusion to a row of dominoes in which the fall of one leads to a cascade of falling pieces.

(politics, historical) The theory that, if South Vietnam became communist, it would be followed by Cambodia, Laos, additional Southeast Asian countries, other Asian countries, and likely even elsewhere.


Disney

English surname of Norman origin, from Old French de (“of, from”) + Isigny (a place in Calvados). For the placename, see Isigny-sur-Mer. In modern use, it is also derived from the name of Walt Disney, whose surname has the aforementioned origin.

A town in Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States, named after Wesley E. Disney.


Disney

Disney (nominative singular)
Disney-k (nominative plural)
Disney-t (accusative singular)
Disney-ket (accusative plural)
Disney-nek (dative singular)
Disney-knek (dative plural)
Disney-vel (instrumental singular)
Disney-kkel (instrumental plural)
Disney-ért (causal-final singular)
Disney-kért (causal-final plural)
Disney-vé (singular translative)
Disney-kké (plural translative)
Disney-ig (singular terminative)
Disney-kig (plural terminative)
Disney-ként (essive-formal singular)
Disney-kként (essive-formal plural)
Disney-ben (inessive singular)
Disney-kben (inessive plural)
Disney-n (singular superessive)
Disney-ken (plural superessive)
Disney-nél (adessive singular)
Disney-knél (adessive plural)
Disney-be (illative singular)
Disney-kbe (illative plural)
Disney-re (singular sublative)
Disney-kre (plural sublative)
Disney-hez (allative singular)
Disney-khez (allative plural)
Disney-ből (elative singular)
Disney-kből (elative plural)
Disney-ről (delative singular)
Disney-kről (delative plural)
Disney-től (ablative singular)
Disney-ktől (ablative plural)
Disney-é (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
Disney-ké (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
Disney-éi (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
Disney-kéi (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
Disney-m (first-person possessed-single possessive singular)
Disney-jeim (or Disney-im) (first-person possessed-many possessive singular)
Disney-d (possessed-single possessive second-person singular)
Disney-jeid (or Disney-id) (possessed-many possessive second-person singular)
Disney-je (possessed-single possessive singular third-person)
Disney-jei (or Disney-i) (possessed-many possessive singular third-person)
Disney-nk (first-person plural possessed-single possessive)
Disney-jeink (or Disney-ink) (first-person plural possessed-many possessive)
Disney-tek (plural possessed-single possessive second-person)
Disney-jeitek (or Disney-itek) (plural possessed-many possessive second-person)
Disney-jük (plural possessed-single possessive third-person)
Disney-jeik (or Disney-ik) (plural possessed-many possessive third-person)


Disney

Unadapted borrowing from English Disney.

un film della Disney


Disney

pl-prop

Disney m pers (related adjective disnejowski)

disnejowski (adjective)
Disney (nominative singular)
Disneya (genitive singular)
Disneyowi (dative singular)
Disneya (accusative singular)
Disneyem (instrumental singular)
Disneyu (locative singular)
Disneyu (singular vocative)

Walt Disney (American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur)

(metonymically) Disney (The Walt Disney Company, named after Walt Disney)


Disney

(Brazil, slang, neologism) easy, comfortable, or favorable


Disney

(Brazil, slang, neologism) the state of forgetting something; blackout; oblivion


Disney

um filme da Disney

Estou indo para a Disney nas férias.


glasnost

en-noun

glasnost (countable and uncountable, plural glasnosts)

Borrowed from Russian гла́сность (glásnostʹ, “openness”).

bor

Gorbachev would introduce glasnost (openness and freedom) and perestroika (economic restructuring) to Russia under his tenure, ultimately freeing thousands of political prisoners and dissidents and trying to address the shortages in food and goods that had become the hallmarks of the failing Soviet economy.

2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage:

(historical) 1980s and early 1990s policy of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev to allow more government transparency; often paired with perestroika

glasnost (usually accompanied by translation)


perestroika

en-noun

perestroika (countable and uncountable, plural perestroikas)

Borrowed from Russian перестро́йка (perestrójka, “restructuring”).

bor+

перестро́йка

(historical, uncountable) The period of time in the Soviet Union during which these reforms were carried out and in effect.


October surprise

en-noun

October surprise (plural October surprises)

From October + surprise from the surprise news occurring during October.

(US politics) An occurrence that unexpectedly comes to public attention just prior to a November election, especially a presidential election, and that is likely to affect the outcome.


HUAC

w:House Un-American Activities Committee

(US, historical) Acronym of House Un-American Activities Committee.


alicorn

Term already associated with unicorns and reinterpreted as a blend of Latin āla (“wing”) with unicorn, popularized by Bearing an Hourglass (1984) and other fantasy novels by Piers Anthony.

The Alicorn. He be a winged unicorn, the finest equine flesh extant, the adoration of every fair and innocent maiden. For that steed I would give anything.

1984 August, Piers Anthony, Bearing an Hourglass, Del Rey Books, published 1992, →ISBN, →OL, page 171:

A silver portal opens in the sky and a^([sic]) ebony alicorn stallion gallops from it the silver tips on his black wings shine in the sun's light.

1999 May 15, Twyligtsky <twyligtsky@aol.comSKYMAGE>, “Re: RP: First appearence!^([sic])”, in alt.mythology.mythic-animals (Usenet), message-ID <19990515145319.05236.00000939@ng-fs1.aol.com>:

Rarity: Why, you've become an alicorn! I didn't even know that was possible.
Pinkie Pie: [wearing a costume horn and wings] Alicorn party!

2013 February 16, M.A. Larson, “Magical Mystery Cure” (16:32), in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, season 3, episode 13, spoken by Rarity and Pinkie Pie (Tabitha St. Germain and Andrea Libman):

(nonstandard) A mythological creature, a mixture of pegasus and unicorn: a winged horse with a single horn on its head.


galvanize

en-verb

galvanize (third-person singular simple present galvanizes, present participle galvanizing, simple past and past participle galvanized)

galvanizes (present singular third-person)
galvanizing (participle present)
galvanized (participle past)
galvanized (past)

From French galvaniser, from galvanisme, named after Italian physiologist Luigi Aloisio Galvani (1737–1798). By surface analysis, galvano- + -ize.

named-after

Reenactors called this “galvanizing,” the Civil War term for soldiers who switched sides during the conflict.

1998, Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic, 1st Vintage Departures edition, Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 10:

(historical, US) To switch sides between Union and Confederate in the American Civil War.


SCOTUS

Supreme Court of the United States
w:Supreme Court of the United States

(US politics) Acronym of Supreme Court of the United States.


TEA

(US politics) Initialism of taxed enough already.


Mason-Dixon Line

Charles Mason
Jeremiah Dixon
Mason–Dixon line

Named after English astronomers Charles Mason (1728–1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733–1779).

[…] and he tell'd me Georgia would go for me, arter^([sic]) the Gineral^([sic]), as soon as any north of mason and dickson^([sic]).

1833, Charles Augustus Davis, “Letter III […] ”, in Letters of Jack Downing, Major […] , New-York: Harper & brothers, published 1834, page 36:

The epistles are not dated far apart; and in the second, the writer, who dwelleth near ‘Mason and Dixon,’ descants upon the awful climate hereabout in the summer months.

1843, Charles Fenno Hoffman, John Holmes Agnew, “Editor's Table”, in The Knickerbocker; Or, New-York Monthly Magazine, volume 22, New-York: John Allen, page 185:

The Soviet press was disseminating in Africa and Asia stories about black children in the South being denied adequate schooling, black accident victims dying because no white hospital in the South would admit them, and African diplomats being refused access to white restaurants and washrooms while traveling south of the Mason-Dixon line.

2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 2, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part I. The New Deal Order, 1930–1980:

The boundary between the free and slave states at the time of the American Civil War, or between states with different segregationist policies in the Jim Crow era.


Republican Party

The name was proposed at the first public meeting of the anti-Nebraska movement on March 20, 1854, at the Little White Schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, and partly chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party.

(US politics) A right-wing conservative political party in the United States.

Democratic-Republican Party
Little White Schoolhouse
Republican Party (United States)
Ripon, Wisconsin
Thomas Jefferson
anti-Nebraska movement


bundler

She [Sandberg] was a reliable and prominent Democratic bundler.

2021 July 8, Sheera Frenkel, Cecilia Kang, “Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg’s Partnership Did Not Survive Trump”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


Nader effect

Named after Ralph Nader, whose candidacy for President of the United States in the year 2000 was contended to have "spoiled" the election for Al Gore, by taking away enough votes from Gore in Florida and many other states to allow George W. Bush to win.

(US politics) The effect that a candidate for the corresponding political office (especially the office of President of the United States) can have on a close political election, when their candidacy results in the election being won by a candidate dissimilar to them, rather than a candidate similar to them.


Snoopy

Some dogs will be back porch familiars — beagles with soulful, Snoopy eyes: Dalmatians with spots; bassets with mitten ears; Siberian huskies with wolfish voices; Collies that look just like Lassie.

1978 January 20, “A Day For Dogs And Dog Lovers”, in Milwaukee Journal:

My daughter calls these "Snoopy eyes" after the childlike presentation of the beagle in Schulz's cartoon Peanuts.

2005, Russell Dale Guthrie, The nature of Paleolithic art, page 93:

Mary Mann, another sophomore, sits on the roof of a red dog house, giving her most enigmatic Snoopy look.

2006 April 14, “Good Grief! A Student Musical.”, in The Virginian Pilot:

Being excessive or overzealous only gives the patient a surprised “Snoopy” look.

2009, Douglas Hamilton with Babak Azizzadeh, Beverly Hills Beauty Secrets, page 161:

Charlie Brown's pet beagle in the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz; often representing doggish soulfulness.


trifecta

In fact, there are about a dozen states, including California, Massachusetts, Washington, and Illinois, where Democrats have won the trifecta—they control the governor's seat as well as both houses of the state legislature.

2013 June 26, Steven Hill, “So the Voting Rights Act Is Gutted—What Can Protect Minority Voters Now?”, in The Atlantic:

It’s not just Florida, of course. Republican trifectas in states across the country have introduced and passed dozens of bills aimed at the public existence of trans and other gender-nonconforming people.

2023 December 12, Jamelle Bouie, “Red States and Blue States Are Becoming Different Countries”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US politics) The complete legislative and executive control of state or federal government by one party: governorship, the upper house, and the lower house of state or federal legislatures.

trifekta

control by one party of the federal or state government


détente

Unadapted borrowing from French détente (“relaxing”).

ubor

Analogous structural and political constraints stood in the way of a lasting détente between Germany and Britain.

2012, Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, Penguin, published 2013, page 318:

No step the United States could take anywhere in the world would bring strategic benefits as great as detente with Iran.

2014 January 14, Stephen Kinzer, “Invading Iraq was dumb enough. Now Congress wants to derail the Iran deal”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly politics) A relaxing of tension, especially between countries.

разра́дка

a relaxing of tension, especially between countries


Incredible Hulk

en-noun

Incredible Hulk (plural Incredible Hulks)

Named after the Incredible Hulk, a Marvel Comics Universe character with green skin.

A green-colored cocktail made with equal parts of the fruit liqueur Hpnotiq and Hennessy brand cognac poured over ice.


McCarthyism

Named after United States Senator Joseph McCarthy. Originates from a 1950 Washington Post political cartoon by Herbert Block.

named-after

An important symptom of the difference between McCarthyism and Birchism is the shift in the geographical center of gravity.

1964, Daniel Bell, The Radical Right, page 234:

The intense opposition to, and fear and suspicion of, Communism, particularly in the United States during the 1950s.


IDS

Initialism of Initiative de défense stratégique (“Strategic Defense Initiative”): SDI


First Amendment

The claimant believed his First Amendment rights had been violated, but the judge was unsure of whether it was a First Amendment issue.

Our First Amendment class discussed the McCain-Feingold Act today, and I'm convinced people who claim money should be granted First Amendment protection are just defending the corrupt status quo of decades past.

What are the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States here referred to [in the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]? […] Among these we are safe in including those which in the Constitution are expressly secured to the people, either as against the action of the Federal or State governments. Included in these are the rights of freedom of speech, and the right peaceably to assemble. […] We find that Congress is forbidden to impair them by the first amendment, and the States are forbidden to impair them by the fourteenth amendment.

1871 May, Circuit Judge William Burnham Woods, “The Power of Congress to Pass the Enforcement Act—The Fourteenth Amendment Construed—The Rights of Citizens of the States and United States Considered.—The United States v. John Hall, Jr., and William Pettigrew. Heard before Woods, Circuit, and Busteed, District JJ., on demurrer to the indictment. [U.S. Circuit Court, 8. D. of Alabama.]”, in The Internal Revenue Record and Customs Journal: A Weekly Register of Official Information on Internal Revenue and Customs, volume XIII, New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] C[onant] & F[rancis] P[harcellus] Church, publishers, office, no. 39 Park Row, →OCLC, page 182, column 3:

One scholar has noted that the [Warren Earl] Burger Court has invalidated more statutes on First Amendment grounds than any previous "court" […]

1981, Thomas A. Schwartz, A Reconceptualization of the First Amendment: The Burger Court and Freedom of the Press, 1969–1980 (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation), Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, →OCLC, page 224:

We have enshrined some of the most cherished rights of Americans in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, including freedom of religion, speech, press, the right to assemble, and petition the government for a redress of grievances.

2002, Clyde E. Willis, “Preface”, in Student's Guide to Landmark Congressional Laws on the First Amendment (Student's Guide to Landmark Congressional Laws), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN:

By considering public opinion data on free press rights against the backdrop of modern First Amendment jurisprudence, we seek to offer new and original insights into the nature of popular support for these rights – and, in the process, we hope to provide a more sophisticated understanding of how the U.S. democratic system actually works

2002, David A[listair] Yalof, Kenneth Dautrich, “Preface and Acknowledgements”, in The First Amendment and the Media in the Court of Public Opinion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page viii:

The United States has generally not been successful in terms of exporting the First Amendment in the formal or legal sense, even to western democracies with which it shares much in common. Although they have rejected many of the First Amendment’s doctrines and standards, many nations have embraced its general norms, principles, and ideals. Indeed, the American First Amendment has had a profound and lasting effect on expressive and religious liberties throughout the world.

2014, Timothy Zick, “Exporting the First Amendment”, in The Cosmopolitan First Amendment: Protecting Transborder Expressive and Religious Liberties, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 346:

2019 July 29, Elizabeth Nolan Brown on Reasonhttps://reason.com/2019/07/29/section-230-is-the-internets-first-amendment-now-both-republicans-and-democrats-want-to-take-it-away/
Section 230 Is the Internet's First Amendment.

freedom of the press
freedom of the press

The amendment to the constitution of the United States pertaining to freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press.

First Amendment
Newseum
United States Constitution


X-Phile

1995, Ngaire Genge, The Unofficial X-Files Companion: An X-Phile's Guide to the Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Really Strange Truths Behind the Show, Crown Trade Paperbacks, →ISBN:

1998, Richard Corliss, Time, quoted in Peter Bart, The Gross: The Hits, the Flops — the Summer That Ate Hollywood, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN, page 227,
And that’s enough to turn an X-phile into an ex-phile.

2003, Robynn J. Stilwell, "The sound is ‘out there’: score, sound design and exoticism in The X-Files", in Allan F. Moore (ed.), Analyzing Popular Music, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 70,
The X-Files – as any X-Phile could tell you – divides into two kinds of episodes: the mythology shows, which further the overarching plot of Mulder’s search for the truth that is ‘out there’ about the US government conspiracy to conceal the alien presence; and the stand-alone shows.

My involvement in coffee connoisseur (Kozinets, 2002), Star Trek fan (2001) and X-Phile (1997) communities was high.

2006, Robert V. Kozinets, “Netnography 2.0”, in Russell W. Belk, editor, Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing, Edward Elgar Publishing, →ISBN, page 133:

(fandom slang) A fan of the television series The X-Files.


Zouave

From French, from Arabic زَوَاوِيّ (zawāwiyy), used to refer to a Kabyle soldier, especially of the Igawawen people.

(military, historical, by extension) One of a body of soldiers who adopt the dress and drill of the Zouaves in French service, as was done by a number of volunteer regiments in the army of the United States in the Civil War (1861–65).


East Berlin

(historical, Germany) The Soviet sector of Berlin between 1949 and 1990.

Østberlin

the Soviet sector of Berlin between 1949 and 1990


phaser

* (science fiction): For the fictional weapon coined for Star Trek: originally a "ph(oton ma)ser," later changed canonically to a "phas(ed)-e(nergy) r(ectifier)" (of "nadions", not photons).
* (phase modulation): phase + -er

Captain James Kirk: "Set your phaser on one quarter. I'll leave mine on stun."

1966 September 8, George Clayton Johnson, The Man Trap (Star Trek), season 1, episode 1:

His oddly reserved nature stands out [...]. Whyte sets his phaser on stun, not kill.

A Bajoran rushed past with an armful of phaser rifles, another with a box of hand phasers.

1999, Dafydd ab Hugh, chapter 3, in Fallen Heroes [Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; 5], New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books:

Giolitti's Gold Key art is widely admired, [...] and this is a terrific opportunity to pick up a page—set your phasers on bid.

2004, Hertiage Signature Auction #811, page 185:

I said, "Set phasers on be-a-bastard."

Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(science fiction) Fictional energy weapon, with multiple settings for degree of intensity, from the television series Star Trek (1966–69).


minibus

en-noun

minibus (plural minibuses or minibusses)

From mini- + bus. In the political sense, probably a back-formation from omnibus.

The minibus is the first of two funding packages the House hopes to pass this month.

2020 July 25, Danielle Haynes, “House passes 4-bill spending package”, in UPI:

(US politics) A combined spending bill for multiple departments that is smaller than an omnibus bill.


UDC

‘My cousin gave me Their Eyes Were Watching God. She had it in a class. She goes to UDC. I liked that book.’

2001, Percival Everett, Erasure, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 26:

w:University of the District of Columbia

Initialism of University of the District of Columbia.


homestead

Ultimately from Old English hamstede through an unattested Middle English word. Cognate with German Heimstatt, Dutch heemstede and Swedish hemstad. By surface analysis, home + stead.

чифлик

He owned exactly six hundred and forty acres of what stretched outside his door; his own original homestead and timber claim, making three hundred and twenty acres, and the half-section adjoining, the homestead of a younger brother who had given up the fight, gone back to Chicago to work in a fancy bakery […]

1913, Willa Cather, chapter 2, in O Pioneers!, Part 1:

A house together with surrounding land and buildings, especially on a farm; the property comprising these.

(Canada, US) A parcel of land in the interior of North America, usually 160 acres, that was distributed to settlers from Europe or eastern North America under the Dominion Lands Act of 1870 in Canada or the Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States.


FDR

Over the course of his [Eisenhower's] two terms in office, his administration's expenditures on public works actually exceeded those of FDR and Truman.

2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 1, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part I. The New Deal Order, 1930–1980:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
w:Franklin D. Roosevelt

(US politics) Initialism of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32ⁿᵈ US president.

Coordinate term: GDR

Federal Democratic Republic
Federal Democratic Republic#English

Initialism of Federal Democratic Republic.

Abbreviation of West Germany. (German Federal Democratic Republic)


late unpleasantness

late unpleasantness (plural late unpleasantnesses)

It is unlikely that anyone with significant knowledge of the Army or the late unpleasantness in Southeast Asia, upon reading these two sentences, would respond other than with a scatological barnyard expletive or some more genteel utterance representing the same level of acceptance.

2003, Zane E. Finkelstein (referring to the Vietnam War), (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 2005-08-28:

(euphemistic) A recent war, especially (historical) the American Civil War.


Clintonism

Clintonism (countable and uncountable, plural Clintonisms)

(uncountable) The policies of U.S. president Bill Clinton.


containment

containment (countable and uncountable, plural containments)

Mr. Putin has reinvigorated an alliance that spent years confused about its purpose once it lost the adversary it was formed to contain, the Soviet Union. Now, containment is back.

2022 February 18, David E. Sanger, “The United States’ Message to Russia: Prove Us Wrong”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(uncountable, countable) A policy of checking the expansion of a hostile foreign power by creating alliances with other states; especially the foreign policy strategy of the United States in the early years of the Cold War.


fire-eater

Frustrated in their attempts to change the law, fire-eaters turned their efforts to breaking it.

1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 103:

(US, historical) An extreme partisan for the South before the US Civil War.


droid

Clipping of android (“robot designed to look and act like a human being”), coined by the American science fiction author Mari Wolf (born 1927) in the story “Robots of the World! Arise!” (1952), and popularized by the film Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, 1977): see the quotations.

coin

"Okay, Allie, I didn't want to have to do this, but if you insist on behaving like an astromech droid, you leave me no choice." Rory's an accountant and a Star Wars nerd.

2006, Shane Bolks, Reality TV Bites: […], New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 16:

(chiefly US, derogatory) A person having the qualities of an android; one with few or no emotions or little personality, or who acts in an unthinking manner; a robot.


third party

A seller may employ a third party to perform specific services to augment the value of a product, such as packing and distribution.

(business, commerce) Someone not directly involved in a transaction; an entity beyond the seller (first party) and customer (second party).

第三方

someone not directly involved in a transaction.

(law) Someone only incidentally or tangentially connected to an incident or dispute; someone other than the principals; a bystander or independent witness.

Those who belong to the Libertarian Party serve a much larger pro-liberty community and have the specific mission of electing libertarians to public office. They traditionally billed themselves as 'America's largest third party'.

2010, Duncan Watts, Dictionary of American Government and Politics, →ISBN, page 177:

(politics, chiefly US) A political party in opposition to the main parties in a two-party system.

kolmas puolue

a political party in opposition to the main parties in a two-party system


dilithium

Fifty years later and it seems like we should—I don’t know if dilithium crystals are out there—but, you know, we should be getting some breakthroughs.

2016 October, Scott Dadich, quoting Barack Obama, “Barack Obama Talks AI, Robo Cars, and the Future of the World”, in Wired, →ISSN:

(science fiction) A fictional crystalline mineral in the Star Trek franchise, described as an essential component of anti-matter energy generation systems.


greenback

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-greenback.wav


DAD

Currently replaying in preparation for DAD, and the Josiemance is still as lovely as I remember.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf
w:Dragon Age: The Veilguard

(fandom slang) Initialism of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf (early title of Dragon Age: The Veilguard).


tomacco

A tomato plant grafted onto a tobacco plant.


MLK

Our own research suggests that MLK’s “I have a dream” is indeed a “hope booster”.

2009, Anthony Scioli, Henry Biller, Hope in the Age of Anxiety, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 367:

Martin Luther King Jr.
w:Martin Luther King Jr.


Underground Railroad

(historical) The pre-American Civil War anti-slavery resistance movement dedicated to helping escaped slaves to reach safe territory.


kryptonite

en-verb

kryptonite (third-person singular simple present kryptonites, present participle kryptoniting, simple past and past participle kryptonited)

kryptonites (present singular third-person)
kryptoniting (participle present)
kryptonited (participle past)
kryptonited (past)

From a fictional radioactive element, kryptonite, that has a detrimental effect on the otherwise invulnerable character Superman. Apparently formed as krypton (“a chemical element, Kr”) + -ite.

affix

(figuratively) To destroy, wreck, or ruin; to affect adversely, as Superman is affected by kryptonite.


redshift

en-noun

redshift (countable and uncountable, plural redshifts)

(US politics) The statistical bias towards Republican (or Blue Dog) candidates of US federal elections whose reported results vary considerably from those indicated by voter exit polls.


Watergate

/ˈwɑtəɹˌɡeɪt/

From the name of the Watergate Hotel; the complex itself was named after the "Water Gate" area where symphony orchestra concerts were staged on the Potomac River between 1935 and 1965.

An American political scandal (beginning with a burglary in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, in 1972) that eventually led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon.


Buffyverse

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) is a televisual artifact that contains apocalyptic rhetoric in most episodes—apocalyptic in the sense that something is about to end in the Buffyverse, and rhetorical in the sense that something is going to change in the Buffyverse.

2009, Kylo-Patrick R. Hart, Annette Holba, Media and the Apocalypse, page 77:

2009, Kevin K. Durand, It's All about Power, in Kevin K. Durand (editor), Buffy Meets the Academy: Essays on the Episodes and Scripts as Text, Part I: Power and the Buffy Canon, page 46,
In the Buffyverse, we encounter a true representation of shared power, of partnered power. Further, the “bad guys” are not the only paradigms of patriarchy in the Buffyverse that are overcome.

We can hardly be surprised when Buffy and Satsu find what warmth they can, as Willow does with her demon lover, in an intercut sex scene of the kind which typically precedes an apocalypse in the Buffyverse (#15, p. 26). Scenes like this confirm Em McAvan's point that the Buffyverse associates bisexuality with kink (paragraph 15).

2010, Lewis Call, “Slaying the Heteronormative: Representations of Alternative Sexuality in Buffy Season Eight Comics”, in Erin B. Waggoner, editor, Sexual Rhetoric in the Works of Joss Whedon: New Essays, page 115:

(fandom slang) The fictional world, or universe, which serves as the setting for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.


cromulent

en-adj

cromulent (comparative more cromulent, superlative most cromulent)

more cromulent (comparative)
most cromulent (superlative)

A humorous, intentionally morphologically opaque neologism and nonce word coined by American television writer David X. Cohen (born 1966) for “Lisa the Iconoclast”, a 1996 episode of the animated sitcom The Simpsons. The ending resembles corpulent, temulent and other Latinate adjectives (derived from -ulentus (“full of, abounding in”)).

coin

Mrs. Krabappel: "Embiggens"? I never heard that word before moving to Springfield.
Ms. Hoover: I don't know why; it's a perfectly cromulent word.
[…]
Principal Skinner: He's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance.

1996 February 18, David X. Cohen, “Lisa the Iconoclast”, in The Simpsons, season 7, episode 16, production code 3F13:

Nerdcore could rise up, it could get elevated.
Oh, and wouldn’t all of those tough rappers hate it
if the nerdcore rose up and got elevated.
We consider the possibleness of this not overstated.
And I know that "possibleness" is not a cromulent word;
every syllable injected is intended to be the one you heard
(an absurd juxtaposition of mission and goal).

2005 August 27, MC Frontalot (lyrics and music), “Nerdcore Rising”, in Nerdcore Rising:

He had a boundless passion for music and entertained many with his beautiful voice and perfectly cromulent sense of humor.

2006 April 10, “Obituaries and in memoriams: Benjamin Sidney Linton”, in The Charlotte Observer:

Of course, you may encounter a new program that doesn't work reliably with UNC paths, and this is a perfectly cromulent workaround.

2008, David A. Karp, “Users and Security”, in John Osborn, Laurel R. T. Ruma, editors, Windows Vista Annoyances (Tips, Secrets and Solutions), Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, →OL, page 505:

There are certainly other cromulent techniques which may perform well for certain models and assumptions.

2008, Alan M. Polansky, “Connections and Comparisons”, in Observed Confidence Levels: Theory and Application, Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman & Hall/CRC Press, →ISBN, →OL, section 7.3 (Multiple Comparisons), page 216:

How well does this function work? For positive integers, it's perfectly cromulent: […]

2009, Bryan O'Sullivan, John Goerzen, Don Stewart, “Functional Programming”, in Mike Loukides, editor, Real World Haskell (Code You Can Believe In), Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, →OL, page 86:

(humorous) Acceptable, satisfactory, or valid.


Stalin

Borrowed from Russian Ста́лин (Stálin), from сталь (stalʹ, “steel”) + -ин (-in, possessive suffix), from German Stahl (“steel”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stahlą (“steel”).

suf

A surname from Russian; usually referring to the Russian [empire, republic] revolutionary and Soviet Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) Joseph Stalin.


King Kong

King Kong (nominative singular)
King Kong (genitive singular)
King Kong (dative singular)
King Kong (accusative singular)
King Kong (instrumental singular)
King Kong (locative singular)
King Kong (singular vocative)

King Kong (fictional giant ape, the eponymous star of several movies)


freedom fries

Originated at Cubbie's, a restaurant in Beaufort, North Carolina (owner Neal Rowland) in February 2003.
"It was never about politics," Rowland said of his initial decision to rename french fries "freedom fries." "It was about supporting our troops. Nothing has changed here. We still support our troops, and we still call them freedom fries."

[Q.]“Freedom fries” is a symbol of anti-French feeling. Does that sort of thing gall you?
[A.]Higonnet: […] Again, one has to distinguish between the public situation, in which a sense of hostility to things French is quite severe, and the private situation inside the university world where, when people talk about freedom fries, it's a big joke.

2003 March 22, Joseph Rosenbloom, quoting Patrice Higonnet, “Europeans in America: Freedom fries and raw nerves”, in International Herald Tribune:

Upset by the failure of the French government to support the war, however, the chairman of the House Administration Committee announced on March 11 that he had ordered “French toast” and “French fries” stricken from the menu of the House cafeteria. In their place would be “freedom toast” and “freedom fries.”

2006, Andrew Rudalevige, The New Imperial Presidency, page 3:

French Toast Egg Bagels Served as French Toast
Freedom Fries
Irish Nachos Freedom Fries, Bacon Bits, Chedder^([sic]) & Jack Cheese

2013 June 24, Dave Lieberman, quoting the menu of Bagel Me! restaurant, “Restaurant in Villa Park Still Sells “Freedom” Fries, But Doesn't Have a Problem with “French” Toast”, in OC Weekly:

Republican House members then ordered that “French fries” on the menus of all congressional restaurants be renamed “Freedom fries.” In response, a French Embassy spokesperson noted that fries had originated in Belgium.

2021 September 17, Karen DeYoung, “France recalls its ambassadors to the United States and Australia over submarine dispute”, in Washington Post:

(rare, US politics, sometimes humorous) French fries.


munchkin

en:Munchkin (disambiguation)
munchkin
munchkin (cat)

Coined by American author L. Frank Baum in 1900 in his novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Perhaps reflective of German Mensch or munch + -kin. Compare Low German Menschken and Low German Minschken

coinage

It'll also have a keyboard configured for a munchkin (...)

2009 August 25, Jonathan Salem Baskin, “Will Nokia's Next Chapter Be Kitchen Blenders?”, in InformationWeek's Digital Life Weblog:

(informal) A person of very short stature.

(informal, slang) Synonym of donut hole (“ball-shaped pastry”) (genericization of the Dunkin' trademark "Munchkins")

donut hole

(informal) A pet name one uses for something adorable like a pet, child, or a romantic partner


Epcot

Acronym of Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow


Jedi Master

The highest of orders in the Jedi Order of the Star Wars universe, similar to a bishop.

(humorous) Respectful term of address for an expert in a particular field.


logrolling

en-noun

logrolling (countable and uncountable, plural logrollings)

/ˈlɒɡˌɹəʊlɪŋ/

/ˈlɑɡˌɹoʊlɪŋ/

From log + rolling, the figurative senses from the practice of neighbors helping each other do heavy work such as rolling logs in connection with clearing land and building.

tukkien pyöritys

rolling of logs from one place to another

What, for instance, did the honorable member for North Melbourne (Mr. Curtain) care about the Horsham extension? Not twopence, unless it helped him to get the "outer circle" line. It was much the same with the honorable member for Crowlands (Mr. Woods), the honorable member for the Avoca (Mr. Grant), the honorable member for South Gippsland (Mr. Mason), and others. In fact it was felt during the whole of the discussion that there was an excellent chance for good wholesale log-rolling. He believed a more wholesale attempt at log-rolling never was made.

1873 October 22, “Railway Construction Bill”, in Victoria. Parliamentary Debates. Session 1873. Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, volume XVII (Comprising the Period from August 27 to November 25), Melbourne: John Ferres, printer, →OCLC, pages 2004, column 2 – 2005, column 1:

Thus far, by a resort to the familiar method of "log-rolling," all attempts to put an end to the Northern and Southern divisions have failed, because of the union of the opposing interests with those that want large appropriations in different parts of the State; and it is quite probable that the same tactics will be successful in the future at all general sessions.

1896, “Discussion of the Address of Mr. Courtney”, in Proceedings of the Illinois State Bar Association at Its Nineteenth Annual Meeting Held in the City of Springfield, January 23 and 24, 1896 with the Constitution, Officers, Standing Committees and Roll of Members for the Year 1896, Springfield, Mass.: Illinois State Register Book Publishing House, →OCLC, part first, page 43:

By its nature logrolling pays off concentrated group interests and ignores diffuse interests, like taxpayers, who are hard to organize. Since interests in expansion and militarism are typically more concentrated than the interests opposed to them, logrolling is inherently more apt to produce overexpansion than underexpansion.

1991, Jack Snyder, “The Myth of Security through Expansion”, in Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs), Ithaca, N.Y., London: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 18:

Incentives to engage in the exchange of votes in legislatures, or logrolling, have existed since the inception of legislatures. Most prominently, logrolling is alleged in the United States, where a plurality rule is employed to elect representatives from single-member districts.

1997, Thomas Stratmann, “Logrolling”, in Dennis C[ary] Mueller, editor, Perspectives on Public Choice: A Handbook, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 322:

Logrolling is making mutually beneficial tradeoffs between the issues on the table. […] If a negotiator is positional or demanding, logrolling will be much more difficult. Logrolling is the art and science of being firm but flexible.

2014, Reed K. Holden, Leigh Thompson, “Truth 21. Logrolling (I Scratch Your Back, You Scratch Mine)”, in Learn Successful Sales and Negotiation Tips (Collection), Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press Delivers, →ISBN:

(uncountable, US politics, figuratively) A concerted effort to push forward mutually advantageous legislative agendas by combining two items, either or both of which might fail on its own, into a single bill that is more likely to pass.

lehmänkauppa

politics: pushing one's agenda forward by combining two or more items


jump on the bandwagon

en-verb

jump on the bandwagon (third-person singular simple present jumps on the bandwagon, present participle jumping on the bandwagon, simple past and past participle jumped on the bandwagon)

jumps on the bandwagon (present singular third-person)
jumping on the bandwagon (participle present)
jumped on the bandwagon (participle past)
jumped on the bandwagon (past)

US 1899. A bandwagon carried the musicians at the head of a parade or at a political rally, beckoning others to follow. When used to refer to politics, jumping on the bandwagon suggests following the crowd for the excitement of the event rather than any firm conviction in its direction or truthfulness. The phrase is first attested in a letter by Theodore Roosevelt in 1899:
: When I once became sure of one majority they rumbled over each other to get aboard the band wagon.

After the incredible success of Wonka's latest low-fat chocolate bar, Fickelgruber has jumped on the bandwagon, and released a low-fat version.

(idiomatic) To profit from a craze; to join a trend.


Strategic Defense Initiative

the Strategic Defense Initiative (canonical)

(historical) A system proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983, to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.


Brandon

From Middle English Brandon, Brampdon, Bramdun, Bremedon, Bromdun, from Old English brōmdūn, from brōm (“broom shrub”) + dūn (“hill, dune”). Doublet of English Branton.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A number of places in the United States:

A city, the county seat of Rankin County, Mississippi.


Brandon

From let's go, Brandon, ultimately from Brandon L. Brown. This was from a news reporter hiding NASCAR fans who were cursing at Joe Biden, resulting in its usage by critics of Joe Biden and Republicans.


Star Trek

We all went into the National Space Society reception, which they'd been looking forward to, since some of the cast of Star Trek had been invited.

1994, Dan Quayle, Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir, 1st edition, HarperCollins, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 253:

A popular sci-fi media franchise set in the future, primarily focusing on the adventures of the personnel of a space navy of an interstellar political federation of which Earth is a charter member.


Star Trek

en-adj

Star Trek (comparative more Star Trek, superlative most Star Trek)

more Star Trek (comparative)
most Star Trek (superlative)

Sounds very Star Trek, but Virtual Reality technology exists right now.

1992, Faith Popcorn, The Popcorn Report: Faith Popcorn on the Future of Your Company, Your World, Your Life, New York: Doubleday, →ISBN, →OL, page 110:

'This is very Star Trek,' Bryan pipes up as he examines the sketches of the space suits.

2002, Eddie Rowley, Westlife on Tour, Ebury, published 2011, →ISBN, →OL:

Older vampires learned how to dissemble and reassemble their bodies in a way that was very Star Trek.

2007 July 3, Michele Bardsley, Don't Talk Back to Your Vampire, Signet Eclipse, →ISBN, →OL, page 121:

Such portfolios lie on the so-called efficient frontier, which sounds very Star Trek, and is shown in Exhibit 12.2.

2008 August 4, David M. Darst, The Little Book that Saves Your Assets: What the Rich Continue to Do to Stay Wealthy in Up and Down Markets, Hoboken: Wiley, →ISBN, →OL, page 154:

The next century will be more Star Trek than anyone could have imagined. All the untapped channels and stations or frequencies (apps you can download) in the brain will become the new final frontier to explore.

2012 August 29, D. Crawford, Nirvana in the Garden of Eden: The Quantum Leap and Evolution of 2012, Bloomington: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, →OL, page 33:

Futuristic, particularly with respect to things similar in appearance or effect to technology in the Star Trek franchise.


State of the Union

(US politics) The State of the Union address, an annual event in which a president of the United States reports the status of the country, normally to a joint session of the United States Congress.

خُطْبَة حَالَةِ الاِتِّحَاد

annual address given by the US president

一般教書演説

いっぱんきょうしょえんぜつ


Campbell

* As a Scottish surname, from Scottish Gaelic Caimbeul, from cam (“crooked”) + beul (“mouth”). Compare Cameron, from Scottish Gaelic cam (“crooked”) + sròn (“nose”).
* As an Irish surname, from Mac Cathmhaoil (“son of Cathmhaol”), see Caulfield, Cowell.
* As an English surname, variant of Camel, probably influenced by the above.
* (duck breed): Developed by Adele Campbell.

(US, law, copyright law, US politics, informal, uncountable) Ellipsis of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.. A 1994 U.S. Supreme Court case that held that commercial parodies can be subject to fair use.


AOC

But I’m fine with candidates like AOC (can we start abbreviating?) proposing the jobs guarantee, for a couple of reasons.

2018 July 5, Paul Krugman, “More on a Job Guarantee (Wonkish)”, in The New York Times:

“Time to walk the walk,” AOC, as the New York politician is known to supporters, wrote in a Tuesday night tweet.

2018 December 5, Chantal Da Silva, “‘Time to Walk the Walk’: Ocasio-Cortez Praised for 'Transparency' on Congressional Budget and Intern Pay”, in Newsweek:

As speaker, Pelosi will face challenges from the party's robust wing of liberal newcomers, including 29-year-old New Yorker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has risen to such prominence she is already known around the Capitol – and on her prolific social media accounts – by the nickname “AOC.”

2019 January 3, Lisa Mascaro, “Nancy Pelosi elected speaker of the House, sees ‘new dawn’ for 116th Congress”, in Chicago Tribune, Associated Press:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
w:Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

(US politics) Initialism of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.


cloaking device

en-noun

cloaking device (plural cloaking devices)

1968. Coined by D. C. Fontana in the script for the Star Trek episode The Enterprise Incident.

Spock: "I believe the Romulans have developed a cloaking device which renders our tracking sensors useless."

1968, The Enterprise Incident (Star Trek), season 3, episode 2, Dorothy Catherine Fontana (actor):

Captain Needa: "They can't have disappeared. No ship that small has a cloaking device."

1980, The Empire Strikes Back, Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, and George Lucas (actors):

I put out my hand and touched the warm surface of the camouflaged Rolls-Royce. I was going to ask Mycroft if I could have the cloaking device fitted to my Speedster but I was too late; enthused by my interest he had trotted off to a large roll-top bureau and was beckoning me over excitedly.

(science fiction) A device which renders a person or thing invisible.


gulden

gulden (nominative singular)
guldeny (nominative plural)
guldena (genitive singular)
guldenów (genitive plural)
guldenowi (dative singular)
guldenom (dative plural)
guldena (accusative singular)
guldeny (accusative plural)
guldenem (instrumental singular)
guldenami (instrumental plural)
guldenie (locative singular)
guldenach (locative plural)
guldenie (singular vocative)
guldeny (plural vocative)

Borrowed from German Gulden, from Middle High German guldīn, gulden.

(historical) guilder (former unit of currency of Suriname)


Gotham

Salmagundi (periodical)
Washington Irving

When originally used in England, the meaning of the place name Gotham was literally “homestead where goats are kept”, from Old English gāt (“goat”) + hām (“home”).
As nickname for New York City, first used 1807 by Washington Irving in his Salmagundi Papers.

Naturally sweetened desserts—delicious ones—have several hiding places in Gotham, and the Upper East Side's Candle Café is among the best.

2010, Jared Koch, Alex Van Buren, Clean Plates Manhattan 2011 […] , page 99:


Jefferson

en-proper noun

Jefferson (countable and uncountable, plural Jeffersons)

/ˈd͡ʒɛfɚsən/

From Jeffrey + -son. The placenames in the United States are named for Thomas Jefferson.

Ellis starts with Jefferson and race, writing that the Virginian, who began his career with a failed attempt to make emancipation easier, was “thoroughly embedded in the twin American dilemmas of slavery and racism […]”.

2019 November 28, John S. Gardner, “American Dialogue review: elegant history meets the Trump era”, in The Guardian:

Clearly quite a number of past chief executives would have been TV washouts. Jefferson, for example, is acknowledged to have been a terrible public speaker, Madison an unimpressive little man in voice and appearance.

2011 October 28, Alonzo L. Hamby, “Would Jefferson Make the Cut?”, in The New York Times:

(countable) An English surname originating as a patronymic; (US politics) used specifically of Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), the third president of the United States, principal author of the US Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential founders of the United States.


redshirt

/ˈɹɛd.ʃəː(ɹ)t/

Redshirt (college sports)
Star Trek: The Original Series
Starfleet
redshirt (stock character)

Calque of Italian camicia rossa, equivalent to red + shirt. In later senses with reference to the uniforms or outfits worn by such people. The fandom slang sense emerged from the tendency of red-uninformed Starfleet officers to die in episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series.

(US, sports) A college athlete who spends a year not participating in official athletic activities, but does not lose his or her eligibility to participate in following years.

Sensing danger, Captain Kirk decided to beam down to the surface with Spock, McCoy, and a couple of redshirts.

I am not a goddamn redshirt! I have a purpose!

2017, 42m, in 12 Monkeys, season 3, episode 6:

(fiction, science fiction, fandom slang) An unimportant character introduced only to be killed in order to underscore the peril to the important characters; an expendable character.

(US, military) A person responsible for loading and unloading weapons, artillery, and equipment from aircraft.

As armoured personnel carriers rumbled on to Bangkok's deserted streets, thousands of troops fanned out in a cordon across the city, surrounding the redshirts' fortified protest camp.

2010 May 19, Ben Doherty, “Thai soldiers arrest protest leaders in bloody 'final crackdown'”, in The Guardian:

Alternative form of Red Shirt (“member of the UDD”).


redshirt

en-verb

redshirt (third-person singular simple present redshirts, present participle redshirting, simple past and past participle redshirted)

redshirts (present singular third-person)
redshirting (participle present)
redshirted (participle past)
redshirted (past)

/ˈɹɛd.ʃəː(ɹ)t/

Being asked whether I was going to be redshirted had some status associated with it.

2004, George R. Mills -, A View from the Bench, →ISBN:

The university decided to redshirt the freshman linebacker to give him an extra year to build up his bulk.

(US, collegiate sports) To place an athlete in a status wherein the athlete will spend a year not participating in official athletic activities, but will not lose his or her eligibility to participate in following years.

Hillman, who had come to Indiana without a scholarship (he now had one) from a Los Angeles suburb, wanted to redshirt so that he would have two years of eligibility left after Alford graduated. Smith didn't want to redshirt, he wanted to play.

2012 -, John Feinstein, Season on the Brink, →ISBN, page 62:

(US, collegiate sports) To take on a status wherein one will spend a year not participating in official athletic activities.


Plymouth Rock

The traditionally accepted landing site of the Mayflower settlers to America in 1620, on the shore of Massachusetts.


PPP

(US politics, employment, COVID-19) Initialism of paycheck protection program. A U.S. federal government business loan program to allow businesses to continue to pay fixed costs and employees, for those business adversely impacted by COVID-19.


Rockefeller

American capitalist. Founder, leader, and owner of Standard Oil Company.


Confederacy

Christmas of 1862 had been a happy one for Atlanta, for the whole South. The Confederacy had scored a smashing victory at Fredericksburg and the Yankee dead and wounded were counted in the thousands.

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part II, page 252:

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

(historical) The Confederate States of America, the collection of American states that seceded from the United States in 1860–61, and fought against the Union in the American Civil War.


Fantasyland

en-noun

Fantasyland (countable and uncountable, plural Fantasylands)

Perhaps capitalized under the influence of Walt Disney's Fantasyland theme park areas, which are noted for containing imagery relating to fairy tales.

If your dream depends a lot on luck, then you're in trouble. If it depends entirely on luck, you're living in Fantasyland. ... People who build their dream on reality take a very different approach to dreams than do people who live in Fantasyland.

2009, John C. Maxwell, Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions That Will Help You See It and Seize It, page 50:

Yes, I escaped into Fantasyland. However, I could just as easily have become a serial killer, a prostitute, a child beater, or a politician.

2007, Colleen Sell, A Cup of Comfort for Writers, page 28:

On a scale diagram, with the percentage of households on the vertical axis and the percentage of aggregate income on the horizontal axis, plot the Lorenz curve for Fantasyland.

2003, Richard G. Lipsey, Christopher Ragan, Economics, page 327:

A typical Fantasyland will display - often initially by means of a prefatory MAP - a selection, sometimes very full, from a more or less fixed list of landscape ingredients..."

1999, John Clute, John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, page 341:

Maybe this Fantasyland, as the egg woman called it, would counteract all the weirdness that had been accumulating since. ... Once this Fantasyland had kicked in, he would be on autopilot: all the necessary motivation would be provided for him.

1997, Jay Gummerman, Chez Chance, page 174:

Now leave Fantasyland and go back to the days of fur traders.

1986, Elma Schemenauer, Hello Edmonton, page 15:


radiclib

Shortening. The coinage is generally attributed to US vice president Spiro Agnew. It was used by the Nixon administration to attack the political opposition, implying that the liberals in the Senate were subversive. Several people on Nixon's Enemies List were identified as radiclibs.

1970. September 12, H. R. Haldeman, Haldeman's Diary,
Next, a front that sounds like SDS to support the Democratic candidates and praise their liberal records, etc, publicize their 'bad' quotes in guise of praise. Give the senators a 'radiclib' rating.


Confederate

Yes. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s Attorney General and the unfortunate result of Dobby the house elf’s one-night stand with the Confederate flag, got in trouble this-, (enjoy!) got in trouble this week for undisclosed meetings with Russia’s ambassadors, something which, in itself, is not against the law.

2017 March 5, Tim Carvell, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Jeff Maurer, Ben Silva, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Seena Vali, Julie Weiner, “Dalai Lama”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 4, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:

(historical) Of or relating to the Confederate States of America.


Confederate

James Longstreet
John Bell Hood
Joseph E. Johnston
P. G. T. Beauregard
Robert E. Lee
Stonewall Jackson

In fact, I heard everything in the world except that the Confederates lost the war. When I was ten years old, it was a violent shock to learn that General Lee had been defeated.

2012 March 12 [1936], Margaret Mitchell, quotee, “Interview with Margaret Mitchell from 1936”, in PBS American Masters:

(historical) A citizen of the Confederate States of America.

(historical) A supporter of Irish Catholic self-rule during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.


Dixieland

(US, informal) The southern states of the US; Dixie.

(US, informal) The southwestern corner of Utah; Dixie.


Dixieland

My sis is tying the knot. I want you to play for the reception. She likes Dixieland. Two of my boys say you play good Dixieland.

(music) A type of jazz that originated in New Orleans.


大統領

ㄉㄚˋ ㄊㄨㄥˇ ㄌㄧㄥˇ

/tä⁵¹ tʰʊŋ²¹⁴⁻³⁵ liŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/

/tä⁵¹ tʰʊŋ²¹⁴⁻³⁵ liŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/

Orthographic borrowing from Japanese 大統領.


Popeye

→ Dutch: popeye (“short, strong man”)

desc

→ Gulf Arabic: بباي (babbāy, “animated show, cartoon, anime”)

Fictional character name coined in 1929 by cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar, presumably pop + eye.

They seem equipped to drag the building between them right down Pennsylvania Avenue, but their progress is arrested by two heroes of Popeye musculature, government men putting a check rein on willful industry.

1967, Television Magazine, volume 24, number 11, page 27:

Lenny gave him the Popeye squint as he rolled off to Frank, the other bodyguard on duty, who was standing on the other side of the stage behind the Epps camp.

Choosing and prepping yeast Working the dough: You don't need Popeye arms.

2011, Danna Korn, Connie Sarros, Gluten-Free Cooking For Dummies, page 122:

A tough cartoon sailor, full name Popeye the Sailor, characterized by bulging forearm muscles, a squinty eye, and an affinity for spinach.


Anasazi

From Navajo anaasází (“enemy ancestors, ancient enemy”), from anaaʼí (“enemy”) + bizází (“their ancestors”).

der

Ancestral Puebloan
Ancestral Puebloan#English

Anasazi

member of a Native American people who once lived in Utah and Colorado


Anasazi

fr-noun

Anasazi m or f by sense (plural Anasazis)


Tarzan

Coined by Edgar Rice Burroughs. A name created by Burroughs for his fiction.
Means "white skin" in the apes' fictional language; possibly echoic in its phonetics of various "exotic" names (see Orientalism).

(fiction) A heroic fictional character, raised in the jungle by apes.


Tarzan

de-proper noun

Tarzan m (proper noun, strong, genitive Tarzans)


Tarzan

Tarzan (nominative singular)
Tarzana (genitive singular)
Tarzanowi (dative singular)
Tarzana (accusative singular)
Tarzanem (instrumental singular)
Tarzanie (locative singular)
Tarzanie (singular vocative)

Tarzan (heroic fictional character, raised in the jungle by apes)


Tarzan

dra en Tarzan


originalist

In any event, this professorial detonation, especially coming as it does from hardline Federalist Society constitutional originalists, has set the cat among the Republican pigeons.

2023 September 2, Simon Schama, “The real Rino”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 2:

One who aims to discover how the writers of a document intended it to be interpreted, and to interpret it in that way.

(US politics) Specifically, one who aims to discover how the writers of the Constitution of the United States intended it to be interpreted, and to interpret it in that way.


Camelot

en:Camelot (disambiguation)
en:Chrétien de Troyes
en:Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart

First attested in Old French as Camaalot in Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart
* (US politics, Kennedy administration): From a reference to a contemporary musical of the same name

(US politics) The administration and surrounding mystique of President John F. Kennedy.


Founding Father

en-noun

Founding Father (plural Founding Fathers)

At the heart of it, I thought of the Great Society as an extension of the Bill of Rights. When our fundamental American rights were set forth by the Founding Fathers, they reflected the concerns of a people who sought freedom in their time. But in our time a broadened concept of freedom requires that every American have the right to a healthy body, a full education, a decent home, and the opportunity to develop to the best of his talents.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 104:

United States of America
United States of America

American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War

(chiefly US) Any of the men who were responsible for the founding of the United States of America. Chiefly used to refer to political leaders who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, and to military leaders who fought in the American Revolutionary War.


Plymouth

From Plym + mouth, referring to the river's mouth.

A number of places in the United States:

A small city in Amador County, California.

A town in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

Litchfield County
Litchfield County#English

An unincorporated community in Orange County, Florida.

A village in Hancock County and McDonough County, Illinois.

McDonough County
McDonough County#English

A city, the county seat of Marshall County, Indiana.

A minor city in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa.

Cerro Gordo County
Cerro Gordo County#English

An unincorporated community in Lyon County, Kansas.

Penobscot County
Penobscot County#English

A large town in Massachusetts, and one of the two county seats of Plymouth County.

A sizable city in Hennepin County, Minnesota; suburb of Minneapolis.

A former settlement in Lowndes County, Mississippi.

An unincorporated community in Carroll County, Missouri.

A village in Jefferson County, Nebraska.

Jefferson County
Jefferson County#English

A town in Grafton County, New Hampshire.

A town, the county seat of Washington County, North Carolina.

Washington County
Washington County#English

A village in Huron County and Richland County, Ohio.

A borough of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

Box Elder County
Box Elder County#English

A small town in Windsor County, Vermont.

An unincorporated community in Putnam County, West Virginia.

A town and city in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

Sheboygan County
Sheboygan County#English

The Plymouth Colony, established by the Pilgrims.

A number of townships in the United States, listed under Plymouth Township.


TR

Theodore/Teddy Roosevelt
w:en:Theodore Roosevelt

(US politics) Initialism of Theodore/Teddy Roosevelt, 26th US president.


markup

markup (countable and uncountable, plural markups)

(US politics) The process by which proposed legislation is debated and amended.


Red Sea

From Middle English Red See, Reede See, Rede See, reade sea, from Old English Rēad Sǣ, a calque of Latin Mare Rubrum, itself a calque of Ancient Greek Ἐρυθρᾱ̀ θάλασσα (Eruthrā̀ thálassa); equivalent to red + sea.

der

Ἐρυθρᾱ̀ θάλασσα

(US politics) The states of the western and southern United States which consistently vote Republican in presidential elections.


Petersburg

From Peter + -s- or Peters (surname) + -burg. Doublet of Peterborough.


assemblyman

A member of the lower house of certain US state legislatures.


Madison

en-proper noun

Madison (countable and uncountable, plural Madisons)

From Middle English Madde (“Maud”) + -son.

Clearly quite a number of past chief executives would have been TV washouts. Jefferson, for example, is acknowledged to have been a terrible public speaker, Madison an unimpressive little man in voice and appearance.

2011 October 28, Alonzo L. Hamby, “Would Jefferson Make the Cut?”, in The New York Times:

An English surname originating as a matronymic; (US politics) used specifically of James Madison (1751–1836), a Founding Father and fourth president of the United States.


Pilgrim

(soccer) Someone connected with Plymouth Argyle Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.


Tories

(Canadian politics) The Conservative Party of Canada or one of that party's predecessors, or provincial variants


snapper

(US politics, historical) A supporter of Senator Hill's premature scheduling of the Democratic National Committee convention of 1892.


Matrixism

A minor modern religion based on the science-fiction franchise The Matrix.


迪士尼樂園

ㄉㄧˊ ㄕˋ ㄋㄧˊ ㄌㄜˋ ㄩㄢˊ

Дишини лэюань

/ti³⁵ ʂʐ̩⁵¹ ni³⁵ lɤ⁵¹ ɥɛn³⁵/

/tɪk̚² siː²² nei̯²¹ lɔːk̚² jyːn²¹/

/ti³⁵ ʂʐ̩⁵¹ ni³⁵ lɤ⁵¹ ɥɛn³⁵/

/tɪk̚² siː²² nei̯²¹ lɔːk̚² jyːn²¹/


迪斯尼樂園

ㄉㄧˊ ㄙ ㄋㄧˊ ㄌㄜˋ ㄩㄢˊ

Дисыни лэюань

/ti³⁵ sz̩⁵⁵ ni³⁵ lɤ⁵¹ ɥɛn³⁵/

/ti³⁵ sz̩⁵⁵ ni³⁵ lɤ⁵¹ ɥɛn³⁵/


manifest destiny

Popularly attributed to newspaper editor John O'Sullivan (1813–1895). The phrase was first used primarily by Jackson Democrats in the 1840s to promote the annexation of much of what is now the Western United States.

昭昭天命

cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America

The political doctrine or belief held by the United States of America, particularly during its expansion, that the nation was destined to expand toward the west.

The political doctrine or belief held by many citizens of the United States of America that their system is best, and the idea that all humans would like to become Americans.

The belief that God supports the expansion of the United States of America throughout the entire North American continent except Mexico.


free state

From free + state, probably a calque of German Freistaat.

(US, historical) Before the American Civil War, any of the states in which the owning of slaves was not legal.


East Germany

German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic

(historical, 1949–1990) A former Communist country of Central Europe between 1949 and 1990, officially called the German Democratic Republic (GDR), capital East Berlin.


whipsaw

en-verb

whipsaw (third-person singular simple present whipsaws, present participle whipsawing, simple past whipsawed, past participle whipsawn)

whipsaws (present singular third-person)
whipsawing (participle present)
whipsawed (past)
whipsawn (participle past)

(US politics) To accept bribes from multiple parties at once, with the intent of letting down one or more of them.


borganism

The word and concept are derived from The Borg, a race of cyborgs in the fictional Star Trek universe with a hive mind that operates as one.

(rare, idiomatic, science fiction, politics) Some forms of government.