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.


war

en-noun

war (countable and uncountable, plural wars)

From Middle English werre, from Late Old English werre, wyrre (“armed conflict”), from Old Northern French werre (compare modern French guerre), from Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish *werru (“confusion; quarrel”), from Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh”). Gradually displaced native Old English beadu, hild, ġewinn, orleġe, wīġ, and many others as the general term for "war" during the Middle English period.
Related to Old High German werra (“confusion, strife, quarrel”) and German verwirren (“to confuse”), but not to Wehr (“defense”). Also related to Old Saxon werran (“to confuse, perplex”), Dutch war (“confusion, disarray”), West Frisian war (“confusion”),
Old English wyrsa, wiersa (“worse”), Old Norse verri (“worse, orig. confounded, mixed up”), Italian guerra (“war”). There may be a connection with worse and wurst.

cog

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River

Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851 painting)

Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.

2001 Sept. 20, George W. Bush, speech before Congress, White House Archives

...These wars are not going away. This is at least a generational struggle.

2021 Sept. 8, Seth G. Jones, quoted in Chris Moody, "Twenty Years after 9/11, Did US Win Its ‘War on Terror’?" Al-Jazeera

the Great Emu War... the Global War on Terrorism...

(countable, sometimes proscribed) Protracted armed conflict against irregular forces, particularly groups considered terrorists.

The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party... Ask all our millions, north and south, whether they would vote now (were such a thing possible) to have our war for the Union expunged from history... and probably hardly a handful of eccentrics would say yes. Those ancestors, those efforts, those memories and legends, ar the most ideal part of what we now own together, a sacred spiritual possession worth more than all the blood poured out. Yet ask those same people whether they would be willing, in cold blood, to start another civil war now to gain another similar possession, and not one man or woman would vote for the proposition.

1906, William James, The Moral Equivalent of War:

the War on Poverty... the War on Drugs... the War on Christmas...

(countable, by extension) Any protracted conflict, particularly

(chiefly US) Campaigns against various social problems.

price wars... Cola Wars... format wars...

(business) A protracted instance of fierce competition in trade.

turf war... gang war... Castellammarese War...

(crime) A prolonged conflict between two groups of organized criminals, usually over organizational or territorial control.

flame war... edit war...

(Internet) An argument between two or more people with opposing opinions on a topic or issue.


nickel

en-noun

nickel (countable and uncountable, plural nickels)

Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.

that and a nickel will buy you a cup of coffee

that and a nickel will get you on the subway

you pays your nickel and you takes your chances

you pays your nickel and you takes your choice

Colonel Hazeltine still had trouble persuading air commanders to drop the nickels. Pilots profanely protested against risking their necks on such foolishness. But in the end 15,000,000 leaflets a week were being dropped on Sicily and Italy.

1945, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 217, Curtis Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 79:

Many types of nickels were used in psychological warfare. Classified according to general purpose, there were strategic and tactical leaflets.

1948, The Army Air Forces in World War II, volume 3, Office of Air Force History, →ISBN, page 495:

Nickels, the code-name for propaganda leaflets, were ordinary 8-1/2×11" sheets of paper either printed on both sides or folded in half and printed on all four sides. […] On most of our flights, after leaving the DZ or landing strip we distributed 150 to 450 pounds of nickels over designated areas, and a few of our missions were nickel runs only.

2010, Richard H. Kraemer, The Secret War in the Balkans, Author House, →ISBN, page 136:

(UK, World War II) An airborne propaganda leaflet.


nickel

en-verb

nickel (third-person singular simple present nickels, present participle nickeling or nickelling, simple past and past participle nickeled or nickelled)

nickels (present singular third-person)
nickeling (participle present)
nickelling (participle present)
nickeled (participle past)
nickeled (past)
nickelled (participle past)
nickelled (past)

The 422d Bombardment Squadron extended the scope of its operations considerably in April and "attacked" Norwegian targets with the leaflet bomb. The number of cities nickeled per mission also increased until it was common for fifteen to twenty-five to be scheduled as targets for a five-plane mission.

1948, The Army Air Forces in World War II, volume 3, Office of Air Force History, →ISBN, pages 496–497:

We flew numerous nickeling missions over the population centers of Southern France, dropping thousands of pounds of leaflets.

1966, Monro MacCloskey, Secret Air Missions, R. Rosen Press, →OCLC, page 36:

From southern Greece to northern Italy, nickeling supplied both occupied peoples and their occupiers with fairly frequent and generally accurate reports of the war — in many cases, their only authoritative source of information.

(UK, World War II) To distribute airborne leaflet propaganda.


pip

Apparently representing a shortened form of pippin, from Middle English pipin, from Old French pepin (“a seed”) (French pépin).

(British, dated, World War I, signalese) P in RAF phonetic alphabet.


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.


action

en-noun

action (countable and uncountable, plural actions)

→ Arabic: أَكْشِن (ʔakšin)

→ Bulgarian: екшън (ekšǎn)

→ German: Action

→ Irish: aicsean

→ Hebrew: אקשן (akshn)

→ Japanese: アクション (akushon)

→ Korean: 액션 (aeksyeon)

→ Russian: экшн (ekšn)

From Middle English accion, from Old French aucion, acciun, from Latin āctiō(n) (“act of doing or making”), from āctus + action suffix -iō(n), perfect passive participle of agere (“do, act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti; see also act, active. By surface analysis, act + -ion.

der

He saw some action in the Korean War.


mill

Sranan Tongo: miri

→ Hindi: मिल (mil)

From Middle English mylne, mille, from Old English mylen, from Proto-West Germanic *mulīnu (“mill”), from Late Latin molīna, molīnum, molīnus (“mill”), from Latin molō (“grind, mill”, verb), closely allied to Proto-Germanic *muljaną (“to crush, grind”) (see English millstone). Perhaps cognate with Milne (a surname). Doublet of moline and moulin.

cog

l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand

every miller draws water to his own mill

the mill cannot grind with water that is past

(World War I– World War II, US military slang) A military prison, either guardhouse or post prison.

(World War I– World War II military slang) A delousing station, cootie mill.


prisoner of war

en-noun

prisoner of war (plural prisoners of war)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-PerfectSoundWhatever-prisoner of war.wav

Calque of French prisonnier de guerre, prisonier de guerre (obsolete).

As a prisoner of war, he was interrogated by his enemy captors.

A combatant or soldier who is captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict.

rob lufte

combatant or soldier captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict


CS

Confederate States
Confederate States#English

(historical) Initialism of Confederate States.


chat

'Do officers have chats, then, the same as us?'
'Not the same, no. The chats they got is bigger and better, with pips on their shoulders and Sam Browne belts.'

1977, Mary Emily Pearce, Apple Tree Lean Down, page 520

May a thousand chats from Belgium crawl under their fingers as they write.

2007, How Can I Sleep when the Seagull Calls?, →ISBN, page 18:

Trench foot was a nasty and potentially fatal foot disease commonly caused by these conditions, in which chats or body lice were the bane of all.

2013, Graham Seal, The Soldiers' Press: Trench Journals in the First World War, →ISBN, page 149:

(British, Australia, New Zealand, World War I military slang) A louse (small, parasitic insect).


spat

spat (countable and uncountable, plural spats)

As spat-fall often occurs in areas away from environments suitable for oyster growing, the collection, transport and sale of oyster spat has developed into a separate industry.

2005, TVR Pillay, MN Kutty, Aquaculture: Principles and practices, page 525:

But Orata’s oysters were, like the dormice and fish, collected in the wild, as spat.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 243:

The spawn of shellfish, especially oysters and similar molluscs.


spat

1804. American English, probably imitative.

onomatopoeic

imitative

get into a trivial spat over punctuality

have a vicious spat with the cousins

2017 January 14, “Some Thais worry that a lasting power struggle is brewing. Others see a minor spat over language, which will quickly be forgotten.”, in The Economist:

The downside of this cost-saving strategy was that the train service could only be covered by goodwill. Whenever there was a spat between ASLEF and management - regardless of cause - the withdrawal of this goodwill became a stick with which unions could beat management.

2022 November 16, Graham Eccles, “The Rest Day Working saga...”, in RAIL, number 970, page 32:


spat

en-verb

spat (third-person singular simple present spats, present participle spatting, simple past and past participle spatted)

spats (present singular third-person)
spatting (participle present)
spatted (participle past)
spatted (past)

onomatopoeic

imitative

(originally US, intransitive) To quarrel or argue briefly.


spat

Little Isabel leaped up and down, spatting her hands.

(US, dialect) To slap, as with the open hand; to clap together, as the hands.


stick

en-noun

stick (countable and uncountable, plural sticks)

→ Catalan: estic

→ Italian: stick

→ Korean: 스틱 (seutik)

→ Portuguese: stique, estique

→ Sranan Tongo: tiki

From Middle English stikke (“stick, rod, twig”), from Old English sticca (“rod, twig”), from Proto-West Germanic *stikkō, from Proto-Germanic *stikkô, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Stikke (“stick”), West Flemish stik (“stick”). Related to stigma.

der

better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick

better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

better than a poke in the eye with a shitty stick

it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick.

(US military slang, World War I) An aircraft’s propeller.


coal

en-noun

coal (countable and uncountable, plural coals)

→ Hausa: kwal

From Middle English cole, from Old English col, from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą (compare West Frisian koal, Dutch kool, German Kohle, Danish kul), from *ǵwelH- (“to burn, shine”). Compare Old Irish gúal (“coal”), Lithuanian žvìlti (“to twinkle, glow”), Persian زغال (zoğâl, “live coal”), Sanskrit ज्वल् (jval, “to burn, glow”), Tocharian B śoliye (“hearth”), all from the same root.

(military slang, World War I– World War II) Bombs emitting black smoke on impact.


buzzard

From Middle English bosart, from Anglo-Norman buisart, from Old French busart, busard, a derivative ( + -ard) of Old French buison, buson (French buse), possibly from Latin būteō (“hawk”).

(US, military slang, World War I) A fighter plane.


hedgehog

/ˈhɛd͡ʒ.hɒɡ/

/ˈhɛd͡ʒ.hɔɡ/

From Middle English heyghoge; equivalent to hedge + hog. Eclipsed non-native Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (“hedgehog”), from Old French hirchoun, herichon (“hedgehog”); and Middle English il, from Old English īl, iġil (“hedgehog”).

(informal, military, historical) A spigot mortar-type of depth charge weapon from World War II that simultaneously fires a number of explosives into the water to create a pattern of underwater explosions intended to attack submerged submarines.


CSS

CSS (countable and uncountable, plural CSSs or CSSes)

(historical, nautical, military) Initialism of Confederate States Ship (the designation for a commissioned warship operated by the Confederate States Navy).


EMP

electromagnetic pulse
electromagnetic pulse#English


muffler

→ Japanese: マフラー

→ Spanish: mofle

→ Welsh: myffler

(World War I military slang, rare) A gasmask.


ABM

anti-ballistic missile
anti-ballistic missile#English

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


ABM

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.


armistice

From Late Latin armistitium, from Latin arma (“arms, weapons”) + sistēre (from sistō (“to halt, stand still”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand up”)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). The word is cognate with French armistice, Italian armistizio, Portuguese armistício, Spanish armisticio.

der

The armistice of November 1918 could represent many things: the end of the war, the victory. But for the Carnard [the newspaper Le Canard enchaîné], first and foremost, it represented dissention among the French. […] After the armistice and the emergence of the first difficulties of the peace, many more both on the right and in the center argued that the armistice should have been signed in Berlin—in a word, the armistice of November 11 was premature.

2002, Allen Douglas, “Web of Memory”, in War, Memory, and the Politics of Humor: The Canard Enchaîné and World War I, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 151:

Later he [British Prime Minister David Lloyd George] meets with the House of Commons and, after an opening prayer is said, reviews the armistice terms, then moves for adjournment.

2018, Richard J. Connors, The Road to the Armistice 1918, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Dorrance Publishing Co., →ISBN, pages 66–67:

Alternative letter-case form of Armistice (“the armistice agreement signed between the Allies and Germany on 11 November 1918 to end World War I; (by extension) the end of World War I”)


nuclear

en-noun

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.


Tehran

Diacriticless transliteration of Iranian Persian تِهران (tehrân), from Classical Persian تَهران (tahrān). See there for more.

translit

(by ellipsis) The Tehran Conference (1943).


club

→ Afrikaans: klub

→ Czech: klub

→ Dutch: club

desctree

→ French: club
→ Khmer: ក្លឹប (kləp)
→ Romanian: club
→ Ottoman Turkish: قلوب (klüb)
Turkish: kulüp

→ German: Club, Klub (used to be common for some decades, but is now becoming less frequent again)
Russian: клуб (klub), клубъ (klub) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
→ Yakut: кулууп (kuluup)
→ Yiddish: קלוב (klub)
Serbo-Croatian: klȗb/клу̑б

desc

→ Greek: κλαμπ (klamp), γκλομπ (gklomp), γκλοπ n (gklop), κλομπ n (klomp)

→ Indonesian: klub

→ Japanese: 倶楽部 (kurabu), クラブ (see there for further descendants)

→ Malay: kelab

→ Spanish: club

→ Tokelauan: kalapu

→ Welsh: clwb

From Middle English clubbe, from Old Norse klubba, klumba (“cudgel”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“clip, clasp; clump, lump; log, block”). Cognate with English clump, cloud, Latin globus, glomus; and perhaps related to Middle Low German kolve (“bulb”), German Kolben (“butt, bulb, club”).

knuppel

heavy stick for use as weapon or plaything

(World War I– World War II, military slang) The propeller of an aeroplane.


ANZAC

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
w:Australian and New Zealand Army Corps

Acronym of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.


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.


jayhawker

(historical) An abolitionist raider in the Kansas–Missouri border skirmishes during the American Civil War.


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.


World War I

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-World War I.wav

(history) The war from 1914 to 1918 between the Entente Powers of the British Empire, Russian Empire, France, Italy, the United States and other allied nations, against the Central Powers represented by the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

第１次世界大戦

だいいちじせかいたいせん


KIA

(military) A person who is killed in action.


antebellum

From the Latin ante bellum (literally “before the war”).

bor

Slavery was an accepted part of antebellum plantation life.

There was no single characteristic house style during the antebellum period, but the elegant plantation homes built in the American South, with their central entrances, balconies, columns, and formal ballrooms, came closest to representing a discrete architectural style for the period.

2004, James M. Volo, Dorothy Denneen Volo, The Antebellum Period, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 115:

(US) Of the period prior to the American Civil War, especially in reference to the culture of the southern states.


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.


Yankee

First attested in 1683, as a name applied disparagingly by Dutch settlers in Nieuw Amsterdam (New York) to English colonists in neighboring Connecticut. It may be from Dutch Janke (“Little John”), the old diminutive form of the common personal name Jan, or it may be from Jan Kees, the familiar form of "Johan Cornelius", or a variant of Jan Kaas, literally "John Cheese", the generic nickname the Flemings used for Dutchmen. It originally seems to have been applied insultingly to the Dutch, especially freebooters, before they turned around and applied it to the English. In English it was a term of contempt (1750s) before it came to be used as a general term for "a native of New England" (1765). The shortened form Yank was first recorded in reference to "an American" in 1778. James Fenimore Cooper suggested that it was a corruption of "English" via the intermediate form "Yengeese."

...in a short time, a kind of infectious mirth and pride in their bargains took possession of the place, and every one bought something, holding out their purchases to view, and praising them in the words and phraseology of the young yankees, who, finding their own importance, were not slow to avail themselves of it,...

1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 194:

(chiefly Commonwealth, sometimes derogatory) A native or inhabitant of the United States.

[…]so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.

1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, chapter XXXIV, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC:

“So, he is the father of Emmie Slattery’s baby,” thought Scarlett. “Oh, well. What else can you expect from a Yankee man and a white-trash girl?”

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part I, page 71:

(chiefly Southern US) A native or inhabitant of the Northern United States.

я́нкі

native or inhabitant of the Northern USA

(chiefly southern Louisiana) An Anglo, as opposed to someone with French ancestry; a native or inhabitant of the rest of the United States.


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.


Okinawa

/ˌɒkiːˈnɑːwə/

/ˌəʊkiːˈnɑːwə/

Borrowed from Japanese 沖縄(おきなわ) (Okinawa).

Okinawa City
Okinawa Island
Okinawa Islands
Okinawa Prefecture

(historical, World War II) The Battle of Okinawa, which took place there in 1945.


sitzkrieg

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

Borrowed from German Sitzkrieg (“sitting war”), a pun on Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”).

Warfare without any military operations or campaigns; a stalemate.


Troubles

Under McGlinchey's leadership, the INLA committed several atrocities and murders during the Troubles, resulting in the Co Derry native's imprisonment both north and south of the border.

2023 August 1, “Son of slain republicans brings actions”, in The Irish Times, page 4:

(Ireland, historical) The continued violence and terrorist, military and paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland that happened from the mid 1960s to the late 1990s.

na Trioblóidí

violence in Northern Ireland, 1960s–1990s


World War II

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-World War II.wav

As students all over the United States knuckle down to learning, the rumble of war drums once more proclaims Mars high man in Europe. Discarding morbid curiosity, every student should consider it vitally necessary to get a general picture of the causes, movements, and possible effects of World War II. The average U. S. citizen's knowledge of World War II will probably decide his role in it.

1939 November 10, “Following The War”, in The Chart, volume I, number 1, Joplin, Missouri: Joplin Junior College, page 4, column 1:

Nothing since the beginning of World War II, a year ago last September, has boosted British morale or given them greater courage to fight on as has this brilliant Libyan campaign.

1941 March, Frederick M. Barrows, “The War in Africa”, in Command and General Staff School Military Review, volume XXI, number 80, →OCLC, page 23, column 1:

If Demandt's essay served as a strident example of the German desire for normalcy, a more subtle example was provided by a brief allohistorical depiction of a Nazi victory in World War II written by German historian Michael Salewski in 1999.

2005 May 23, Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 182:

The tiny island of Tinian was the launch point for American planes carrying atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Now a new runway is being carved from the jungle, just south of World War II ruins inked with mildew.

2023 March 25, Damien Cave, “An Anxious Asia Arms for a War It Hopes to Prevent”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-25:

(history) The war from 1939 to 1945 of the Allied forces, including the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, France, and China, against the Axis Powers, including Germany, Italy, and Japan.

מִלְחֶמֶת הָעוֹלָם הַשְּׁנִיָּה \ מלחמת העולם השנייה

Great Patriotic War

primarily in a Soviet or Russian context


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.


beep

Blend of big + jeep. From being bigger versions of the general purpose superlight truck, the Willys MB "Jeep".

(US, military, slang, dated, World War II) A 1/2-ton general purpose military light truck

(US, military, slang, dated, World War II, by extension) A 3/4-ton general purpose military medium truck

(US, military, slang, dated, World War II) Especially, the Dodge WC series U.S. Army WWII military trucks, in 1/2-ton 3/4-ton 1-ton variants


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.


zombie

First attested in 1871.
From a Bantu language. Compare Kongo nzambi (“god”), zumbi (“fetish”), and Kimbundu nzumbi (“ghost”) (see Portuguese zumbi), and Caribbean folklore's jumbee (“a spirit or demon”).
Origin from Spanish sombra (“shadow, phantom”) has also been suggested.
May have come through Louisiana Creole [Term?]. See also French zombi (1832).

1944, "Time for Decision," Time (US edition), 6 Nov.,
Had the time come to order Canada's home defense draftees—some 70,000 zombies idling at home—to battle overseas?

(Canada, historical, derogatory) A conscripted member of the Canadian military during World War II who was assigned to home defence rather than to combat in Europe.


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.


kamikaze

[ˌkʰɑmɪˈkʰɑːzɪi̯]

Borrowed from Japanese 神風(かみかぜ) (kamikaze, “divine wind”).

One who carries out a suicide attack, especially with an aircraft.

Coupled with this were issues involving actually getting enough torpedoes out there to the fleet in the first place! Whilst they were a munition, a torpedo is far more complex and took far longer to build than a shell for a naval gun, even a battleship shell. Torpedoes, remember, are effectively small self-guiding kamikaze submarines, and, so, unless you have a large factory and an extensive production line going, you're only gonna see handfuls produced each year.

2020 February 12, Drachinifel, 8:16 from the start, in The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is Like Onions, archived from the original on 2022-11-24:

A vehicle used for a suicide attack, especially an aircraft.

A cocktail made of equal parts vodka, triple sec and lime juice.


kamikaze

kamikaze (third-person singular simple present kamikazes, present participle kamikazeing, simple past and past participle kamikazed)

kamikazes (present singular third-person)
kamikazeing (participle present)
kamikazed (participle past)
kamikazed (past)

[ˌkʰɑmɪˈkʰɑːzɪi̯]

(transitive) To destroy (a ship, etc.) in a suicide attack, especially by crashing an aircraft.

(intransitive) To carry out a suicide attack, especially by crashing an aircraft.


hermaphrodite

From Hermaphroditus, the mythical son of Hermes and Aphrodite, who merged bodies with a naiad, thereafter having both male and female qualities.

deledash

organism having both male and female gonads

armoured fighting vehicle
armoured fighting vehicle

(World War I military, historical) An armoured fighting vehicle having features of both male tanks and female tanks.


ratline

Apparently an alteration of raddling, after rat, line.

Marc Masurovsky, of the European Shoah Legacy Institute, has a remarkable knowledge of the Nazi ratlines and Allied intelligence.

2015, Gerald Posner, God's Bankers, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 515:

(historical, in the plural) A system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe in the aftermath of World War II.


blitzkrieg

blitzkrieg Tanks (canonical)
motor vehicles (canonical)
blitzkriegs (plural)

Unadapted borrowing from German Blitzkrieg (literally “lightning war”).

ubor

I rode a tank, held a general's rank / When the Blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank

1968, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger (lyrics and music), “Sympathy for the Devil”, in Beggars Banquet, performed by Rolling Stones:

A fast military offensive, typically involving a large and highly mobile tank force with air support.


Tory

From Irish tóraí (“pursuer”), from tóir (“pursuit”). The first recorded use in English is from a 1646 letter by James Butler ("Earl of Ormond") to a Colonel O' Brien, describing bandits and thieves on main roadways.

(US, historical) A Union sympathizer in the Confederate States during the American Civil War.


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


hostilities

The GFAP also called for the deployment of an international armed force, under NATO leadership, of sixty thousand troops to supervise the cessation of hostilities and to provide framework security to enable civilian peace implementation.

2005, Ian Oliver, “The Road to Dayton Ohio”, in War & Peace in the Balkans: The Diplomacy of Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia, I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 91:


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.


U-boat

(military, nautical, historical) Any German submarine of the First or Second World War, or any Austro-Hungarian submarine of the First World War.

U-Boot

any German submarine of the First or Second World War, or any Austro-Hungarian submarine of the First World War


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


Battle of Britain

(historical) A series of air engagements between the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the German Luftwaffe during World War II for air superiority over southern England and the English Channel prior to any German invasion of the British Isles.

Slag om Brittanje

series of air engagements between the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe during World War II


poppy

poppy (countable and uncountable, plural poppies)

→ Japanese: ポピー (popī)

Beckwithshaw
In Flanders Fields
John McCrae
Moina Michael

PIE word
 *péh₂wr̥
The noun is derived from Late Middle English poppy, Middle English popy, popi, popie (“plant of the genus Papaver; poppy seeds used as a spice”) [and other forms], from Old English popiġ (“poppy”), Early Old English popeġ, popaeġ, popæġ, popei [and other forms], perhaps from Late Latin *papavum, popauer, from Latin papāver (“poppy”), which may be from a reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥ (“bonfire”). Doublet of papaver.
Sense 3 (“artificial poppy flower to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts”) reflects the efforts of American professor and humanitarian Moina Michael (1869–1944) to popularize the wearing of artificial poppies in remembrance of those who fought and died in World War I; she was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields” (1915) by the Canadian poet and soldier John McCrae (1872–1918): see the quotation.
The adjective is derived from the noun.

nb...

pape, papie, papy, papye, popẹ̄, poppei, popye, (Early Middle English) papig, popi, popig

blue poppy

Meconopsis, especially Meconopsis betonicifolia

Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets.

2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England under 21 5 Iceland under 21 0: Match report”, in Tony Gallagher, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2011-11-11:

(chiefly Australia, British, Canada) A simple artificial poppy flower worn in a buttonhole or displayed in other contexts to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts, especially around Remembrance Day/Remembrance Sunday.


zigzag

Attested from 1712. Borrowed from French zigzag (attested from 1662), possibly from a Germanic source via Walloon ziczac (although German Zickzack is attested only from 1703). Also, possibly from the shape of the letter Z, which appears twice in the word.


issue

From Middle English issue, from Old French issue (“an exit, a way out”), feminine past participle of issir (“to exit”), from Latin exeō (“go out, exit”), from prefix ex- (“out”) + eō (“go”).

drain

small incision etc. to drain excess bodily fluid

The bloody sergeant snaffled our whole issue of booze, dammit.

Someone or something that flows out or comes out, particularly:

(figuratively, originally World War I military slang, usually with definite article) The entire set of something; all of something.


IBM

en-noun

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.


warfare

warfare (usually uncountable, plural warfares)

From war + fare; perhaps a shortening of Middle English werre-faringe, werfarynge (“waging war, warfare”, literally “going to war”).

The Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 28:1:

The waging of war or armed conflict against an enemy.

вядзенне вайны

the waging of war or armed conflict against an enemy

Military operations of some particular kind e.g. guerrilla warfare.

военна операция

military operations of some particular kind


warfare

en-verb

warfare (third-person singular simple present warfares, present participle warfaring, simple past and past participle warfared)

warfares (present singular third-person)
warfaring (participle present)
warfared (participle past)
warfared (past)

To lead a military life; to carry on continual wars.


hammer and sickle

en-noun

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.


SMERSH

Borrowed from Russian СМЕРШ (SMJeRŠ), an acronym of «Смерть шпионам!» («Smertʹ špionam!», “Death to spies!”).

(historical) Counter-intelligence organisation attached to Russian army units during World War II.

施密爾舒 /施密尔舒

WWII-era Russian counter-intelligence organisation


Nagasaki

Borrowed from Japanese 長崎(ながさき) (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.


Iron Age

/ˈʌɪən eɪdʒ/

From iron + age, in the mythological sense a calque of Latin saecula ferrea, aetas ferrea; in the archaeological sense a calque of Danish jernalder.

(archaeology) A level of culture in which humans used iron and the technology of ironworking. (Estimated to have begun in Europe about 1100 BC)


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.


world war

Their lips met in one long silent kiss, and a moment later he had gone to strike the first blow in the coming world-war, and to bring the beginning of sorrows on the Tyrant of the North.

1894, George Griffith, The Angel of the Revolution, page 69:

[…] Armageddon, that world war with which the Second Coming is to be so closely associated.

1921, Aldous Huxley, chapter 9, in Crome Yellow, London: Chatto & Windus:

A war involving the major nations of the world.

wêreldoorlog

a war involving the major nations of the world

тӗнче вӑрҫи

tĕnč̬e vărś̬i

дөнья сугышы

dön’ya suğışı


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).


Anzac Day

April 25, a public holiday in Australia and New Zealand that originally commemorated the sacrifices made by members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and now honours people from those countries who have served in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations.

澳新軍團日 /澳新军团日

public holiday in Australia and New Zealand on April 25


hydrogen bomb

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

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.


irenic

en-adj

irenic (comparative more irenic, superlative most irenic)

more irenic (comparative)
most irenic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek εἰρηνικός (eirēnikós, “characterized by peace, peaceful”) + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’). Εἰρηνικός (Eirēnikós) is derived from εἰρήνη (eirḗnē, “peace”) (possibly from εἴρω (eírō, “to fasten together”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“(verb) to bind, tie together; (noun) thread”)), or εἴρω (eírō, “to say, speak”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *werh₁- (“to say, speak”))) + -ῐκός (-ĭkós, suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’).

der

Plato and the Athenians must have felt almost as uncomfortable with Xenophon's irenic intervention as one feels at times in an argument when—just as the point in dispute, precisely by being brought to a head, begins to be interesting—a helpful third party kindly takes it upon himself to reconcile the disputants, to take the whole matter back to a triviality

1989 [1830 October 30], Søren Kierkegaard, translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, →ISBN:

The idea that the Jews of the region are not genetically distinct from other peoples of the area should be an irenic insight.

2001 November 30, Hywel Williams, “God the state-builder”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-05-06:

The philosophes contrasted their own irenic calls for tolerance with the church's historical record as the perennial source of cruelty and fanaticism.

2002, Colin Jones, “An Enlightening Age”, in The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon 1715–99, New York, N.Y., Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 199:

The current comity between the United States and China, which have little in common except a river of manufactured goods in one direction and dollars in the other, is a recent reminder of the irenic effects of trade.

2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2012, →ISBN, page 343:

(chiefly theology) Promoting or fitted to promote peace or peacemaking, especially over disputes; conciliatory, non-confrontational, peaceful.

миротворен

promoting or fitted to promote peace or peacemaking, especially over disputes — see also conciliatory


Pyrrhic victory

en-noun

Pyrrhic victory (plural Pyrrhic victories)

After Greek king Pyrrhus of Epirus, who suffered heavy losses while defeating the Romans.

Tough pensions regulation designed to protect employees in final-salary occupational schemes will prove a pyrrhic victory for unions and the government, a report warned yesterday.

We now know that it [the Six-Day War] was a Pyrrhic victory.

2002 November 21, Amos Elon, “Israelis & Palestinians: What Went Wrong?”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

A very costly victory, wherein the considerable losses outweigh the gain, so as to render the struggle not worth the cost.

Pyrrhic victory
Pyrrhus of Epirus
Stonewall Jackson


cease-fire

The rebels agreed to a ceasefire while the peace talks were underway.

In warfare, an agreed end to hostilities for a specific purpose. (Typically only temporary).

vuurstaking

in warfare, an agreed end to hostilities for a specific purpose


bushwhacker

The bushwhackers remained at General Cooper′s camp several days, then crossed the Red River into Texas.

1962, Albert E. Castel, William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times, page 155:

1967 April, Donald Keith, The Time Machine Hunts a Treasure, Boys' Life, page 51,
She stared at us. “Hardly. You must be from far off, not to know about Quantrill′s raids. Last March the bushwhackers rode into Aubrey, shot every man in town, stole everything, burned down houses. […] ”

Many bushwhackers were young men born to families of southern heritage who were generally wealthier and more likely to own slaves than the typical Missouri farmer.[…]His eldest daughter, Elisa, was an effective bushwhacker spy and informant.

2007, Jeremy Neely, The Border Between Them: Violence and Reconciliation on the Kansas-Missouri Line, page 109:

(US, historical) A guerrilla (of either side) during the American Civil War.


Johnny Reb

From the sense of Johnny as a placeholder name for any man and reb, US slang for a Confederate citizen or soldier.

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

(historical, colloquial) Synonym of Confederate: a citizen of the Confederate States of America, particularly a Confederate soldier.


Johnny Reb

When Lincoln heard the news about the fall,
All the folks thought he'd throw a great vict'ry ball,
But he asked the band to play the song "Dixie"
For you, Johnny Reb, and all that you believe.

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America#English

(figurative) Synonym of Confederate States of America.


Coined by American author Joseph Heller in 1961 in his novel Catch-22, in which the main character feigns madness in order to avoid dangerous combat missions, but his desire to avoid them is taken to prove his sanity.

coin

For us it’s been a real Catch-22: when we have the time to take a vacation, we don’t have enough money, and when we have enough money, we don’t have the time.

Herein lies my personal “Catch 22”; the choice between three hours sleep and some discomfort or six hours sleep and real pain. Usually I choose the lesser evil of insomnia because in addition to the pain at 6am, I am incapacitated by the hangover from the sedative.

1988, E[dward] J[ames] Moran Campbell, Not Always on the Level, [London]: British Medical Journal, →ISBN, page 194:

(idiomatic) A difficult situation from which there is no escape because it involves mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.


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.


warmonger

/ˈwɔː.mʌŋ.ɡə(ɹ)/

Wham! Overnight he [Dwight D. Eisenhower] became a warmonger.

1952 September 22, “Since Stevenson Prefers 'Compromise', Foreign Policy Is Squarely in the Campaign”, in LIFE, volume 33, number 12, Time Inc., →ISSN, page 30:

(derogatory) Someone who advocates war; a militarist.


cold turkey

Various explanations; see Cold turkey § Etymology on Wikipedia.

(US military slang, World War I– World War II) Something exposed as a target due to surmountable defense.


Bronze Age

(mythology) One of the Classical Ages of Man, associated with warfare.


sticker

From stick (“to pierce, to be fastened, to adhere”) + -er (“agent”).

affix

(military slang, World War I– World War II, if not earlier) A bayonet.


Archie

en-noun

Archie (countable and uncountable, plural Archies)

But then, dodging airbursts of Archie on the Western Front hadn't exactly been a joyride either.

2012, Pat Kelleher, The Alleyman, →ISBN:

He was seen by an aeroplane, our Archie gunner and a whole division to crash in their lines just opposite our trenches, much jubilation and more congratulations.

2013, Tyrrel M. Hawker, Hawker VC- The First RFC Ace: The Life of Major Lanoe Hawker VC DSO: 1890-1916., →ISBN:

On a cloudy day one can hop in and out of the clouds, greatly to the annoyance of some Archie commander who, just when he has got range and direction and is about to let fly, finds that his bird has disappeared into a cloud. He fills thatcloud with HE but his quarry emerges from another nearby with a gesture of derision which the gunners below may imagine, though cannot see. On a sunny day, Archie is up early, for he knows that aircraft will be silhouetted against a blue sky. Then the experienced pilot hops in and out of the sun, there being no clouds, while the Archie commander rubs his smarting eyes and uses strong words.

2014, Martin Bowman, Lost Wings of WWI: Downed Airmen on the Western Front 1914-1918, →ISBN:

(military slang, World War I, uncountable) Anti-aircraft artillery.

An inquisitive aeroplane, which had been hovering over the scene, was picked off as by an Archie and made a forced landing, man and machine buried in filth.

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:

Quickly our five machines dodged the Archies as we crossed.

2016, Lieut.-Col. Harold Evans Hartney, Up And At ‘Em, →ISBN:

(military slang, World War I, countable) A piece of anti-aircraft ordnance.


ground zero

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:

(weaponry) Initialism of intercontinental ballistic missile.

МКБР

abbreviation of intercontinental ballistic missile


theater

theater (countable and uncountable, plural theaters)

(US, Canada, Southern American English) -iːtə(ɹ)

From Middle English theater, theatre, from Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “a place for viewing”), from θεάομαι (theáomai, “to see", "to watch", "to observe”). Doublet of tiatr.

theatre

standard spelling in all English-speaking countries that use British spelling

His grandfather was in the Pacific theater during the war.

Percy had been too big for the town since he got back from the war. He served in the Pacific theater, behind the lines keeping up the supply chain.

2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 69:

A region where a particular action takes place; a specific field of action, usually with reference to war.


VE Day

From initialism of victory (in) Europe + day.

Victory in Europe day; the anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, 8 May 1945.


deterrence

en-noun

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.


war crime

/ˈwɔɹ ˌkɹaɪm/

[W]ar crimes are such hostile or other acts of soldiers or other individuals as may be punished by the enemy on capture of the offenders. […] [A]lthough among the acts called war crimes are many which, such as abuse of a flag of truce or assassination of enemy soldiers for instance, are crimes in the moral sense of the term, there are others which, such as taking part in a levy en masse on territory occupied by the enemy for instance, may be highly praiseworthy patriotic acts. Because every belligerent can and actually must in the interest of his own safety punish these acts, they are termed war crimes, whatever may be the motive, the purpose, and the moral character of the respective act.

1906, L[assa Francis Lawrence] Oppenheim, “Means of Securing Legitimate Warfare”, in International Law: A Treatise, volumes II (War and Neutrality), London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, part II (War), section IV (Punishment of War Crimes), § 251, pages 263–264:

[Paragraph] 441. The term "War Crime" is the technical expression for such an act of enemy soldiers and enemy civilians as may be visited by punishment or capture of the offenders. […] [Paragraph] 442. War crimes may be divided into four different classes:– (i) Violations of the recognized rules of warfare by members of the armed forces. (ii) Illegitimate hostilities in arms committed by individuals who are not members of the armed forces. (iii) Espionage and war treason. (iv) Marauding.

1914, J[ames] E[dward] Edmonds, L[assa Francis Lawrence] Oppenheim, “The Laws and Usages of War on Land”, in Hugh Godley, editor, Manual of Military Law, 6th edition, London: War Office; His Majesty’s Stationery Office, published 1917, →OCLC, page 302:

If, this time, there is going to be, after the victory of the United Nations, due punishment of these abominable war crimes, perpetrated in breach of the laws of war by enemy nations and for which enemy individuals must be held responsible, it would be a grave mistake to concern ourselves at this stage merely with the discussion of the most appropriate tribunals to deal with such charges, or with the minutiae of juridical analysis.

1942 October 7, John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, “[Collective Notes Presented to the Governments of Great Britain, the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. and Relative Correspondence] Statement of the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords”, in Punishment for War Crimes, New York, N.Y.: United Nations Information Office, published [1943], →OCLC, page 30:

To be sure, there is a strong argument that aiding and abetting a recognized international-law war crime such as terrorism is itself an international-law war crime. And there are other similar war crimes.

2012 October 16, Brett Kavanaugh, Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, “Hamdan v. United States [No. 11-1257]”, in West’s Federal Reporter: Cases Argued and Determined in the United States Courts of Appeals (3d Series), volume 696, St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, paragraph 66, page 1251:

To deal with war crime such as rape a mobile court system was created in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo].

2015, Mariam M. Kurtz, Mwamini Thambwe Diggs, “Wartime Rape: A Case Study of the Democratic Republic of Congo”, in Mariam M. Kurtz, Lester R. Kurtz, editors, Women, War, and Violence: Topography, Resistance, and Hope, volume 1, Santa Barbara, Calif., Denver, Colo.: Praeger Security International, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 193:

The two primary ones are that by the time anyone bothered to codify rules of war, lighthouses went on the list of "do not attack" pretty much immediately, and so it would be a rather pointless war crime to commit; the second reason is related to why they went on the list of "do not attack" targets very quickly, and that is that lighthouses are completely nondiscriminatory as to who they alert to what's going on in terms of danger and coastlines and hidden rocks and such[…]

2020 June 21, “Drachinifel” [pseudonym], “The Drydock” (6:33 from the start), in YouTube, episode 099, archived from the original on 2022-08-08:

Condoleezza Rice pops up on Fox to be told by the anchor: "When you invade a sovereign nation, that is a war crime." With a solemn nod, the former secretary of state to George Bush replies: "It is certainly against every principle of international law and international order."

2022 March 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Western values? They enthroned the monster who is shelling Ukrainians today”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-14:

(criminal law, international law) A punishable offence under international law for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian.

criminal law; international law; criminal law; international law


over the top

en-adv

over the top (comparative more over the top, superlative most over the top)

more over the top (comparative)
most over the top (superlative)

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see over, the, top.


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.


D-Day

(historical) 6 June 1944, the date when the Allies invaded western Europe in World War II.


crusade

From French croisade, introduced into English (in the French spelling) by 1575. The modern spelling emerges c. 1760,. Middle French croisade is introduced in the 15th century, based on Spanish cruzada (late 14th century) and Old Occitan crozada (early 13th century), both reflecting Medieval Latin cruciāta, cruxiata, the feminine singular of the adjective cruciātus used as an abstract noun.
Adjectival cruciātus originally meant "tormented; crucified", but from the 12th century crucesignatus was also used for "marked with a cross; making the sign of the cross" and eventually "taking the cross" in the sense of "going on a crusade".
Old Occitan crozada is used in the sense "[the Albigensian] crusade" in the Song of the Albigensian crusade, written c. 1213. From vernacular usage, Middle Latin cruciāta also comes to be used in the sense "crusade" from about 1270.

Any war instigated and blessed by the Church for alleged religious ends, (especially) papal-sanctioned military campaigns against infidels or heretics.


cold war

/ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː/

Diachronically, back-formation from Cold War: a common noun back-formed from the proper noun naming the first post–WWII instance of the concept; synchronically, cold + war.

Coordinate term: world war

1945, George Orwell, "You and the Atom Bomb", Tribune, 19 October 1945; reprinted in Orwell, Sonia Orwell, and Ian Angus, George Orwell: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, Volume 4: In Front of Your Nose (1946–1950), David R. Godine (2000), ISBN →ISBN, page 9,
James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications—that is, the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of “cold war” with its neighbours.

1951, Daniel V. Gallery, Clear the Decks, 19 October 1945, page 100,
World War III started on VJ Day as a cold war. It began to warm up when the Russians blockaded Berlin and nearly reached the exploding point in Korea.

It's just an old war / Not even a cold war

1979, “Broken English”, performed by Marianne Faithfull:

The world economy is on the brink of a second cold war that could “annihilate” progress made since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a senior International Monetary Fund official has warned.

2023 December 11, Richard Partington, “World economy on brink of ‘cold war two’, IMF official warns”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A period of hostile relations between rivals where direct open warfare between them is largely undesired and avoided; especially, either the Cold War or Cold War II.


civil war

Calque of Latin bellum cīvīle, in English from 1651 in reference to the English Civil War, with possible early use in the 15th and 16th centuries as wer cyuile or ciuill warre. Displaced native Old English inġewinn.

Our Father’s Death
Would fill up all the Guilt of Civil War,
And cloſe the Scene of Blood.

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:

At about the time the salarians and asari were forming the Council, the turians were embroiled in a bitter civil war. The Unification War, as it was later named, began with hostilities between the colonies furthest from the turian homeworld, Palaven.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Turians: The Unification War Codex entry:

The “little green men”—faces covered, wearing unmarked olive uniforms, speaking Russian and using Russian weapons—have played a significant role in both the occupation of Crimea and the civil war in eastern Ukraine.¹⁹⁶

2015, Shane R. Reeves, David Wallace, “The Combatant Status of the “Little Green Men” and Other Participants in the Ukraine Conflict”, in International Law Studies, US Naval War College, volume 91, number 361, Stockton Center for the Study of International Law, page 393:

Civil war is now casually discussed on cable TV shows in between ads for haemorrhoid creams and car insurance.

2022 September 6, Arwa Mahdawi, “No doomsday bunker, not a single gun – if the US really is heading for civil war, I’m stuffed”, in The Guardian:

A war fought between factions of the inhabitants of a single country, or a similar political entity.

burgeroorlog

war between factions within a single country

ܩܪܵܒ݂ܵܐ ܡܕܝܼܢܵܝܵܐ

qrāḇā mdīnāyā


Stonewall

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

From stone + wall. The drink is so named because its effect is likened to running into a stone wall. The riots take their name from the Stonewall Inn where they began (in the 1840s, the property was called Bonnie's Stone Wall, later renamed to Bonnie's Stonewall Inn, then the Stonewall Inn Restaurant, and then the Stonewall Inn). The Confederate general acquired his nickname after a battle in which, while other troops were in motion, fellow general Barnard E. Bee observed "there stands Jackson like a stone wall" (either resolutely, or unhelpfully). The chess setup is so named because it is a solid formation which is hard to overrun by force, like a stone wall.

Stonewall means fighting back.

(historical) A series of riots in 1969 New York City, beginning with the patrons of the gay bar "The Stonewall Inn" resisting police arrest, which marked the beginning of the militant gay rights movement.

A nickname of Confederate general Thomas Jonathan Jackson.

the Stonewall attack, a Stonewall setup, a Stonewall formation

(chess) A formation in chess (a variation of the Queen's Pawn Game) in which white plays pawns to d4 and several other positions, requiring black to react energetically (see Stonewall Attack).

Any of several places:
An unincorporated community in Texas.

An unincorporated community in West Virginia.


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.


Axis

The alliance (in effect before and during World War II) of Germany, Italy, Japan, and several minor allied countries, which opposed the Allies.


Blitz

Specific use of blitz. The Blitz was in truth not a blitzkrieg, which is a rapid ground offensive based on superior tank forces. However, the word was current at the time for the successful German campaigns in Poland and France, and was transferred to the attacks on Britain, perhaps by association of Blitz (“lightning”) with the bombings.

(historical) The series of air raids launched on various cities in Great Britain by the German air force in 1940–41 during World War II.


Hurricane

Hawker Hurricane
Hurricane (disambiguation)#Places
Hurricane, Utah
Hurricane, West Virginia

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

(historical) A British fighter aircraft used during World War II, especially during the Battle of Britain.


North

English surname, from the adjective north. This is also translated from other surnames of the same meaning, such as Irish Mac an Ultaigh (“son of the Ulsterman”), Ulster being the northern part of Ireland.

The North lost most battles early in the war.

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

(US) The Union during the American Civil War.


Rebel

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


Reconstruction

Reconstruction (canonical)
the Reconstruction (canonical)

A proper-noun variant of reconstruction.

Fables of the Reconstruction

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