NATO

→ Arabic: ناتو (nātō)

desc

→ Bengali: ন্যাটো (nêṭō), নেটো (neṭō)

→ Bengali: ন্যাটো (nêṭō), নেটো (neṭō)

→ Finnish: Nato, NATO, nato

→ German: NATO, Nato

→ Hebrew: נאט״ו (nat"o)

→ Hindi: नैटो (naiṭo)

→ Japanese: NATO (NATO)

→ Korean: 나토 (nato)

→ Polish: NATO

→ Portuguese: NATO

desctree

→ Russian: НА́ТО (NÁTO)
→ Armenian: ՆԱՏՕ (NATŌ)
→ Kyrgyz: НАТО (NATO)

→ Swedish: Nato, NATO

→ Telugu: నాటో (nāṭō)

en:North Atlantic Treaty Organization
en:nato (disambiguation)

From North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

On the other hand, one still would have to note that relations between NATO in London and OSR in Paris were still not as closely integrated as might be desired, and that the power of decision, especially on industrial and financial matters, still was not centered in one place in the NATO.

1951 October 5, Activities in Europe Concerned with Material Support of NATO and MDAP, Office of the Secretary of Defense, page 23:

Yes, France is geographically situated in a key position so far as Western Europe is concerned. They are really the bridge between Germany, Spain and Italy. And it was necessary to have a NATO organization that was unified and France was a necessary member of that organization.

1964, Harry S. Truman, 0:18 from the start, in MP2002-479 Former President Truman Recalls Negotiating With DeGaulle and France after WWII, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:

What concerned me most about De Gaulle's decision was that it threatened the unity of NATO, which had been so carefully developed over two decades. NATO was essential to the security of Europe and the United States. I was convinced that the stronger and more unified we were, the more incentive the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies would have to work with us in solving outstanding problems and differences.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, “Strengthening the Atlantic Community”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 305–306:

President Putin's KGB roots have sadly informed a style of governance that is neither reformist nor particularly democratic. The common thread throughout his domestic and foreign policies is his effort to trade on fear -- the fears of Russians that their country is under attack from hostile external forces (Chechens, NATO or free marketeers); and the fears of Westerners that if not for a strong, pragmatic leader, Russia will again become unruly, unstable and potentially aggressive.

2001 January 4, Garry Kasparov, “The Russian President Trades on Fear”, in The Wall Street Journal, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2015-01-09, International:

In the week since I’d seen him in the Oval Office, Bush had done well in Europe.[...]He’d made a strong statement on the expansion of NATO. “I believe in membership,” the president had said, “for all of Europe’s democracies that seek it and are ready to share the responsibilities that NATO brings.”[…]The president had even gone out of his way to reassure Putin that he had nothing to fear from the enlargement of NATO, which would not include Russia.

2007, Joe Biden, Promises to Keep, New York: Random House, published 2008, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 297:

Acronym of North Atlantic Treaty Organization.


pit

From Middle English pit, pet, püt, from Old English pytt, from Proto-West Germanic *puti, from Latin puteus (“trench, pit, well”), although there are phonetic difficulties.

he who digs a pit for others falls in himself

emergency department
emergency department

(medicine, slang) The emergency department of a hospital.


EMP

electromagnetic pulse
electromagnetic pulse#English


ABM

anti-ballistic missile
anti-ballistic missile#English

Ellipsis of ABM Treaty. (Initialism of anti-ballistic missile.)


ABM

en-noun

ABM (countable and uncountable, plural ABMs)

(military, astronautics) Initialism of anti-ballistic missile.

(banking, Canada) Initialism of automated bank machine.

(cooking) Initialism of automatic bread machine.


ABC

weapon of mass destruction
weapon of mass destruction

(weaponry) Initialism of atomic, biological and chemical: the three main categories of weapon of mass destruction.


NBC

Bailey told CNN that he only spoke with [Arthur] Engoron about his September summary judgment decision “because that’s the only thing I discussed with reporters.” NBC said it stood by its story.

2024 July 25, Kara Scannell, “Judge who ordered Trump to pay $454 million says he was ‘accosted’ by lawyer and won’t recuse himself from case”, in CNN:

Initialism of National Broadcasting Company: U.S. television and radio network.

(historical) Abbreviation of National Biscuit Company: U.S. food company, now Nabisco.


NBC

biological weapon
biological weapon#English

(weaponry) Abbreviation of nuclear weapon, biological weapon and chemical weapon.


NBC

(weaponry) Abbreviation of nuclear, biological, chemical.


fireball

/ˈfaɪəɹˌbɔl/

Chelyabinsk meteor
Nevada Test Site
Operation Upshot–Knothole

The noun is derived from fire (noun) + ball (noun). The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.

tulipallo

bag or ball filled with combustible material; (heraldry) charge depicting a disc-shaped bombshell

[T]here vvas ſuch a Tempeſt & thunder vvith great firebals of lightning, that the vault of the church brake, and halfe the Chancell vvas carried avvay.

1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 26, page 616, column 1:

It is an obſervation of Seamen, That if a ſingle meteor or fireball falls on their maſt, it portends ill luck; but if tvvo come together (vvhich they count Caſtor and Pollux) they preſage good ſucceſſe: […]

1642, Thomas Fuller, “The Good Wife”, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC, book I, paragraph 2, page 2:

An emanation of St. Elmo's fire; also (later), of ball lightning.


nuclear

nuclear (countable and uncountable, plural nuclears)

From Latin nū̆cleus, a contraction of the adjective nuculeus, masculine of feminine nuculea (“pertaining to a small nut”) from nucula + adjectival suffix -eus, -ea, -eum. The Latin nucula + -āris adds up to nuculāris, a term that in English becomes nucular; the Latin nuculea + -āris, becomes Latin nuculeāris (“relative to what pertains to small nut”), later contracted into nuclear. By surface analysis, nucle(us) + -ar = nucle- + -ar. Compare muscle and Latin mūsculus; muscular and mūsculāris.

cog

The growth in wind capacity at first lagged behind the expansion of nuclear installations, but then it started to grow faster and is now outpacing nuclear.

2015, Vital Signs Volume 22: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future, The Worldwatch Institute:


primary

/ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹi/

Borrowed from Latin prīmārius (“of the first (rank); chief, principal; excellent”), from prīmus (first; whence the English adjective prime) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French primaire, primer, and premier. Doublet of premier.

bor

thermonuclear weapon
thermonuclear weapon

(military) The first stage of a thermonuclear weapon, which sets off a fission explosion to help trigger a fusion reaction in the weapon's secondary stage.


Third World

Our district has many immigrants from Third World countries

developing countries
developing countries

(sometimes derogatory) developing countries, especially that of Africa, Asia and Latin America


First World

(historical, politics) Those countries aligned with the West during the Cold War, particularly in contrast to those aligned with the East (Second World).

第一世界

first-world problems

(informal) Wealthy, developed nations, contrasted with the Third World.


Second World

Those countries aligned with the East during the Cold War, particularly in contrast to those aligned with the West (First World).


Khmer Rouge

/ˈkmɛəɹ ˈɹuːʒ/

/kəˈmɛəɹ ˈɹuːʒ/

From French Khmer rouge (“red Khmer”), from Khmer (“Khmer”) + rouge (“red”).

(historical) A Cambodian communist guerrilla force active from the 1970s to the 1990s under the leadership of Pol Pot.


fertile

en-adj

fertile (comparative more fertile, superlative most fertile)

more fertile (comparative)
most fertile (superlative)

From Middle English, from Middle French fertile, from Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis (“fruitful, fertile”), from ferō (“I bear, carry”).

There are two basic fertile materials: uranium-238 and thorium-232.

(physics) Not itself fissile, but able to be converted into a fissile material by irradiation in a reactor.


atomic

partially ordered set
partially ordered set

(order theory, of a partially ordered set with a least element 0) Such that for every element b>0 there exists an atom a such that b≥a>0.


nuke

Clipping of nuclear weapon. The verb is derived from the noun.

(colloquial) vessel running on nuclear power

Confronted with the threat of several nukes on the island, we soon realized that the Long Island Sound is being used as a massive cooling basin for nuclear reactors.

1979, Anna Gyorgy et al., “Atomic Power, Nuclear Plants”, in No Nukes: Everyone’s Guide to Nuclear Power (Black Rose Books; no. I.49), Montreal, Que.: Black Rose Books, →ISBN, page 406:

Nukes Don't Pollute

2002, Home Power - Issues 86-91, page 121:

He calculates that nukes might be needed to power energy-intensive “large scale co2 sequestration techniques” as well.

2010, Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, page 155:

We've analyzed employee manifests at all nukes, LNG, and refineries in the United States for Middle Eastern profile matches.

nuclear power station
nuclear power station


South Yemen

People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen

(historical) A former country in the Middle East from 1967 until 1990; full name People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.


North Yemen

(historical) A country in the Middle East until 1990.


World War III

One time ago a crazy dream came to me / I dreamt I was walking into World War Three

1963, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Talkin' World War III Blues”, in The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan:

And I also wanted to be sure to keep Chiang Kai-shek, who had some notion of starting a World War Number Three, from going into China and doing just that.

1964, Harry S. Truman, 2:16 from the start, in MP2002-410 Several Cuts of Former President Truman Talking about Wars and Korea, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:

The WOPR [War Operations Planning Response] has already fought World War III as a game time and time again.

1983, Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes, WarGames, spoken by Paul Richter:

A hypothetical world war following World War II.

اَلْحَرْبُ اَلْعَالَمِيَّةُ اَلثَّالِثَة


A-bomb

(slang) An atomic bomb; a weapon that derives its energy from nuclear reactions and has enormous destructive power.


stockpile

The noun is derived from stock (“supply of anything ready for use”) + pile (“mass of things heaped together”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

nuclear pile

semantically quite different from a nuclear stockpile

en:stock of nuclear weapons specifically

A supply (especially a large one) of something kept for future use, specifically in case the cost of the item increases or if there a shortage.

(specifically, military, weaponry) A supply of nuclear weapons kept by a country; a nuclear stockpile.


brinkmanship

en-noun

brinkmanship (usually uncountable, plural brinkmanships)

/ˈbɹɪŋk.mənˌʃɪp/

From brink (“border, edge”) + -manship (suffix denoting expertise, involvement, or special status in an area).

suffix

The diplomat accused the other nation’s leader of brinkmanship for refusing to redeploy the troops along their nations’ shared border.

They say that in ancient times the Romans used to take cold showers before deciding on important questions. Perhaps, this should be recommended to some excessively ardent supporters of the policy of brinkmanship.

1959 July, Nikita Khrushchev, “World Affairs”, in [anonymous], transl., Soviet World Outlook: A Handbook of Communist Statements (Department of State Publication; 6836; European and British Commonwealth Series; 56), 3rd edition, Washington, D.C.: Department of State, →OCLC, page 207:

We shall probably have several narrow escapes from Cuban-like brinkmanships, and although these will intensify the realisation of the need for a united world system, the inherent distrust and suspicion with which the present generation has been brought up, coupled with the too slow adaptation of politicians to new situations, will prove too great a hindrance.

1964 June 4, Joseph Rotblat, “Scientists as Peacemakers”, in Nigel Calder, editor, New Scientist, volume 22, number 394, London: Harrison, Raison and Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 619, column 2:

Having said this much, perhaps I can ask you in return that these critics should recognize that the administration, which now bears responsibility for the conduct of our foreign affairs, does not admire force for its own sake, or brinkmanship of any sort.

1965 May 17, William Proxmire, quoting McGeorge Bundy in the The New York Times, 17 May 1965, “Vietnam Debate: Democracy at Work”, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 89th Congress, First Session: Appendix (United States Senate), volume 111, part 8, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10688, column 2:

It is high time to look back from the abyss where we are going to step in and give up the brinkmanship until the point of no return is reached.

1972 April–June, Salil Dutta, “Reviews and Notices of Books: Mahaprolay Ki Ghoney Asche? (Are the Last Days Nearer?) By Jagannath Mukherjee, […]”, in Amalendu Bose, editor, The Calcutta Review, volume III, number 4 (New Series), Calcutta, West Bengal: University of Calcutta, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 324:

The Prime Minister [Tony Blair] is in Belfast today, hoping to repeat his triumph of brinkmanship of last April, when he emerged from an apparent negotiating gridlock with the Good Friday peace agreement.

1999 June 28, Derek Brown, “Brinkmanship in Belfast”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-17:

For three months, a battle of brinkmanship has been going on between the government of Alexis Tsipras and its European creditors over a cash-for-reforms plan that would give Greece the €7.2bn worth of rescue funds that it needs to meet its debt payments.

2015 May 6, “The Guardian view on Greece: dangerous brinkmanship: Editorial”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-02-18:

Debt ceiling brinkmanship in 2011 sent stocks tumbling, slowed economic growth and prompted analysts to downgrade the country’s credit rating for the first time.

2021 September 23, David Leonhardt, Ian Prasad Philbrick, “Congressional brinkmanship”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-02-18:

It was an inept piece of brinkmanship from a politician who, while clearly a decent man, has not convincingly navigated his party through ever-choppier waters following the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon last February.

2024 April 29, Editorial, “The Guardian view on Humza Yousaf’s resignation: miscalculation leads to crisis”, in The Guardian, UK, →ISSN:

(chiefly politics) The pursuit of an advantage by appearing to be willing to take a matter to the brink (for example, by risking a dangerous policy) rather than to concede a point.

邊緣政策 /边缘政策

pursuit of an advantage by appearing to be willing to take a matter to the brink rather than to concede a point


Cold War

/ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː/

Coined by American journalist Herbert Bayard Swope in 1947, in a speech he wrote for Bernard Baruch (1870–1965), an American financier and adviser to President Woodrow Wilson.

coinage

Well Russia at the present time is at a crossroads. It is often said that the Cold War is over and that the West has won it- that's only half true. Because what has happened is that the communists have been defeated, but the ideas of freedom now are on trial. If they don't work, there will be a reversion to, not communism which has failed, but what I call a new despotism which would pose a mortal danger to the rest of the world because it would be infected with the virus of Russian imperialism which of course has been a characteristic of Russian foreign policy for centuries.

1992 March 30, Richard Nixon, 13:46 from the start, in Richard Nixon on ‘Inside Washington’, Richard Nixon Foundation, via Seoul Broadcasting System, archived from the original on 2017-10-09:

The situation in Berlin had its uses for Moscow, of course, as for others–the city had become the primary listening post and spy center of the Cold War; some 70 different agencies were operating there by 1961, and it was in Berlin that Soviet espionage scored some of their greatest successes.

2005, Tony Judt, “The Politics of Stability”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN:

The dynamic tests at Wildenrath use continuous test tracks built on the site of a former Royal Air Force station that was vacated after the end of the Cold War.

2023 November 29, Philip Haigh, “New Piccadilly Line trains put to the test”, in RAIL, number 997, page 26:

(historical) The period of hostility short of open war between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers, especially the United States, between 1945 and 1991.

Bernard Baruch
International Herald Tribune
Woodrow Wilson

Koue Oorlog

period of hostility short of open war between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers, 1945–1991


fizzle

en-verb

fizzle (third-person singular simple present fizzles, present participle fizzling, simple past and past participle fizzled)

fizzles (present singular third-person)
fizzling (participle present)
fizzled (participle past)
fizzled (past)

Attested in English since 1525-35. From earlier fysel (“to fart”). Related to fīsa (“to fart”). Compare with Swedish fisa (“to fart (silently)”). See also feist.
It could also come from old Norse: "fise" simply means "blow," like in "blow in the wind." A weather-exposed community in Rogaland, Norway, is called Fister. (In modern language, the verb "fisle" has the same 3 meanings as in English, see below.)

The entire project fizzled after the founder quit.

And so it fizzled to its close with Gary Cahill galloping around as an extra centre-forward, mutinous chants of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt,” from the England followers and Hodgson’s media staff announcing he would not take any questions.

2016 June 27, Daniel Taylor, “England humiliated as Iceland knock them out of Euro 2016”, in The Guardian, London:

(figuratively, informal) To decay or die off to nothing; to burn out; to end less successfully than previously hoped.


core

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond
w:Rossiter W. Raymond

A miner's underground working time or shift.


secondary

From Middle English secundarie, from Latin secundārius (“of the second class or quality”), from secundus (whence the English second) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary), equivalent to second + -ary; compare the French secondaire, the Italian secondario, the Occitan secundari, the Portuguese secundario, and the Spanish secundario.

der

English numerals#Ordinal numbers
secondary

(ornithology) Any flight feather attached to the ulna (forearm) of a bird.

(military) The second stage of a multistage thermonuclear weapon, which generates a fusion explosion when imploded as an indirect result of the fission explosion of the primary, and which, in a few extremely large weapons, itself implodes a fusion tertiary.

secondary colour
secondary colour#English


Star Wars

[ˈstɑɹ ˈwɔɹz]

[ˈstɑ˞ ˈwɔɹz]

From the original name of the science fantasy motion picture Star Wars (1977).

Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative

(informal, military) The United States Strategic Defense Initiative.


WMD

weapon of mass destruction
weapon of mass destruction#English

Initialism of weapon of mass destruction.

ADM

initialism — see also weapon of mass destruction


the bomb

en-noun

the bomb (usually uncountable, plural the bombs)

Attested in reference to nuclear weapons or the capacity to use them since 1932; see quotations, below. As slang for something excellent, the phrase is attested since the 1960s; compare go down a bomb, UK theatre slang during the 1950s meaning “be a major success”. For further etymology see bomb.

Pakistan and India both have the Bomb now.

The Cabinet, when faced with this proffered omnipotence, had recoiled in fear. True it was that their acute distaste for the bomb[…] did credit to their humanity, to their state of civilization.

1932, Harold Nicolson, “Public Faces”, in The Spectator, volume 149, page 558:

In my view, the tensions which have produced the “World with the Bomb” can be divided into roughly four classes.

1962, Kwame Nkruma, The World Without the Bomb: Selections from the Papers of “the Accra Assembly”, page 3:

First we got the bomb and that was good,
'Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's O.K.,
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way!

1965, Tom Lehrer (lyrics and music), “Who's Next” (track 5, side 2), in That Was The Year That Was:

(informal, often capitalized) The atomic bomb; the capability to launch a nuclear attack.


weapon of mass destruction

weapon of mass destruction (plural weapons of mass destruction)

First attested in 1937 in referring to bombing campaigns during the Spanish Civil War.

Any human-made weapon causing indiscriminate large-scale death or destruction, especially a biological weapon, chemical weapon, nuclear weapon or radiological weapon.

Spanish Civil War
weapon of mass destruction

arma e shkatërrimit në masë

weapon causing large-scale death or destruction

大規模殺傷性武器 /大规模杀伤性武器

daai⁶ kwai¹ mou⁴ saat³ soeng¹ sing³ mou⁵ hei³


IBM

IBM (countable and uncountable, plural IBMs)

/ˈˌʌɪbiːˈɛm/

Alternative form: ICBM

They see this last possibility in an international agreement to stop further atomic and thermonuclear bomb tests and halt the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (IBMs).

1956 June, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, volume 12, number 6, page 186:

Today we need a defense against IBM attack. When as chief of R&D I urged Army Ordnance to develop an antimissile missile, I heard repeatedly that you can't hit a bullet with a bullet, so it is impossible to develop such a missile.

1987, Kenneth David Nichols, The Road to Trinity, page 294:

Thus, they limit to a strictly defined number the quantity of armed IBMs in the USSR and the United States, as well as ballistic missiles of submarines.

1990, William Elliott Butler, Perestroika and International Law, page 155:

(weaponry) Initialism of intercontinental ballistic missile.


hammer and sickle

hammer and sickle (plural hammers and sickles)

The symbol was developed by Yevgeny Kamzolkin in 1917, based on antetypes like hammer and pick (symbol of mining). The hammer represents workers, while the sickle represents farmers.

He remembers the [train] journeys fondly—the vast expanses of the Soviet empire rolling by, the glasses of tea served in metal cup holders embossed with the hammer and sickle.

December 7 2022, Simon Shuster, “2022 Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelensky”, in Time:

A depiction of a sickle crossed with a hammer, used as a symbol of communism and the Soviet Union.


Nagasaki

Borrowed from Japanese 長崎(ながさき) (Nagasaki).

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

VINCENT: Tens of thousands killed before sundown; nobody's killed people that fast since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

2004, Stuart Beattie, Collateral, DreamWorks Pictures:

A port city, the capital and largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture, in southwestern Kyushu, Japan, famous as the country's early modern entrepot and for its nuclear bombing on 9 August 1945 at the end of World War II.


yield

yield (countable and uncountable, plural yields)

Verb from Middle English yielden, yelden, ȝelden (“to yield, pay”), from Old English ġieldan (“to pay”), from Proto-West Germanic *geldan, from Proto-Germanic *geldaną (“to pay”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (“to pay”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots yield (“to yield”), North Frisian jilden (“to pay”), Saterland Frisian Saterland Frisian jäilde (“to be valid; matter; count; be worth”), West Frisian jilde (“to pay”), Low German Low German gellen, Dutch gelden (“to apply, count, be valued, be regarded”), German gelten (“to apply, count, be valued, be regarded”), Icelandic gjalda (“to pay, yield, give”), Danish gælde (“to apply, count, be valued, be regarded”), Norwegian Bokmål gjelde.
Noun from Middle English ȝeld, from Old English ġield, from Proto-West Germanic *geld, from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (“to pay”).
Cognates
Compare West Frisian jild, Dutch geld, Low German and German Geld, Danish gæld, Swedish gäld, Icelandic gjald. See also geld.

inh

The explosive energy value of a bomb, especially a nuclear weapon, usually expressed in tons of TNT equivalent.


tertiary

/ˈtɜː.ʃə.ɹiː/

/ˈtɜː.ʃə.ɹiː/

English numerals#Ordinal numbers
Peterhouse, Cambridge
University of Cambridge

PIE word
 *tréyes
Borrowed from the Latin tertiārius (“of the third part or rank”), from tertius (“third”) (from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós, whence English third) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French tertiaire.

bor

a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt

If, on the other hand, we remember that a tertiary monoamine, such as must be formed by the final methylation of the ammonia fragment in aniline when submitted to the action of an alcohol chloride, is invariably converted into an ammonium compound it must appear rather strange that in the process above alluded to only tertiary, and never any quartery bases are observed.

1873 January 3, A[ugust] W[ilhelm von] Hofmann, “Synthesis of Aromatic Monoamines by Intramolecular Atomic Interchange”, in William Crookes, editor, The Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science: A Journal of Practical Chemistry in All Its Applications to Pharmacy, Arts, and Manufactures, volume XXVII, number 684, London: Henry Gillman, Boy Court, Ludgate Hill, E.C., →OCLC, page 1, column 1:

(chemistry) Possessing some quality in the third degree; especially having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or radicals.


tertiary

English numerals#Ordinal numbers
Lay Carmelites
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Saint-Étienne Cathedral
University of Cambridge

/ˈtɜː.ʃə.ɹiː/

/ˈtɜː.ʃə.ɹiː/

My principal objection is against the compound or derivative tints, given under the denominations of secondaries and tertiaries.

1817 August 16, Thomas Hargreaves, “XXI. On the Work Entitled ‘Chromatics;’ or, An Essay on the Analogy and Harmony of Colours. By Mr. T. Hargreaves.”, in Alexander Tilloch, editor, The Philosophical Magazine and Journal: Comprehending the Various Branches of Science, the Liberal and Fine Arts, Geology, Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce, volume 50, number 232, London: Printed by Richard and Arthur Taylor, Shoe Lane […], →OCLC, page 128:

[Rudolf] Arnheim suggested that the capacity of activating tensions is to be found in the tertiary hues, which are unbalanced mixtures of primaries that are present in different quantities. This peculiar relationship between tertiaries must be distinguished from the interaction of complementary colors that occurs when primaries and secondaries are coupled.

1993, Augusto Garau, “Introduction: A Theory of Color Mixtures”, in Nicola Bruno, transl., Color Harmonies, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 3:

A gigaton-scale weapon would of necessity be a three-stage design (incorporating a fusion tertiary - likely with its own massive fission tamper - in addition to the fission primary and fission-jacketed fusion secondary), as a reasonably-sized primary would likely have difficulty imploding to ignition the enormous secondary that would be required to reach a one-gigaton yield with a two-stage thermonuclear.

(military) A large stage in some extremely powerful thermonuclear weapons (resembling a greatly-enlarged secondary) which is compressed by the explosion of the secondary until ignition of nuclear fusion takes place, in much the same manner as the secondary is imploded by the primary, and which can allow for the attainment of yields of many tens or even hundreds of megatons, and likely even greater; not used in modern weapons due to a greater focus on the accurate use of sub-megaton weapons, the tremendous size of weapons incorporating a tertiary, and the lack of targets whose destruction would necessitate the use of a three-stage weapon.

Tertiaries living in places where there is no Church of the Order or of the Third Order can gain all the indulgences they would gain visiting such a church, by visiting their respective parish church, or, where there is no parochial church, by visiting another church or public oratory, and fulfilling the other conditions.

1952, Dominican Tertiaries’ Manual: For the Daily Use of Private and Fraternity Tertiaries of the Third Order of St. Dominic, 1st rev. edition, New York, N.Y.: Third Order of St. Dominic, published 1954, →OCLC, page 362:

Immediately after her arrival in Ferrara, while she was still striving to secure the foundation of her exemplary reformed community of Dominican tertiaries, [Lucia] Brocadelli also renewed her attempts to enhance [Girolamo] Savonarola's saintly reputation.

2008, Tamar Herzig, “The Power of Visions: Lucia Brocadelli and Osanna Andreasi”, in Savonarola’s Women: Visions and Reform in Renaissance Italy, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press; large print edition, Richmond, B.C.: ReadHowYouWant.com Ltd., 2010, page 146

(Roman Catholicism) A member of a Roman Catholic third order; a layperson who participates in activities similar to those engaged in by men and women who take religious vows (respectively the first and second orders), and who may wear some elements of an order's habit such as a scapular.

terziario

Roman Catholicism: member of a third order


bunker

→ Catalan: búnquer

desctree

→ German: Bunker
→ Polish: bunkier
→ Romanian: buncăr

The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 6.1 (“box or chest, the lid of which serves as a seat”), from Scots bunker (“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”), from Early Scots bunker, bunkur, bonker (“a chest or box, often serving as a seat”), probably from Old Norse bunki (“a heap”) (probably whence bunk (“sleeping berth in a ship, train, etc.”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkô (“a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ- (“thick”) or *bʰeg- (“to billow, swell; to arch, bend, curve (?)”). Compare Middle Low German bunge (“drum, container”), Middle High German bunge (“drum”). Sense 1 (“hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks”) was derived from German Bunker during World War II, which was itself from bunker (“large bin or container for storing coal”) (sense 5).
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

Among tank engines, the 0-6-2 wheel arrangement was by far the most numerous, there being nearly 450 of this arrangement, which offers the advantage of good power and adhesive weight, coupled with adequate tank and bunker capacity, within a limited compass.

1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in The Railway Magazine, Westminster, London: IPC Transport Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 161:

The bunkers of these engines hold enough coal for one round journey of 120½ miles, and water is taken in each direction at Hexham.

1941 December, “Notes and News: A Tank Engine's 241-mile Day”, in Railway Magazine, page 569:

(rail transport) The coal compartment on a tank engine.

(paintball) An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.


bunker

en-verb

bunker (third-person singular simple present bunkers, present participle bunkering, simple past and past participle bunkered)

bunkers (present singular third-person)
bunkering (participle present)
bunkered (participle past)
bunkered (past)

попадам в пясъчника

to hit (a golf ball) into a bunker; to place (a golfer) in the position of having a golf ball in a bunker

As troops swarmed the streets below and gun battles continued to rage, I bunkered in a room on the top floor of a building in the middle of the red zone. Redshirt spokesman Sean Boonpracong sought refuge there too. Protesters burned a train station below, hurling tyres on to an already roaring blaze across the tracks.

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

More than 10,000 people were bunkering in 20 emergency shelters across the disaster zone, not all of them cyclone-rated.

2012 September 17, Michael McKenna, Tony Koch, “Cyclone Yasi crosses coast in North's darkest hour”, in The Australian:

The Kyiv Zoo staff and their families are bunkering at the zoo as they care for the animals housed there amid the war in Ukraine.

2022 March 6, Heather Hamilton, “Kyiv Zoo staff and families care for nearly 4,000 animals amid war in Ukraine”, in Washington Examiner:

(intransitive) Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.


Iron Curtain

/ˌaɪən ˈkɜːtn̩/

A specialized use of iron curtain (“(figurative) impenetrable barrier”), probably partly a calque of German eiserner Vorhang which was used in speeches in the 1940s that were translated into English. The English term appeared in telegrams from the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874–1965) to the President of the United States Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) in 1945, before being popularized in a speech given by Churchill at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on 5 March 1946: see the quotations.

We liked the plain people of Russia wherever we met them. […] We were behind the "iron curtain" at last!

1920, Mrs. Philip Snowden [i.e., Ethel Snowden], “Making Our Plans”, in Through Bolshevik Russia, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, →OCLC, pages 31 and 32:

In the east the iron curtain behind which, unseen by the eyes of the world, the work of destruction goes on, is moving steadily forward.

1945 May 3, Court Schwerin von Krosigk [i.e., Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk], “New foreign minister broadcasts”, in [anonymous], transl., The Manchester Guardian, number 30,757, Manchester: […] John Russell Scott for the Manchester Guardian & Evening News, […], →OCLC, page 5, column 6:

An iron curtain is drawn down upon their [Russia's] front. We do not know what is going on behind.

1945 May 12, Winston Churchill, “No. 6: Leahy Papers: Telegram: Prime Minister Churchill to President [Harry S.] Truman”, in Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers: The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference) 1945 […] (86th Congress, 1st Session, House Document; no. 161, vol I; Department of State Publication; 7015), volume I, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, published 1960, →OCLC, paragraph 3, page 9:

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

1946 March 5, Winston Churchill, “The Sinews of Peace”, in Westminster College Bulletin: World Spotlight Turns on Westminster, series 46, number 1, Fulton, Mo.: Westminster College, published April 1946, →OCLC, column 1:

Indeed, rail traffic of all kinds is developing through the Iron Curtain – for instance, last year a total of 6,445 wagons controlled by Interfrigo, the international company for refrigerated transport, passed between East and West; […]

1960 March, “Talking of Trains: London–Paris in Four Hours”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 134:

Justice is giving ground to the forces of evil. These developments have confused the camp of freedom and abetted the growth of Communism. Even so, the fierce struggle for freedom of the people shut behind the Iron Curtain and the support for their emancipation provided by peace-loving people outside the Iron Curtain have never ceased despite the buffeting from waves of appeasement.

1973 July 17 (date delivered), Chiang Kai-shek, “President Chiang Kai-shek’s Message to the Mass Rally Supporting Captive Nations Week”, in L. Y. Chen, editor, Free China Weekly, volume XIV, number 28, Taipei, Taiwan: Chung Hwa Information Service, published 22 July 1973, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, columns 1–2:

Now, we are not in a new Cold War. We don't see the descending of a new Iron Curtain, but we have moved back very, very sharply in the wrong direction. We must work with the many Russian democrats still functioning in and out of government, in and out of Parliament, in and out of the business community, to make the dream of a Russian democracy become a reality.

2007 May 17, Tom Lantos, Chairman, Russia: Rebuilding the Iron Curtain: Hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, First Session […] (Serial No. 110-65), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →ISBN, page 3:

[…] Christopher Hill, one of the Western critics whose works were cited and appreciated behind the Iron Curtain throughout the decades of state socialism.

2022, Miklós Péti, “Samson: An Unlikely Hero of Socialism”, in Timothy Mathews, editor, Paradise from behind the Iron Curtain: Reading, Translating and Staging Milton in Communist Hungary (Literature and Translation), London: UCL Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 68:

(historical) Chiefly preceded by the: the dividing line between Western Europe and the Soviet controlled regions, especially during the Cold War (1947–1991).


hydrogen bomb

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A thermonuclear bomb that derives its destructive power from the fusion of isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium).


thermonuclear

China detonated her first thermonuclear in June 1967.


warhead

"Multi Bottle Rocket". Possibly the strongest weapon around, it does a lot of damage due to its massive warhead.

1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:

The part of a missile, projectile, torpedo, rocket, or other munition which contains either the nuclear or thermonuclear system, high explosive system, chemical or biological agents, or inert materials intended to inflict damage.


ground zero

en-noun

ground zero (countable and uncountable, plural ground zeroes)

/ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪəɹəʊ/

/ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪɚ(ˌ)oʊ/

From ground + zero, first attested in a June 1946 a report by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on August 6 and 9, 1945, during World War II. “Zero” was used as the code name for the location of the Trinity atomic bomb test – the first detonation of a nuclear weapon – in New Mexico, USA, on July 16, 1945.

James Meredith's forced admission was a milestone in upending the old order in America's most segregated state, a kind of race relations ground zero.

1997 May 4, Adam Nossiter, “Ground Zero”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Less than two years into the job, she has transformed Washington into ground zero of America’s education reform movement.

2009 March 21, Nicholas Kristof, “Education’s Ground Zero”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(figuratively) The point at which something begins.


ICBM

Just sing out a Te Deum / When you see that ICBM / And the party will be come-as-you-are

1959, “We Will All Go Together When We Go”, in Tom Lehrer (music), An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer, performed by Tom Lehrer:

Iraq could test a North Korean-type ICBM that could deliver a several-hundred-kilogram payload to the United States in the last half of the next decade [the decade beginning with calendar year 2000] depending on the level of foreign assistance.

2002, Alexander T. Lennon, Contemporary Nuclear Debates: Missile Defense, Arms Control, and Arms Races in the Twenty-first Century, MIT Press, →ISBN:

МКБР

abbreviation of intercontinental ballistic missile


deterrence

deterrence (countable and uncountable, plural deterrences)

The art of producing in one's enemy the fear of attacking.

(specifically) nuclear deterrence: discouraging nuclear attack through the threat of nuclear retaliation.


nuclear-free zone

nuclear-free zone (plural nuclear-free zones)

An area in which the local or regional authorities have banned nuclear weapons and nuclear power stations.

無核區 /无核区

area in which authorities have banned nuclear weapons and power stations


proliferation

proliferation (countable and uncountable, plural proliferations)

/pɹəˌlɪf.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/

/pɹəˌlɪf.əˈɹæɪ.ʃən/

(countable) The result of building up; buildup, accretion.


dirty bomb

Without providing evidence, Shoigu said Ukraine could escalate by using a “dirty bomb” – conventional explosives laced with radioactive material.

2022 October 24, Peter Beaumont, “Ukraine war heading for ‘uncontrolled escalation’, says Russia”, in The Guardian:

A device containing conventional explosives and radioactive material, designed to spread radiation over a wide area.


Atlas

en-proper noun

Atlas (countable and uncountable, plural Atlases)

From Latin Ā̆tlās, from Ancient Greek Ἄτλας (Átlas), either from ἁ- (ha-, copulative prefix) + Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“bear, undergo, endure”) or of Pre-Greek origin.

der

An unincorporated community in Pike County, Illinois.

A placename:
A place in the United States:
A township in Genesee County, Michigan.

An unincorporated community in Lamar County, Texas.

An unincorporated community in Upshur County, West Virginia.

An unincorporated community in Laketown, Polk County, Wisconsin.


Trinity

A female given name from English used since the 1970s, from the religious term trinity, or translated from its long-established Spanish equivalent.


neutron bomb

An atomic bomb that produces a greater amount of neutrons, and a lesser amount of blast; the intention being to create equal lethal neutron radiation and blast radii which increases the effectiveness of the weapon against armour while reducing collateral damage.


tamper

(rail transport) A railway vehicle used to tamp down ballast.


doomsday

en-noun

doomsday (countable and uncountable, plural doomsdays)

From Middle English domes + dai, from Old English dom (“judgment”) + dæg (“day”). Equivalent to doom + -s- + day. Possibly influenced by Latin domus dei (“house of God”).

Judgement day; the day of the Final Judgment; any day of decisive judgement or final dissolution.


Little Boy

Coordinate term: Fat Man

The nuclear bomb dropped over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.


Fat Man

Coordinate term: Little Boy

The nuclear bomb dropped over Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945.


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.


MAD

(programming) Acronym of Michigan algorithm decoder, a programming language, a variant of ALGOL, developed in 1959 at the University of Michigan.


mokusatsu

A policy of ignoring or taking no notice of something.


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.


mushroom cloud

. mushroom cloud (canonical)
mushroom clouds (plural)

It's Christmas at ground zero / There's panic in the crowd / We can dodge debris / While we trim the tree / Underneath a mushroom cloud

1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:

A large cloud of smoke, flame and debris that rises into the sky as a result of a large explosion, especially after a nuclear explosion, characterized by a long shaft rising from the ground into a much-larger or more-spread-out top, reminiscent of a mushroom in shape.


perestroika

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.


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)


missile silo

An underground vertical cylindrical container for the storage and launching of ICBMs.


HUAC

w:House Un-American Activities Committee

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


atomic bomb

H. G. Wells
The World Set Free
atomic bomb

Coined by British science fiction author H. G. Wells in his 1914 novel The World Set Free.

Nine different countries have the atomic bomb as of 2022.

(uncountable, colloquial, with the) The possession of one or more atomic bombs; the ability to launch a nuclear attack.


nuclear weapon

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When Kissinger went to Moscow on March 24 for four days of talks aimed at setting the agenda for Summit III, he reported that Brezhnev seemed to be confronting some of the same problems as we were of military opposition to a permanent agreement to limit offensive nuclear weapons. Thus we knew from the outset that it would be very difficult to produce a major SALT breakthrough at Summit III.

1978, Richard Nixon, “The Presidency 1973-1974”, in RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 1024:

Even if they managed to strike Japan, the United States or South Korea with nuclear weapons — a big if, given that they do not have a reliable delivery system — they could not save themselves from ultimate defeat.

2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times:

A weapon that derives its energy from the nuclear reactions of either fission or fusion.

armë bërthamore

a weapon that derives its energy from the nuclear reactions of either fission or fusion


nuclear bomb

In the seaside town that they forgot to bomb / Come, come, come, nuclear bomb

1988, Morrissey (lyrics and music), “Everyday Is Like Sunday”, in Viva Hate:


megadeath

One million deaths, especially as a unit of measure in reference to nuclear warfare.

megamort

one million deaths, especially in reference to nuclear warfare


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


McCarthyism

From McCarthy + -ism, 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.


arms race

The cost of parasitism has provoked an evolutionary arms race between parasite and host, in which hosts evolve defences to avoid becoming victimized and parasites counterattack by evolving strategies to outwit their hosts.

2006, R.M. Kilner, “The evolution of egg colour and patterning in birds”, in Biological Reviews, volume 81, page 389, column 1:

ChatGPT's sudden popularity has triggered an arms race among the world's leading tech companies and start-ups that are rushing to obtain the H100, which Huang describes as “the world's first computer [chip]^([sic]) designed for generative AI”—artificial intelligence systems that can quickly create humanlike text, images and content.

2023 May 28, Tim Bradshaw, Richard Waters, “Nvidia reaps rewards from early lead in AI chipmaking”, in FT Weekend, page 14:

(figuratively) Any similar competition that involves competing developments.


fissile

en-adj

fissile (comparative more fissile, superlative most fissile)

more fissile (comparative)
most fissile (superlative)

North Korea may soon have access to regular amounts of fissile material if it doesn't already ...

2014 March 30, Choe Sang-hun, “North Korea vows to use 'new form' of nuclear test”, in The New York Times:

(physics) Capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction.

разцепващ се

capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction


nuclear fission

en-noun

nuclear fission (usually uncountable, plural nuclear fissions)

(nuclear physics) A nuclear reaction in which a large nucleus splits into smaller ones, sometimes accompanied by the simultaneous release of energy.


East Berlin

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

Østberlin

the Soviet sector of Berlin between 1949 and 1990


insertion

insertion (countable and uncountable, plural insertions)

(atomic weapons) The process of going from subcritical to prompt critical.


fission

fission (countable and uncountable, plural fissions)

Borrowed from Latin fissiōnem, accusative singular of fissiō (“the act of breaking up”), from findō (“split, divide”).

(biology) The process by which a bacterium splits to form two daughter cells.

انقسام

process by which a bacterium splits into two


hibakusha

hibakusha (plural hibakushas or hibakusha)

/ˈhɪbəˌkuːʃə/

/hɪˈbɑːkʊʃə/

Attested in the mid-20th century, borrowed from Japanese 被爆者 (hibakusha, literally “bomb-affected person”).

bor

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons took effect in January after years of civil effort joined by atomic bombing survivors, or hibakusha.

2021 August 6, Mari Yamaguchi, “Hiroshima marks 76th anniversary of US atomic bombing”, in AP News:

A survivor of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

হিবাকুশা

survivor of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki


containment

en-noun

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.


nuclear winter

Coined by Richard P. Turco et al. in a 1983 paper.

Coordinate term: volcanic winter

Scientists from the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries will meet in the Vatican Monday to discuss “nuclear winter,” the chilling climatic effect a nuclear war could have on the earth.

1984 January 23, “Parley on ‘Nuclear Winter’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The global temperature declines predicted in the original (1983) nuclear winter scientific paper were 15-20°C; current estimates are 10-15°C. The two values are in good agreement considering the irreducible uncertainties in the calculations. Both temperature declines are much greater than the difference between current global temperatures and those of the last Ice Age. The long-term consequences of global thermonuclear war have been estimated by an international team of 200 scientists, who concluded that through nuclear winter the global civilization and most of the people on Earth— including those far from the northern mid-latitude target zone—would be at risk, mainly from starvation.

1995, Carl Sagan, “When Scientists Know Sin”, in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1st edition, New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 286:

When the salarians discovered them, the krogan were a brutal, primitive species struggling to survive a self-inflicted nuclear winter. The salarians culturally uplifted them, teaching them to use and build modern technology so they could serve as soldiers in the Rachni War.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Krogan Codex entry:

A predicted drop in global temperature following a nuclear war due to dust in the upper atmosphere reducing sunlight reaching the ground.


nuclear war

nuclear war (countable and uncountable, plural nuclear wars)

IF JULY 1, 1968, figures in the history books of the future, it will be because of what happened that morning in the East Room of the White House. A few minutes after 11:30 A.M., in that gold-draped room, before hundreds of witnesses and in the glare of television floodlights, representatives of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and more than fifty other nations signed the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Under that treaty, nations without nuclear weapons promised not to make them or receive them from others; the treaty assured those nations that they would have access to the full benefits of the peaceful uses of nuclear power. Nations with nuclear weapons pledged to work toward effective arms control and disarmament.
This was the most significant step we had yet taken to reduce the possibility of nuclear war. In my remarks following the signing ceremony, I called the treaty "the most important international agreement since the beginning of the nuclear age."

1971, Lyndon Johnson, “Thawing the Cold War”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 462:

Vladimir Putin has told Nato countries that they risk provoking a nuclear war if they send troops to fight in Ukraine, in an annual state of the nation speech ramping up his threats against Europe and the US.

2024 February 29, Pjotr Sauer, “Sending troops to Ukraine would risk provoking nuclear war, Putin tells Nato”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A war fought using nuclear (fission and/or fusion) weapons.


fallout

fallout (countable and uncountable, plural fallouts)

Psychological fallout in the shadow of terrorism (title of an article by Dr. Abraham Twerski, M.D.)http://www.jewishworldreview.com

A negative side effect; an undesirable or unexpected consequence.


kiloton

That's a 300-kiloton nuclear warhead.

Halifax in Canada was devastated by a ship exploding in 1917. SS Mont Blanc, a French vessel loaded with 2.9 kilotons of explosives, collided with the Imo.

2022 August 24, Bruce Healey, “Wartime tunnel crash: a miraculous escape”, in RAIL, number 964, page 53:

A measure of the strength of an explosion or a bomb based on how many thousand tons of TNT would be needed to produce the same energy.


megaton

The sins of all our fathers, being dumped on us — the sons
The only choice we're given is: How many megatons?
And I eschew you!
And I say: Screw you!
And I hope you're blue, too.

1986, Kirk Thatcher, 44:05 from the start, in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Paramount Pictures, →OCLC:

Integrating data from all continents and major biomes, we conservatively estimate 20 × 1015 (20 quadrillion) ants on Earth, with a total biomass of 12 megatons of dry carbon.

2022 September 19, Schultheiss et al., “The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, page 1, column 2:

A measure of the strength of an explosion or a bomb based on how many million tons of TNT would be needed to produce the same energy.


Stalin

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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.


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.


(physics) The radioactive isotope of strontium, ⁹⁰₃₈Sr, that is present in the fallout from nuclear explosions and, being chemically similar to calcium, accumulates in the bones

стронций-90

стронций-девяносто


rainout

en-noun

rainout (countable and uncountable, plural rainouts)

(uncountable) Nuclear fallout deposited by means of rain.


nuclear age

The age in which nuclear energy and nuclear weapons were developed.

ydinaikakausi

age when nuclear technology was developed


Atomic Age

→ Dutch: atoomtijdperk (calque)

/əˈtɒmɪk ˌeɪd͡ʒ/

/əˈtɑːmɪk ˌeɪd͡ʒ/

The era, starting in the mid-1940s, during which nuclear energy was developed, and in which it was thought that all energy would be provided by such sources.

عصر الذرة

era during which nuclear energy was developed


nuclear airburst

nuclear airburst (plural nuclear airbursts)

the explosion of a nuclear weapon at such an altitude that the fireball remains above the ground


nuclear artillery

A limited-yield nuclear weapon delivered using an artillery shell.


hydrogen warhead

hydrogen warhead (plural hydrogen warheads)

a small thermonuclear device in the warhead of a missile


omnicide

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How extraordinary that Curtis LeMay believed for the rest of his life that the United States “lost” the Cuban missile crisis and the Cold War. If John Kennedy had followed LeMay's advice [to bomb Cuba and take out the missile sites], history would have forgotten the Nazis and their terrible Holocaust. Ours would have been the historic omnicide.

1995, Richard Rhodes, chapter 27, in Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb:

The total extinction of the human species as a result of human action. Most commonly it refers to human extinction through nuclear warfare, but it can also refer to such extinction through other means such as global anthropogenic ecological catastrophe.


lithium deuteride

(inorganic chemistry) a form of lithium hydride in which the normal hydrogen is replaced with deuterium; used in thermonuclear weapons


fissionable

Capable of undergoing nuclear fission; fissile.

spaltbar

capable of undergoing nuclear fission; fissile


weapons-grade

For 75 years, it has fulfilled a wide range of roles: producing weapons-grade plutonium for early atomic weapons in the aftermath of the Second World War; the world's first commercial nuclear power station supplying electricity to the National Grid; reprocessing and storage of nuclear fuel; and the processing of lower grades of radioactive waste for off-site storage.

2023 December 27, Ben Jones, “Inside Sellafield... by rail”, in RAIL, number 999, page 20:

(of a radioactive or other substance) Of a purity suitable for the manufacture of weapons.


radioactive fallout

radioactive fallout (countable and uncountable, plural radioactive fallouts)


East Germany

German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic#English

(historical, 1949–1990) A former Communist country of Central Europe, existing between 1949 and 1990. Official name: German Democratic Republic. Capital: East Berlin.


West Berlin

(historical, Germany) The American, British and French sectors of Berlin between 1949 and 1990.


West Germany

From informal use describing the British-, French-, and American-occupied zones of Germany following World War II, under influence from existing German Westdeutschland and Westdeutscher used to describe those areas of German-speaking Europe since the 17th and 18th centuries.

(since 1990) The former areas of the Republic during that time, distinguished from the former East German areas.


criticality

criticality (countable and uncountable, plural criticalities)


initiator

(chemistry) A substance that initiates a chain reaction or polymerization.

käynnistäjä

chemistry: substance that initiates a chain reaction or polymerization

‘This, er, initiator of polonium and lithium, would it be used in an anti-personnel bomb?’ he asked. ‘Oh yes, you could say so, boyo,’ replied the Welshman. ‘An initiator, you see, is what sets off a nuke.’

1984, Frederick Forsyth, The Fourth Protocol, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 301:

(military) A component of a nuclear weapon that produces a burst of neutrons to trigger a fission chain reaction.

(computing) A task (in a mainframe computer) that initiates multiple jobs.


Empty Quiver

(US, euphemistic, military) The seizure, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon.


Khrushchev

From Russian Хрущёв (Xruščóv), usually written Хрущев (Xruščev) (see note about Russian letter ё (jo)).

A built-in remedy for Khrushchev and Kennedy.

1974, Freddie Mercury, “Killer Queen”, in Sheer Heart Attack:

Хрущёв Хрущёв#Russian

English transliteration of the Russian surname Хрущёв (Xruščóv); usually refers to the Russian revolutionary and Soviet Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) Nikita Khrushchev.


antinuclear

en-adj

antinuclear (comparative more antinuclear, superlative most antinuclear)

more antinuclear (comparative)
most antinuclear (superlative)

1995, "As antinuclear sentiment became popular, politicians such as Govs. Hugh L. Carey and Mario M. Cuomo jumped on the bandwagon and helped delay and defeat the opening. All the while the interest costs grew at astronomical rates." --New York Times, Oct 15, 1995, Antinuclear Role in High Electric Costs:

Opposed to the production or use of nuclear weapons, or opposed to the generation of electricity from nuclear power.

antiatòmic

opposed to the use of nuclear weapons or nuclear energy


nuclear deterrent

en-noun

nuclear deterrent (plural nuclear deterrents)

The arsenal of nuclear weapons of a nation viewed as a deterrent to an enemy from attacking.

核威懾 /核威慑

Nuclear weapons viewed as a deterrent to an enemy from attacking


mutual assured destruction

mutual assured destruction (uncountable)

(politics, public policy, military) The threat of massive retaliation using nuclear weapons should a potential enemy use them first, both sides being annihilated in the event of war.

destrucción mutua / mutual / recíproca asegurada


destalinization

The process, begun by Nikita Khrushchev, of discrediting and then reforming the policies of Joseph Stalin.

destalinizasiya

process of discrediting and the reforming the policies of Joseph Stalin


supercritical

en-adj

supercritical (comparative more supercritical, superlative most supercritical)

more supercritical (comparative)
most supercritical (superlative)

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

(physics) Of a substance or system above a critical threshold or range

(physics, of a fissile material) Having a mass sufficient to sustain an accelerating fission chain reaction.


atom bomb

Everywhere the atom bombs are dropping / It's the end of all humanity / No more time for last-minute shopping / It's time to face your final destiny

1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:


nuclear power

en-noun

nuclear power (countable and uncountable, plural nuclear powers)

(countable) A nation that possesses nuclear weapons.


thermonuclear weapon

thermonuclear weapon (plural thermonuclear weapons)

A weapon whose power is derived from nuclear fusion at high temperature


radiological

Of or pertaining to radiation, radioactivity or nuclear weapons.


Korean War

Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Democratic People's Republic of Korea

(historical) A war fought in the Korean Peninsula from 1950–1953 between the Soviet Union-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the United Nations-backed Republic of Korea.


fallout shelter

fallout shelter (plural fallout shelters)

A thick-walled building, usually under the ground, built so that people can keep away from dust after a nuclear explosion.


fall-out shelter

fall-out shelter (plural fall-out shelters)


proxy war

With the enhanced insurgent firepower and with Russia steadily raising the number of airstrikes against the government’s opponents, the Syrian conflict is edging closer to an all-out proxy war between the United States and Russia.

2015 October 12, Anne Barnard, Karam Shoumali, “U.S. Weaponry Is Turning Syria Into Proxy War With Russia”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A war where two powers use third parties as a supplement to, or a substitute for, fighting each other directly.


mutually assured destruction

mutually assured destruction (uncountable)

mutual assured destruction
mutual assured destruction#English

Alternative form of mutual assured destruction


Nixon

From Nick + -son, an alteration of Nickson, originally a patronymic meaning "son of Nicholas".

An English surname transferred from the given name.

Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States of America

A township in DeWitt County, Illinois, United States, named after early settlers George, William and Morris Nixon.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Washoe County, Nevada, United States, named in honor of George S. Nixon, Nevada senator.


From uranium + 235 (“the atomic mass of the isotope”).

af

The Zaporizhzhia plant provided about a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before Russia’s invasion, and has been forced to operate on backup generators a number of times. It has six Soviet-designed water-cooled and water-moderated reactors containing uranium-235.

2022 November 21, Lorenzo Tondo, Peter Beaumont, “Ukraine to start evacuations in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions as winter sets in”, in The Guardian:

(physics) A fissile isotope of uranium, used for energy generation and in atomic weapons, containing one hundred and forty-three neutrons. It has a half-life of 7·038×10⁸ years; it decays into thorium-231 and ultimately lead.


DEFCON

activation and readiness level of the United States armed forces, as "DEFCON 4".


Tito

Josip Broz Tito, a Yugoslav revolutionary and politician.


denuclearize

en-verb

denuclearize (third-person singular simple present denuclearizes, present participle denuclearizing, simple past and past participle denuclearized)

denuclearizes (present singular third-person)
denuclearizing (participle present)
denuclearized (participle past)
denuclearized (past)

America’s security, and your standing as leader of the free world, will rise if you get straight to work on these looming threats rather than expending yourself in another Sisyphean attempt to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, denuclearize North Korea or address the root causes of Latin American migration.

2024 November 5, Bret Stephens, “To Whom it May Concern”, in New York Times:

(transitive) To ban, remove or reduce the numbers of nuclear weapons in an area.


Reagan

Audio (US)

Anglicized from Irish Gaelic Ó Riagáin "descendant of Riagán", a personal name possibly derived from ríodhgach "impulsive, furious".

Of the administration of Ronald Reagan, U.S. President from 1981–1989.

When a rival meatpacker filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the deal, the Reagan administration intervened on the side of Cargill.

2022 January 15, Binyamin Appelbaum, “Building a Better Meatpacking Industry”, in The New York Times:

A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.

A female given name transferred from the surname, of 1970s and later American usage.


pro-nuclear

en-adj

pro-nuclear (comparative more pro-nuclear, superlative most pro-nuclear)

more pro-nuclear (comparative)
most pro-nuclear (superlative)

In favor of the use of nuclear energy and the building of nuclear power plants.


counterforce

(military) Targeting an opponent's military assets, such as missile silos, rather than other valuable assets such as cities and civilian populations.


reprocessing

en-noun

reprocessing (countable and uncountable, plural reprocessings)

eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

(engineering, nuclear physics, uncountable) The process of extracting useful or valuable materials from used nuclear fuel, mainly focusing on the recovery of fissile and fertile material for use in fresh nuclear reactor fuel, or, in some cases, the manufacture of nuclear weapons.


DEW line

(military, historical) A system of radar stations in the northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the north coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska.


Berlin Wall

(politics) Any barrier designed to keep people from crossing a border, e.g. the one proposed to keep people from crossing from Mexico into the United States.


Bent Spear

(US, euphemistic, military) A significant incident with a nuclear weapon, nuclear components, or nuclear-bearing vehicle.


Broken Arrow

In the US, the code name for a serious nuclear weapons incident is "Broken Arrow". It is US policy neither to confirm nor deny the existence of nuclear weapons at any specific location; this also applies to Broken Arrow incidents.

2004, Roland Everett Langford, Introduction to Weapons of Mass Destruction: Radiological, Chemical, and Biological, page 97:

(US, euphemistic, military) An accidental event that involves nuclear weapons or nuclear components but does not create the risk of nuclear war.


Broken Arrow

The FAC urgently sends over his radio a cry for help: "Broken Arrow! Broken Arrow!' His message unleashes all available close air support in South Vietnam on a priority basis.

2003, Jacques-François de Chaunac, The American Cavalry in Vietnam: "First Cav", →ISBN, page 48:

Before Caras could respond, the General threw down the mike, turned to his second and said, "Get them all the air support we have, everything. This is Broken Arrow"

2008, Terry Ryan, Bring Out Your Dead, →ISBN, page 137:

Broken Arrow refers to the U.S. military's code word used during the Vietnam War. This call was used only in the direst of tactical situations, when a ground unit was overrun by enemy forces. When "Broken Arrow" was heard on the radio nets, all available aircraft were diverted to provide close air support for the endangered command.

2010, Danny W. Davis, The Phinehas Priesthood, →ISBN:

All Pulse elements, this is Home Plate. Broken Arrow. I repeat, Broken Arrow. Forward command of close air-support operations is Rebel Four One.

2017, Kevin Ikenberry, Vendetta Protocol, page 155:

(US, military) A code phrase indicating that a ground unit is facing imminent destruction from enemy attack and all available air forces within range are to provide air support immediately.


nonproliferation

nonproliferation (usually uncountable, plural nonproliferations)

Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

Involving the prevention of proliferation; Opposed to the spread (of something).


doomsday device

doomsday device (plural doomsday devices)

Coined as Doomsday Machine by military strategist Herman Kahn.

For more than a year, ominous rumors had been privately circulating among high-level Western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the ultimate weapon: a doomsday device.

1964, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, spoken by Narrator:

Of course, Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, is calling for merging the S.E.C. with the easygoing Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in the financial equivalent of setting off a Doomsday Device.

2008 April 27, Ben Stein, “Wall Street, Run Amok”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A hypothetical weapon (often a bomb) programmed to automatically be used in response to certain attacks, usually with very dire consequences (such as the annihilation of the world).


Doomsday Device

Doomsday Device (plural Doomsday Devices)


Pax Americana

From Latin pāx (“peace”) + Americāna (“American”) after the model of the imperial Roman Pāx Rōmāna and earlier British Pāx Britannica.

Earlier this month Boston's WBUR radio station titled a special on US imperial power with the Latin tag Pax Americana. Tom Wolfe has written that the America of today is “now the mightiest power on earth, as omnipotent as… Rome under Julius Caesar”.

2002 September 18, Jonathan Freedland, “Rome, AD… Rome, DC?”, in The Guardian:

A war like this — a voluntary war of aggression — would be a sign that Putin believed that Pax Americana was over and that the U.S., the European Union and their allies had become too weak to exact painful consequences.

2022 February 21, David Leonhardt, “Why Ukraine Is Different”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The period of relative peace in the Western world since the end of World War II in 1945, coinciding with the military and economic dominance of the United States.


duck and cover

en-verb

duck and cover (third-person singular simple present ducks and covers, present participle ducking and covering, simple past and past participle ducked and covered)

ducks and covers (present singular third-person)
ducking and covering (participle present)
ducked and covered (participle past)
ducked and covered (past)

It's Christmas at ground zero / Just seconds left to go / I'll duck and cover / With my Yuletide lover / Underneath the mistletoe

(intransitive) To duck under a surface and cover one's face with one's hands, as a means to protect oneself from flying debris etc.


nuclear-free

Free of nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power stations, especially by official declaration.


interstage

(military) The components of a multistage thermonuclear weapon which channel the radiation produced by the primary's fission explosion so as to trigger the implosion of the secondary and ignite a fusion explosion in the secondary's fusion fuel.


Mao

As the revered Mao has said, 'There cannot be two suns in the same sky.'

1968, Edward S. Aarons, Assignment—Nuclear Nude, Fawcett Publications, page 135:

RN: You think you should not have gone?
TN: Yeah, I think it was a bad one to do. It was a good idea, but we shouldn't have gone to the University of Maryland … It was the motliest crew you've ever seen.
RN: Well, that's my view about going to the universities. Well, I hope it didn't bother you too much.
TN: No, it didn't. It was just—I know, I was just embarrassed because the Chinese issued a complaint.
RN: A complaint about what?
TN: Oh, you know, that they were being rude to the chairman—they were insulting Chairman Mao. There was nothing we could do! It's a free country!

1972, James Warren, “More Nixon Tapes A selection from recordings in the National Archives”, in The Atlantic:

A common surname from Chinese, from Mandarin, usually referring to Mao Zedong.

A card game, named after Mao Zedong, in which players attempt to shed all their cards without violating certain unspoken rules.


Mao

A branch of the Omotic languages spoken in Ethiopia.


HEU

highly-enriched uranium
highly-enriched uranium#English


massive retaliation

A military doctrine and nuclear strategy by which a state commits itself to retaliate with much greater force when attacked.


black rain

Rain contaminated by fungi spores, soot, or other particulate matter.


SEATO

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
w:Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

(historical) Initialism of Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, in existence from 1955 to 1977.


hypocentre

From hypo- + centre; from Ancient Greek ὑπο- (hupo-, “under-, sub-”) and Ancient Greek κέντρον (kéntron, “centre”).

derived

(military) The point on the surface below an atmospheric explosion; ground zero


Pathet Lao

From Lao ປະເທດລາວ (pa thēt lāo), from ປະເທດ (pa thēt, “country, state”) + ລາວ (lāo, “Lao”).

A communist nationalist movement and political party in Laos, which took power in 1975 after a civil war.


NORAD

w:North American Aerospace Defense Command

Acronym of North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Commandement de la Défense Aérospatiale de l’Amérique du Nord

北米航空宇宙防衛司令部

ほくべい こうくううちゅうぼうえいしれいぶ


fission bomb

I heard the fission bomb test clearly and I was over a hundred miles away.

An atomic bomb that uses nuclear fission as a source of energy


fusion bomb

An atomic bomb that uses nuclear fusion as a source of energy; a hydrogen bomb


nuclearize

en-verb

nuclearize (third-person singular simple present nuclearizes, present participle nuclearizing, simple past and past participle nuclearized)

nuclearizes (present singular third-person)
nuclearizing (participle present)
nuclearized (participle past)
nuclearized (past)

(transitive) To arm with nuclear weapons.


nuclearization

en-noun

nuclearization (countable and uncountable, plural nuclearizations)


gigaton

A measure of the strength of an explosion or a bomb based on how many billion tons of TNT would be needed to produce the same energy.


nuclearism

The advocacy of nuclear weapons and nuclear technology for the maintenance of national security


subcritical

a subcritical reactor

(physics) Having insufficient mass to sustain a chain reaction


MIRV

Picking up where we had left off at Vladivostok, we discussed verification of underground nuclear tests that each side could conduct, and also the rules for counting MIRVs — how to tell whether a missile had a single or a multiple warhead. There the Soviets granted a concession. If they placed a MIRV in a certain location, then we had the right to assume that every missile in that field had a MIRV capability.

1980, Gerald Ford, A Time to Heal, New York: Berkley Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 294:

The M.I.R.V. is a tactical nuke. Uh, fifty kilotons, nominal yield, say… five times Hiroshima.

1989, James Cameron, The Abyss (motion picture), spoken by Lt. Hiram Coffey (Michael Biehn):

(military) Initialism of multiple independently-targettable reentry vehicle; the independently targettable reentry capsule for a ballistic missile's payload, typically a nuclear weapon, where the missile has multiple instances of such.


MRV

multiple reentry vehicle
multiple reentry vehicle#English

(military) Initialism of multiple reentry vehicle: the reentry capsule for a ballistic missile's payload, typically a nuclear weapon, where the missile has multiple instances of such, but can only target one site with all reentry vehicles.


SLBM

The Circular Error Probable (CEPs) of SLBMs and SLCMs ought thus to be deliberately kept above the 'Hard Target Kill' (HTK) level.

1989, Marlies ter Borg-Neervoort, Wim Smit, Non-provocative Defence as a Principle of Arms Reduction:

ballistic missile
ballistic missile#English

(weaponry) Initialism of submarine-launched ballistic missile.


LRBM

long range ballistic missile
long range ballistic missile#English

(weaponry) Initialism of long range ballistic missile.


IRBM

intermediate-range ballistic missile
w:intermediate-range ballistic missile

(weaponry) Initialism of intermediate-range ballistic missile.


MRBM

medium range ballistic missile
medium range ballistic missile#English

(weaponry) Initialism of medium range ballistic missile.


denuclearization

denuclearization (countable and uncountable, plural denuclearizations)


nuclear testing

The testing of a nuclear weapons for effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability.


antinuke

en-adj

antinuke (comparative more antinuke, superlative most antinuke)

more antinuke (comparative)
most antinuke (superlative)

Holly Near […] interpreter for the deaf Susan Freudlich […] and pianist J. T. Thomas […] appeared in Bostonr Nov. 28 as part of a national tour aimed at educating people about nuclear power. […] The concert was introduced by Dr. Helen Caldicott (left) author of Nuclear Madness and a founder of the anti-nuke movement in Australia.

1979 December 8, “On Tour For A Nuclear-Free Future (image caption)”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 20, page 6:


counterproliferation

The nightmare scenario, of course, is what happens if an extremist Islamic government emerges with an instant nuclear arsenal, said Robert Joseph, a counterproliferation expert who left the administration this year.

2007 November 11, David E. Sanger, “So, What About Those Nukes?”, in New York Times:


postnuclear

postnuclear pitch


superbomb

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

An extremely powerful bomb, especially the atomic bomb or hydrogen bomb.


trinitite

en-noun

trinitite (usually uncountable, plural trinitites)

atomsite

melt glasses from US nuclear bomb test sites

melt glass

minerals melted by exposure to extreme heat and vitrified

kharitonchik

melt glasses from the Soviet nuke bomb Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan

impactite

metamorphic minerals caused by meteor heating of non-meteoritic materials

impact glass

melt glasses caused by meteor heating of non-meteoritic materials

fulgurite

melt glasses caused by lightning strikes

fusion crust

metamorphic minerals on the surface of meteorites caused by atmospheric entry heating

The glassy residue left on the desert floor after the Trinity nuclear bomb test of 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA.


nuclear summer

A period, hypothesized to follow a nuclear winter, in which surface temperatures rise to a dangerous degree because of the release of carbon dioxide and methane from decayed organic matter.


NFU

National Farmers Union
w:National Farmers Union


NFU

Initialism of no first use. (of nuclear weapons)

(set theory) Initialism of New Foundations with urelements.


MARV

A maneuverable reentry vehicle, a type of nuclear warhead capable of shifting targets in flight.


red mercury

A supposed substance for use in the creation of nuclear bombs and other weapons, about which there are various conspiracy theories.


megatonnage

megatonnage (countable and uncountable, plural megatonnages)

"We have grown accustomed to a deadly paradox: the world's greatest megatonnage of TNT is buried in the heart of the earth's most productive agricultural area.

1988 September 9, Harold Henderson, “The City File”, in Chicago Reader:

That simple idea gained increasing public support in the late 1970s and early 80s as an alternative to the complexities of the arms race, with its continuing posturing and intermittent negotiations about megatonnage, throw weight and inspections.

2007 October 26, Dennis Hevesi, “Randall Forsberg, 64, Nuclear Freeze Advocate, Dies”, in New York Times:

The destructive power of an explosive, measured in megatons.


Comecon

w:Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

(historical) Abbreviation of Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, a multinational economic organization that existed in the Eastern Bloc from 1949 to 1991.


Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact formalized Moscow's dominance in Europe's east.

(historical) A pact (long-term alliance treaty) signed on May 14, 1955 in Warsaw by the Soviet Union and its Communist military allies in Europe.


Gorbachev

Transliteration of Russian Горбачёв (Gorbačóv), usually written Горбаче́в (Gorbačév) (see note about Russian letter ё (jo)), from горба́ч (gorbáč, “hunchback”).

transliteration

Mikhail Gorbachev was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Горбачёв Горбачёв#Russian

A transliteration of the Russian surname Горбачёв (Gorbačóv).


intercontinental ballistic missile

en-noun

intercontinental ballistic missile (plural intercontinental ballistic missiles)

intercontinental ballistic missiles (plural)

From intercontinental + ballistic missile.

(military, astronautics) A class of long-range missiles associated especially with carrying nuclear warheads.

междуконтинентална балистична ракета

a class of long-range missiles associated especially with carrying nuclear warheads (ICBM)

大陸間弾道ミサイル

たいりくかんだんどうミサイル

межконтинента́льная баллисти́ческая раке́та


antinuker

(informal) One who is opposed to nuclear weapons.


antiatomic

(politics, military) Opposing or countering atomic weapons.


Hanford

en-proper noun

Hanford (countable and uncountable, plural Hanfords)

From Welsh hen ("old") and ford ("a way"): the old way (Source: William Arthur 1857).

Cerro Gordo County
Cerro Gordo County#English

An unincorporated community in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa.


Brezhnev

Borrowed from Russian Бре́жнев (Bréžnev).

Бре́жнев Брежнев#Russian

A transliteration of the Russian surname Бре́жнев (Bréžnev); usually refers to the Russian revolutionary and Soviet Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) Leonid Brezhnev.


antiproliferation

Used attributively to describe the countering of proliferation (of nuclear weapons, cancer etc.)


micronuke

A hypothetical nuclear weapon built on a very small scale.


downwinder

A person (or community) that lives downwind from a potential hazard (such as a nuclear power station)


Vietnam War

The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.

2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times:

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

(historical) The war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia between 1955 and 1975 between South Vietnam (backed by the United States and SEATO) and North Vietnam aiding the South Vietnamese communist guerrilla army known as the Vietcong (supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union) for the struggle for total Communist control of Vietnam as one state.


Eastern Bloc

Coordinate term: Western Bloc

(geopolitics, historical) The largely Communist countries of the eastern world, usually Eastern Europe and especially in the Cold War era.

اَلْكُتْلَة الشَّرْقِيَّة

the communist countries of the eastern world


Brezhnev Doctrine

Named after Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.

named-after

A policy which stated that the Soviet Union had the right to intervene in places where capitalism threatened communism.


Sputnik moment

A reference to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite Sputnik 1 which caught the US unprepared. The event ignited the Space Race during the Cold War, and led to the US successfully launching Explorer 1 into space in 1958.

Immediately after September 11, 2001, Americans found themselves again facing a Sputnik moment. They realized that they were caught flat-footed, unprepared to confront Al Qaeda terrorists.

2004 June 22, Rush Holt, Suggested Remarks for Rep. Rush Holt: Is American Security Being Lost in Translation?, National Language Conference, U.S. Department of Defence, archived from the original on 2008-12-27, page 4:

Americans are having another Sputnik moment: one of those periodic alarms about some foreign technological and economic menace. It was the Soviets in the 1950s and early 1960s, the Germans and the Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s, and now it's the Chinese and the Indians

2005 May 25, Robert J. Samuelson, “Sputnik Scare, Updated”, in Washington Post:

Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik, we had no idea how we would beat them to the moon. The science wasn't even there yet. NASA didn't exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. This is our generation's Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven't seen since the height of the Space Race. And in a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal.

2011 January 5, Barack Obama, Jon Favreau, speechwriter, “Remarks by the President in State of Union Address”, in White House Office of the Press Secretary, WhiteHouse.gov, archived from the original on 2016-05-06:

"It's a national call, a Sputnik moment," said Mehran Sahami, associate chairman for computer science education at Stanford, referring to the Soviet satellite launching in 1957 that pushed the United States into the space race.

2011 June 11, Claire Cain Miller, “Computer studies made cool, on film and now on campus”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2011-06-11:

The moment when a country or a society realizes that it needs to catch up with apparent technological and scientific developments made by some other country or countries by increasing its investment into education, innovative research and development, etc.

Explorer 1
National Air and Space Museum
Sputnik 1


Strangelovian

en-adj

Strangelovian (comparative more Strangelovian, superlative most Strangelovian)

more Strangelovian (comparative)
most Strangelovian (superlative)

From Strangelove + -ian, referring to the title character in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a black comedy satirizing the nuclear weapons scare.

Paul C. Warnke, President Jimmy Carter's first director of ACDA, came to Reagan's defense by noting the Strangelovian affection of some armchair strategists for nuclear weaponry.

1987, “INF Agreement in Principle”, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, volume 43, number 9, page 5:

How many hundreds of millions of dollars have been sunk into Strangelovian bunkers, how many tens of thousands of hours invested in preparing for that apocalyptic vision? Only a handful of senior doomsday officials may ever know...

1994, Mother Jones Magazine (volume 19, number 1, Jan-Feb 1994)

Just today, I read a Strangelovian story in the paper revealing that some of Russia's nuclear missiles, still aimed at the United States, have gone unattended because their guards were denied their bonus rations of four pounds of sausage a month.

2008, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Four Star Reviews — 1967-2007, page 833:

Of or pertaining to nuclear apocalypse, especially through incompetence or shortsightedness.


doomsday weapon

en-noun

doomsday weapon (plural doomsday weapons)


electromagnetic pulse

electromagnetic pulse (plural electromagnetic pulses)

Compton-recoil electrons and photoelectrons from photons scattered in the materials of a nuclear event causing electric and magnetic fields to couple with electrical and electronic systems to produce damaging current surges.


nuclear magnetic pulse

nuclear magnetic pulse (plural nuclear magnetic pulses)

electromagnetic pulse
electromagnetic pulse#English

An electromagnetic pulse caused by a nuclear explosion


domino theory

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

(politics, historical) Synonym of domino effect


subcritical mass

subcritical mass (plural subcritical masses)

(physics) A mass of fissile material that is insufficient to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.

alikriittinen massa

insufficient mass to sustain chain reaction


supercritical mass

supercritical mass (plural supercritical masses)

(physics) A mass of fissile material that is more than sufficient to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.


radioflash

radioflash (usually uncountable, plural radioflashes)

electromagnetic pulse
electromagnetic pulse


nukeable

en-adj

nukeable (comparative more nukeable, superlative most nukeable)

more nukeable (comparative)
most nukeable (superlative)


B-NICE

(emergency medicine) Initialism of biological, nuclear / radiological, incendiary, chemical, and explosive agents, used to remember the types of hazmat emergencies.


CBRN

weapons of mass destruction
weapon of mass destruction

(military, US, emergency medicine) Initialism of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear, used to remember the four types of weapons of mass destruction.


START

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
w:Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

(law) Acronym of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.


substrategic

(military, nuclear weapons) At a lesser level than full strategic nuclear warfare.


prestrategic

(military, nuclear weapons) Before the onset of full strategic nuclear warfare.


the Bomb

Alternative form of the bomb (as in a nuclear bomb)


N-bomb

The synthetic hallucinogen 25I-NBOMe, used as a recreational drug.


decommunization

The act, process, or result of decommunizing.


A-bomber

From A-bomb + -er. (atomic bomber / atom bomber).

An aircraft capable of delivering an atomic bomb as a weapon.


ADM

agency debit memo
agency debit memo#English

(travel) Initialism of agency debit memo.

Coordinate term: SADM

atomic demolition munition
w:atomic demolition munition

(military) Initialism of atomic demolition munition.


ADM

(rail transport) The station code of Admiralty in Hong Kong.


Bamboo Curtain

After iron curtain, the original Cold War “curtain” (in Europe). First used in Time magazine in 1949.

Gen. Wego Chiang, commander-in-chief of the Combined Service Forces, called on leaders of the free world to design an effective global strategy to safeguard world peace and to rescue the enslaved people behind the Bamboo Curtain.

1982 November 7, “ROC to aid joint security”, in Free China Weekly, volume XXIII, number 44, Taipei, page 1:

“A new bamboo curtain may be coming down on Southeast Asia,” he worried. This would not be a hard-and-fast wall like the Iron Curtain; nor would it be part of some newly imagined Asian domino theory.

2008 September, Robert D. Kaplan, “Lifting the Bamboo Curtain”, in The Atlantic:

As it had been for other Western reporters getting their first look behind the Bamboo Curtain, it was all a marvel for Payne. After all, here was a country that less than a quarter of a century ago had been destitute after three decades of revolutionary warfare.

2015, James McGrath Morris, Eye on the Struggle, Amistad, →ISBN, page 321:

(historical) The political and ideological barrier between the communist and capitalist states of Asia during the Cold War.

Бамбукавая заслона

political barrier between communist and capitalist in Asia

ബാംബൂ കർട്ടൻ

bāmbū kaṟṭṭaṉ


SALT

(politics) Acronym of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.


nuclear warfare

The use of nuclear weapons as weapons of war.


Purex

Shortening of plutonium uranium extraction.

A chemical method used to purify fuel for nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons, based on liquid–liquid extraction ion-exchange.


South Vietnam

China is so large, looms so high just beyond the frontiers, that if South Vietnam went, it would not only give them an improved geographic position for the guerrilla assault on Malaya but would also give the impression that the wave of the future in Southeast Asia was China and the Communists. So I believe it.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, quoting John F. Kennedy, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 61:

(historical) A state, officially the Republic of Vietnam, that governed southern Vietnam from 1955–1975.


CEP

The Circular Error Probable (CEPs) of SLBMs and SLCMs ought thus to be deliberately kept above the 'Hard Target Kill' (HTK) level.

1989, Marlies ter Borg-Neervoort, Wim Smit, Non-provocative Defence as a Principle of Arms Reduction:

circular error probable
w:circular error probable

(ballistics) An initialism of three synonymous phrases, namely:


nukespeak

From nuke + -speak, coined by linguist Paul Chilton.

A form of misleading language used to present nuclear weapons in a positive light.


Bay of Pigs

A small inlet on the southern side of Cuba, site of a famous failed invasion in 1961.


bunker buster

(military) A bomb designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground.


nuclear option

From analogy with the political decision to be the first to use nuclear weapons in a war.

So now that the Republicans have used the nuclear option to kill the poor filibuster to clear the way for the elevation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, we can lose perspective.

2017 April 5, Steven Waldman, “Learning to Love the Nuclear Option”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US politics) A procedure by which the United States Senate can decide any issue with a simple majority, rather than the usual supermajority.


TNT equivalent

The amount of energy released by an explosion expressed in terms of the amount of TNT needed to generate a similar explosion. Used especially to describe nuclear bombs.


North Vietnam

When we visited Laos, I had lunch with Souvanna Phouma. During the course of the lunch, he said we ought to bomb Red China, that it was the effective way to stop their aid to North Vietnam.

1976, Hubert H. Humphrey, The Education of a Public Man: My Life and Politics, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 333:

Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Democratic Republic of Vietnam

(historical) A state (officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) that governed northern Vietnam in 1945–1975.

Vietnam i Veriut

(historical) a state (officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) that governed northern Vietnam in 1945–1975


civil defense

Efforts to protect the citizens of a state from military attack.

دفاع مدني

efforts to protect the citizens of a state from military attack


nukage

From nuke + -age. Attested since the 20th century.

Go down the left path around the nukage pit and past the closed door. Carefully climb the steps and blast the Imps waiting near the green flames to the right.

I scoop black beans and cheese into a salsified (read: artificially red) wrap and wait my turn for nukage at the microwave.

2005, Emily Franklin, Piece, Love, and Happiness: The Principles of Love, page 64:

The process of nuking something, in various senses.


Enola

Created for the titular character in the 1886 American novel Enola, derived from alone spelled backwards.

A place in the United States:
A town in Faulkner County, Arkansas.