South

en-proper noun

South (countable and uncountable, plural Souths)

English surname, from the adjective south. Compare Southern.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Trinity

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


Union

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

threats to secede from the Union

United States of America
United States of America

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

Union troops at Gettysburg

en:United States of America against secessionist CSA

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


Zeppelin

Borrowed from German Zeppelin. Named after Ferdinand von Zeppelin, whose surname derives from the German town name Zepelin. Doublet of cepelinas.


neutron bomb

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


tamper

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


CSA

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America#English

(US) Initialism of Confederate States of America.


doomsday

en-noun

doomsday (countable and uncountable, plural doomsdays)

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

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


Little Boy

Coordinate term: Fat Man

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


Fat Man

Coordinate term: Little Boy

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


reo

(Australia, World War I, informal) A reinforcement (additional soldiers).


OWI

From its inception the OWI framed directives that offered guidelines for songwriters to aid them in the composition of “proper” war songs, and, in the public press, the OWI rebuked Tin Pan Alley for its uninterrupted production of “nostalgic” hit songs.

2003, Kathleen E. R. Smith, God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 81:

w:United States Office of War Information

(US, World War II) Initialism of Office of War Information.


SDI

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

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

Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative#English

Initialism of Strategic Defense Initiative.


WW

(World War I military slang) Initialism of wild woman, i.e. prostitute.


guerrilla

en-adj

guerrilla (comparative more guerrilla, superlative most guerrilla)

more guerrilla (comparative)
most guerrilla (superlative)

Borrowed from Spanish guerrilla, diminutive of guerra (“war”), coined during the Peninsular War.

Wherever Nicholson was most wanted, there he was sure to be found. What his life was at this time may be seen from a letter he wrote to his mother: 'I am leading a very guerrilla sort of life with seven hundred horse and foot raised among the people of the country. The chieftain who is in rebellion has eight regular regiments and sixteen guns, so that I am unable to meet them openly in the field.'

1908, George Devereux Oswell, chapter VII, in Sketches of Rulers of India, volume I, page 127:

On the other hand, after the fall of Feng Ling Tu, the operations of Central Shansi, and Suiyuan, troops were more guerrilla than orthodox in nature.

1963, Samuel B. Griffith (translator), Mao Zedong, The Red Book of Guerrilla Warfare, edited by Shawn Conners, published 2010, page 14, original 1937

The Slovak uprising in the latter days was not guerrilla in character, which, incidentally, may have been one of the reasons for its failure.

1976, Walter Laqueur, Guerrilla Warfare, page 205:

(military) Relating to, using, or typical of guerrilla warfare, or its principles of small independent or non-official perpetrators.


MAD

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


mokusatsu

A policy of ignoring or taking no notice of something.


domino effect

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

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


mushroom cloud

. mushroom cloud (canonical)
mushroom clouds (plural)

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

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

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


bellicose

bellicose (comparative more bellicose, superlative most bellicose)

more bellicose (comparative)
most bellicose (superlative)

From Middle English bellicose, from Latin bellicosus.

CHINA sent both bellicose and conciliatory signals yesterday as tension continued in the Taiwan Strait over Chinese military exercises and the deployment of US naval battle groups.

1996 March 15, James Pringle, “Peking sends out mixed signals”, in The Times, number 65,528, →ISSN, →OCLC, Overseas News, page 14, column 8:

The core Ice Age cast—wooly mammoth Manny (Ray Romano), sabertooth tiger Diego (Denis Leary), and sloth Sid (John Leguizamo)—are set adrift, sailing the high seas on a chunk of ice until they collide with a bellicose primate (Peter Dinklage).

2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in AV Club:


belligerence

en-noun

belligerence (countable and uncountable, plural belligerences)

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

A closer look at North Korean history reveals what Pyongyang’s leaders really want their near-farcical belligerence to achieve — a reminder to the world that North Korea exists, and an impression abroad that its leaders are irrational and unpredictable.

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

The state of being belligerent; aggressive inclination to war.


perestroika

perestroika (countable and uncountable, plural perestroikas)

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

bor+

перестро́йка

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


glasnost

en-noun

glasnost (countable and uncountable, plural glasnosts)

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

bor

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

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

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

glasnost (usually accompanied by translation)


IRB

Initialism of internal review board, an internal affairs division of a police department.


missile silo

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


Lorenz

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

(World War II) A blind-landing aid used at German military airfields.


HUAC

w:House Un-American Activities Committee

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


atomic bomb

H. G. Wells
The World Set Free
atomic bomb

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

Nine different countries have the atomic bomb as of 2022.

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


nuclear weapon

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

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

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

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

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

armë bërthamore

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


nuclear bomb

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

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

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki


megadeath

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

megamort

one million deaths, especially in reference to nuclear warfare


internecine

Borrowed from Late Latin internecīnus (“deadly”), from inter (“between”) and necō (“to kill”).

Internecine strife in Gaza claimed its most senior victim yesterday.

Mutually destructive; most often applied to warfare.


goon

→ Portuguese: guna

Alice the Goon
Peter Sellers
Popeye
Spike Milligan
The Goon Show

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ-
Proto-Indo-European *-ōm
Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm
Proto-Indo-European *-ō
Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ
Proto-Germanic *gumô
Proto-West Germanic *gumō
Old English guma
Middle English gone?
English gooney
English goon
Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony (“simpleton”), used circa 1580, of unknown origin. Perhaps a familiar term derived from Middle English gone, a variant of gome (“man, person”). Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (circa 1839). The term goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (circa 1921). Compare Scots goni, guni (“a bogey, bugbear, hobgoblin”), dialectal Swedish gonnar (“elves, goblins”, plural).
* Sense 1 ("hired thug"; circa 1938) is largely influenced by the comic strip character Alice the Goon from the Popeye series.
* Sense 3 ("fool") was reinforced by the popular radio program, The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers.
* Sense 5 ("guard") was influenced by both sense 1 and sense 3, though not by The Goon Show reference, which arose about 10 years after WWII.

unk

unknown

cog

(UK, World War II, PoW slang) A German guard in a prisoner-of-war camp.

World War II; PoW slang; World War II; PoW slang


galvanize

en-verb

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

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

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

named-after

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

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

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


Mason-Dixon Line

Charles Mason
Jeremiah Dixon
Mason–Dixon line

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


first blood

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Sayers won first blood by cutting Crouch's right eye, and the battle by knocking his man out with a nose-ender in 12 minutes 28 seconds, 6 rounds being fought.

1879, Ed James, The Lives and Battles of the Champions of England, page 39:

Rambo - They drew first blood, not me.
Trautman - Look Johnny, let me come in and get you the hell out of there!
Rambo - They drew first blood...
Trautman - Rambo, are you still reading me? Covey leader to Raven! Rambo! Acknowledge! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083944/quotes

Johnston, meanwhile, has managed to get within five miles of its target, and fires a full spread of ten torpedoes. Minutes later, at least two, possibly three, tear the bow off the hapless cruiser Kumano. First blood, unbelievably, therefore, goes to the Americans.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 18:01 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03:

The first damage or reverse inflicted on an opponent in a conflict.


détente

Unadapted borrowing from French détente (“relaxing”).

ubor

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

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

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

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

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

разра́дка

a relaxing of tension, especially between countries


McCarthyism

From McCarthy + -ism, named after United States Senator Joseph McCarthy. Originates from a 1950 Washington Post political cartoon by Herbert Block.

named-after

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

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

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


killed in action

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-killed in action.wav

There were only some four hundred United States marines who in the heroic and historic defense of Wake Island inflicted such great losses on the enemy. Some of those men were killed in action; and others are now prisoners of war.

1942 January 6, Franklin Roosevelt, 1942 President's Annual Message to Congress:

(chiefly military) The designation for a member of an organization (primarily military) who has died while on duty.


arms race

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

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

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

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

(figuratively) Any similar competition that involves competing developments.


fissile

en-adj

fissile (comparative more fissile, superlative most fissile)

more fissile (comparative)
most fissile (superlative)

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

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

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

разцепващ се

capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction


nuclear fission

en-noun

nuclear fission (usually uncountable, plural nuclear fissions)

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


Zouave

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

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


East Berlin

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

Østberlin

the Soviet sector of Berlin between 1949 and 1990


holy war

The conflict is beginning to look like a holy war between Sunnis and Shias.

A war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion and beliefs.

(computing, Usenet) A long-running and acrimonious debate or flame war over personal preferences in technical matters, such as the choice between little-endian and big-endian representation.

luftë e shenjtë

a type of war — see also war of religion

(Utah) The rivalry between the sports teams of Brigham Young University and the University of Utah.


UDC

Universal Decimal Classification
w:Universal Decimal Classification

Initialism of Universal Decimal Classification.

United Daughters of the Confederacy
w:United Daughters of the Confederacy

Initialism of United Daughters of the Confederacy.

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

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

w:University of the District of Columbia

Initialism of University of the District of Columbia.


guerrilla warfare

Combat using groups of irregular, light, mobile troops within areas occupied by an enemy force, usually through hit-and-run tactics.

遊擊戰爭 /游击战争

fighting using groups of irregular troops


insertion

insertion (countable and uncountable, plural insertions)

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


FDR

Coordinate term: GDR

Federal Democratic Republic
Federal Democratic Republic#English

Initialism of Federal Democratic Republic.

Abbreviation of West Germany. (Federal Republic of Germany)


Guadalcanal

From Spanish. The Pacific island was named in 1568 by Álvaro de Mendaña, after his hometown of Guadalcanal, Spain. From Arabic وَادِي الْخَانَات (wādī l-ḵānāt, “Valley of the Stalls”).

der

وَادِي الْخَانَات

A volcanic island in the Pacific, part of the Solomon Islands.

A battle in World War II in which American forces recaptured it from the Japanese.


fission

en-noun

fission (countable and uncountable, plural fissions)

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

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

انقسام

process by which a bacterium splits into two


late unpleasantness

late unpleasantness (plural late unpleasantnesses)

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

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

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


hibakusha

hibakusha (plural hibakushas or hibakusha)

/ˈhɪbəˌkuːʃə/

/hɪˈbɑːkʊʃə/

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

bor

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

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

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

হিবাকুশা

survivor of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki


containment

en-noun

containment (countable and uncountable, plural containments)

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

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

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


fire-eater

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

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

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


VP Day

From initialism of victory (in the) Pacific + day. Australian from 1945.

(Australia) Victory in the Pacific Day, being the anniversary of 15 August 1945, the day after Japanese forces surrendered in World War II.

Australian War Memorial
Victory over Japan Day


VJ Day

From initialism of victory (over) Japan + day.

Victory over Japan Day, being the anniversary of 15 August 1945, the day after Japanese forces surrendered in World War II; in the US celebrated on 14 August.


nuclear winter

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

Coordinate term: volcanic winter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


nuclear war

nuclear war (countable and uncountable, plural nuclear wars)

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

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

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

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

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


greenback

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


bellicist

From Latin bellicus (“of or pertaining to war; warlike”), + -ist; possibly adapted from the French neologism belliciste (about Bismarck, 1871; in Émile Faguet, 1908).

der

The bellicist was sure to advocate an end to the policy of appeasement.

Or, if you deem that that word connotes non-resistance, though to the immense bulk of Pacifists it does not, you would be an anti-Bellicist, to use a dreadful word coined by M. Emile Faguet in the discussion of this matter. [Refers to the book: Émile Faguet, Le Pacifisme (French), 1908.]

1912, Norman Angell, Peace Theories and the Balkan War, page 19:

As for what are called ‘war books,’ whether written from the pacifist or bellicist point of view, more or less brilliant reporting with emphatic or cynical anecdotes, surely there has been enough of them in the United States as well as in France and in England.

1919, The Living Age, vol. 303, Oct-Dec 1919, page 173:

It may be that this standard definition errs, in representing every state structure as essentially based on conflict: it involves, as the writer pointed out in an address delivered long ago in 1915, a “bellicist theory of state structure.” […] It may be well, therefore, to discard the “bellicist” idea of a state essentially based on conflict and involving a superior body which forcibly imposes its will on the mass. [Refers to the paper: Dr. Thomas Baty, "The Bellicist Theory of State Structure", 1915.]

1942, Contemporary Japan: A Review of Far Eastern Affairs, vol. 11, No. 1, Jan 1942, page 220-221:

British historian Michael Howard introduced the term bellicist to refer to cultures “almost universal in the past, far from extinct in our own day, in which the setting of contentious issues by armed conflict is regarded as natural, inevitable and right.”

2008, David P. Barash, Charles P. Webel, Peace and Conflict Studies, page 31:

An adherent of bellicism; one who advocates war.


bellicist

en-adj

bellicist (comparative more bellicist, superlative most bellicist)

more bellicist (comparative)
most bellicist (superlative)

Of or relating to bellicism, a bellicist, bellicists, advocating war, who is war-centered or war-oriented.


fallout

en-noun

fallout (countable and uncountable, plural fallouts)

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

A negative side effect; an undesirable or unexpected consequence.


kiloton

That's a 300-kiloton nuclear warhead.

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

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

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


megaton

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

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

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

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

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


conscientious objector

conscientious objector (plural conscientious objectors)

Someone who refuses to perform military service (for example to fight in an armed conflict, or be compulsorily drafted in a time of peace) because of religious or moral principles.

адмо́ўнік

someone refusing to fight in an armed conflict because of religious or moral principles

良心的兵役拒否者

りょうしんてきへいえききょひしゃ

otkázyvajuščijsja ot prizýva v ármiju po ubeždéniju

отка́зывающийся от призы́ва в а́рмию по убежде́нию


Falklands War

South Sandwich Islands
South Sandwich Islands

A conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom over sovereignty of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands), waged between March and June of 1982.

Falklandi sõda

a conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom


Stalin

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

suf

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


Lusitania

The anti-German riots which erupted simultaneously in many countries in response to the torpedoing of the Lusitania by a German U-boat in 1915 reflected shifts in the status of minorities in multi-ethnic societies at a time of escalating nationalist emotions.

2013 November, Tilman Dedering, “‘Avenge the Lusitania’: The Anti-German Riots in South Africa in 1915”, in Immigrants & Minorities, volume 31, number 3, →DOI, pages 256–288:

(historical) The RMS Lusitania, a British ship that was sunk in 1915 during World War I.


trekker

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(UK, historical, World War II) A person who spent the night in a rural area, rather than his home, during bombing raids.


war criminal

A person guilty of one or more war crimes.


Strategic Defense Initiative

the Strategic Defense Initiative (canonical)

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


polemology

en-noun

polemology (countable and uncountable, plural polemologies)

/ˌpɒləˈmɒləd͡ʒi/

/ˌpɑləˈmɑləd͡ʒi/

From Ancient Greek πόλεμος (pólemos, “war; battle”) + -logy (suffix indicating the study of a particular subject). The word is cognate with French polémologie.

suffix

POLEMOLOGY. The Principles of War exhibited in the Practice of the Camp, and as developed in a Series of General Orders of the Duke of Wellington; with parallel Orders of George II. Duke of Marlborough, &c. &c. 8vo.

1815 July, “List of New Publications”, in The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature (Series the Fifth), volume II, number I, London: Printed for R. Baldwin, […], →OCLC, page 111, column 1:

[I]f all the sciences were similarly subdivided, all use in classification would be lost by the multiplicity of the sciences; […] The Destructive, as well as the Industrial, instinct in Man would claim a separate science; and we should have a Polemology or Polemonomy, and about 10,000 other sciences.

1870 July 1, Frederic Harrison, “Professor [John Elliott] Cairnes on M. [Auguste] Comte and Political Economy”, in John Morley, editor, The Fortnightly Review, volume VIII (New Series; volume XIV overall), number XLIII, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 43:

In the language of international economic relations the use of the terms employed in the field of polemology occurs more and more frequently. People speak of warm and cold economic wars, guerrillas, financial and commercial aggression, economic security, economic peace-keeping, and so on.

1982, Antonio Papisca, “Destructive Effects of International Economic Competition”, in Frans A. M. Alting von Geusau, Jacques Pelkmans, editors, National Economic Security: Perceptions, Threats and Policies, Tilburg, Netherlands: John F. Kennedy Institute, →ISBN, page 183:

Strategy as calculus on the one hand, and strategy as manipulation/manoeuvre on the other: these are two types presupposing two kinds of polemology. The two conceptions of strategy are in fact derived from two ways of thinking about war.

1993, Herman Parret, “Strategic Rationality”, in Stuart Rennie, transl., The Aesthetics of Communication: Pragmatics and Beyond (Library of Rhetorics; 2), Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →ISBN; softcover edition, Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media, 2012, →DOI, →ISBN, section 3 (The Art of War or Kriegskunst), page 31:

If we desire a resolution of the paradoxes which liberal modernity throws at us, and which are the crux of this contemporary global civil war over the political constitution of life, we may want to establish other ways of construing the life of human being, ones which compromise its seemingly endless polemologies and messianic yearnings for Terror.

2006, Julian Reid, “Epilogue”, in The Biopolitics of the War on Terror: Life Struggles, Liberal Modernity and the Defence of Logistical Societies (Reappraising the Political), Manchester, New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 129:

Against such polemologies, we find the [Michel] Foucault of Society Must be Defended posing the problem of war and its relation to modern political power in starkly different terms of a problematisation.

2008, Stephen Morton, Stephen Bygrave, editors, Foucault in an Age of Terror: Essays on Biopolitics and the Defence of Society, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 30:

Polemology locates popular culture in a long (even archaic and nonhuman) tradition of warfare. The "ageless art" of tricks and ruses permeates the texts and practices comprising everyday life, a cat-and-mouse game with power that also produces innovation, creativity, invention. […] Polemology allows us to bring together media convergence with the history of communications warfare, especially as they involve the very social media often cited as features of convergence politics.

2012, Jack Z. Bratich, “Sovereign Networks, Pre-emptive Transgression, Communications Warfare: Case Studies in Social Movement Media”, in Ted Gournelos, David J. Gunkel, editors, Transgression 2.0: Media, Culture, and the Politics of a Digital Age, New York, N.Y., London: Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN, part IV (Law, Social Disturbance, and Political Unrest), page 226:


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

стронций-90

стронций-девяносто


no man's land

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Originally from Middle English Nomanneslond, which first appears c. 1350. Revived with new senses in a dispatch printed in the Times newspaper by Colonel Ernest Dunlop Swinton writing as "Eyewitness".

At the last Polish station all train officials left, except the locomotive crew, and we slowly trundled over a strongly fortified no man's land for a few hundred yards until we drew in to the first station in Russia.

1954 April, P. E. Witham, “A Trans-Siberian Memory”, in Railway Magazine, page 269, about a journey in 1937:

(politics, geography) Territory that is often disputed, and that cannot be inhabited because of fear of conflict, especially:

The stretch of land between the border posts of two contiguous sovereign states, sometimes separated by great distance.


rainout

en-noun

rainout (countable and uncountable, plural rainouts)

(uncountable) Nuclear fallout deposited by means of rain.


Lancaster

From Middle English Lancaster, Loncastre, the name of the Roman fort on the River Lune, from Lune + the Old English suffix ceaster (“town”), found in many placenames.

Several places in the United States:
A locality in Yavapai County, Arizona.

Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County#English

A charter city in Los Angeles County, California.

A tiny city in Kittson County, Minnesota.

(aircraft) A type of four-engined British bomber aircraft built by Avro during World War 2.


nuclear age

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

ydinaikakausi

age when nuclear technology was developed


Atomic Age

→ Dutch: atoomtijdperk (calque)

/əˈtɒmɪk ˌeɪd͡ʒ/

/əˈtɑːmɪk ˌeɪd͡ʒ/

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

عصر الذرة

era during which nuclear energy was developed


nuclear airburst

nuclear airburst (plural nuclear airbursts)

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


nuclear artillery

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


poliorcetics

/ˌpəʊlɪɔːˈsɛtɪks/

Partly:
* borrowed from Late Latin poliorcetica (“siege engines”) + English -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum) (poliorcetica is derived from Koine Greek πολιορκητικά (poliorkētiká, “things related to sieges”), the neuter plural of πολιορκητικός (poliorkētikós, “relating to poliorcetics, poliorcetic”), from Ancient Greek πολῐορκέω (polĭorkéō, “to besiege, blockade”) (from πόλις (pólis, “city”) + ἕρκος (hérkos, “enclosure; fence”)) + -τῐκός (-tĭkós, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or relating to’)); and
* from poliorcetic (“relating to poliorcetics”) + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum).

der

πολιορκητικά

suffix

The grand battles of the Archaic and early Classical periods were replaced by the new art of poliorcetics.

1992, Lars Karlsson, Fortification Towers and Masonry Techniques in the Hegemony of Syracuse, 405–211 B.C. (Skrifter Utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Rom [Publications of the Swedish Institute in Rome]; 49), Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i Rom [Swedish Institute in Rome], →ISBN, →ISSN, page 11, column 1:

(military) The art of siege warfare, namely, that of conducting or resisting a siege; siegecraft.


Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel

en-noun

Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel (plural Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels)

First attested in Sapper Bert Beros′s 1942 poem Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, and popularised by the Australian wartime press.

Yet the statue is drawn from one of the most famous of all Australian images: the photograph from World War II of a blind, wounded soldier being guided down a jungle track by a Papuan carrier, a ‘fuzzy wuzzy angel’.

2002, Don Watson, Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM, page 251:

I want to commend the motion passed this week because it calls for the immediate determination of a new award and medal to be presented to the fuzzy wuzzy angels, who carried stretchers, stores and wounded diggers directly on their shoulders over some of the toughest terrain in the world.

2008, Australian House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates Australia: House of Representatives, volume 135, page 6150:

2012, Peter Williams, Kokoda for Dummies, Australian Edition, page 245,
Chances are the person to whom you′re speaking is the descendant of an indigenous veteran or Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel.

(Australia, informal) One of the native people of Papua New Guinea who, during the Second World War, helped escort or stretcher wounded Australian soldiers to field hospitals.


hydrogen warhead

hydrogen warhead (plural hydrogen warheads)

a small thermonuclear device in the warhead of a missile


Confederacy

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

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

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

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


buzz bomb

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The Second World War was reaching fever pitch, with the entire Allied effort in top gear for the imminent invasion of Europe, while later that month buzz bombs would start falling on London.

2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:

(historical) The V-1 flying bomb; the doodlebug.


Confederate

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

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

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


Confederate

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

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

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

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

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


omnicide

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

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

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


Dixieland

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

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


Dixieland

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

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


lithium deuteride

thermonuclear weapon
thermonuclear weapon

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


fissionable

Capable of undergoing nuclear fission; fissile.

spaltbar

capable of undergoing nuclear fission; fissile


weapons-grade

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

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

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


asymmetric warfare

Warfare between belligerents who have different strengths and weaknesses.


From German Vergeltungswaffe eins (“retaliation weapon one”).

uder

(military, historical) An early cruise missile, powered by a pulsejet, used by Germany in the Second World War.


doodlebug

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(historical, "doodlebug tractor") An automobile converted into a cheap tractor for a small farm during the Second World War.


German Vergeltungswaffe zwei (“retaliation weapon two”).

Alternative form: V2

(historical) An early long-range liquid-fuel ballistic missile used by Germany during the Second World War.


hot war

Coordinate term: cyberwar

A conflict in which physically violent fighting takes place between the belligerent parties.


Petersburg

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


radioactive fallout

en-noun

radioactive fallout (countable and uncountable, plural radioactive fallouts)


First World War

1920, Charles à Court Repington, title of book The First World War.


free state

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

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


East Germany

German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic#English

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


Montgomery

From a Norman surname, from a place in Normandy (Old French for "Gomeric's hill"). Gumaric was a Germanic personal name composed of *gumô (“man”) and *rīks (“ruler”) (whence the modern French surnames Gomery, Gommery and Gumery or the Galician placename Gomariz).

A number of places in the United States:

An unincorporated community in Trigg County, Kentucky.

A town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, named after Richard Montgomery.

A borough in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.


Pearl Harbor

/ˌpɝ˞l ˈhɑɹbɚ/

/ˌpɜːl ˈhɑːbə/

Calque of Hawaiian Wai Momi (“pearl water”). The extended senses allude to the surprise attack executed by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the harbor on December 7, 1941.

cal

en:Pearl Harbor
en:Pearl Harbor (disambiguation)

A deep water harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, United States, in the Pacific

Bluto: What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: [to Boon] Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.

1978, Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller, Animal House (motion picture), spoken by Bluto (John Belushi), Universal Pictures:

(military) A naval base in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, United States: a US Navy base


wartime

en-noun

wartime (countable and uncountable, plural wartimes)

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Significant rail projects have been mothballed before in the face of changed circumstances - in particular, the LNER Woodhead project which was postponed due to wartime conditions and not revived until 1948, as money became available after nationalisation.

2020 December 2, Industry Insider, “The costs on cutting carbon”, in Rail, page 76:

(often attributive) A period during which a war is in progress in a particular place.


Ypres

Any of several battles fought near this city during the First World War.


West Berlin

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


West Germany

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

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


criticality

criticality (countable and uncountable, plural criticalities)


Great War

Then came the Great War, the Irish troubles, and the diversion of most of the American traffic to Southampton; the new construction was promptly dropped, and only grass-grown earthworks and cuttings now remain.

1939 September, T. R. Perkins, “The G.W.R. in West Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 200:


Somme

(history, with The) A major battle of the First World War in 1916 in this area.


thrusters

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Both the thrusters and the cautionaries thought the war would end with a massive naval battle involving the battleships of both fleets.

2002, Jean Heffer, The United States and the Pacific: History of a Frontier:

(US, historical, World War II) Those who are for military engagement.


initiator

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

käynnistäjä

chemistry: substance that initiates a chain reaction or polymerization

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

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

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

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


war-torn

en-adj

war-torn (comparative more war-torn, superlative most war-torn)

more war-torn (comparative)
most war-torn (superlative)

The new government also had big plans for rejuvenating Britain's war-torn economy.

2021 August 11, Richard Foster, “A century of railway politics”, in RAIL, number 937, page 42:

A traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Changhua County has raised NT$555,000 in a two-day campaign drive to buy medical supplies, humanitarian aid materials and an ambulance for war-torn Ukraine.

2023 January 30, Mei-chu Huang, Jonathan Chin, “Clinic raises money for Ukraine”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-30, Taiwan News, page 3:


Dixie

1859. Unknown, but may come from the Mason-Dixon line, the boundary between the northern states and the southern states, or from the slang term dixie for a Louisiana $10 bill that had the French word dix printed on it.

(informal, US) The southern United States, especially the former Confederate States; the South.


postbellum

From Latin post bellum (literally “after the war”).

bor

Midway through Donald McCaig’s unexpectedly diverting novel, “Rhett Butler’s People,” a black man about to be lynched in the post-bellum South asks Rhett to please shoot him dead before the mob breaks into the jail and does worse.

2007 November 4, Stephen L. Carter, “Almost a Gentleman”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US) Of the period following the American Civil War, especially used in reference to the South.


Empty Quiver

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


Woodbine

(British soldier): From the British troops being issued with Woodbine cigarettes.

(Australia, slang, World War I) A British soldier.


Khrushchev

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

A built-in remedy for Khrushchev and Kennedy.

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

Хрущёв Хрущёв#Russian

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


Roosevelt

From Dutch roos (“rose”) + veld (“field”).

census-designated place
census-designated place

A number of places in the United States:

A census-designated place in Gila County, Arizona, probably named after Theodore Roosevelt Lake.

Crow Wing County
Crow Wing County#English

Two townships, in Beltrami County and Crow Wing County, Minnesota, both named after Theodore Roosevelt.

A borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, formerly named Jersey Homesteads and renamed in honour of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.

An unincorporated community in Lubbock County, Texas.

A city in Duchesne County, Utah, named after Theodore Roosevelt.


Churchill

/ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃɪl/

/ˈt͡ʃɜːɹt͡ʃɪl/

The British ruling class are fighting against Hitler, whom they have always regarded and whom some of them still regard as their protector against Bolshevism. That does not mean that they will deliberately sell out; but it does mean that at every decisive moment they are likely to falter, pull their punches, do the wrong thing. Until the Churchill Government called some sort of halt to the process, they have done the wrong thing with an unerring instinct ever since 1931.

1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. II:

Winston Churchill (English statesman, soldier and author, who served as the British prime minister during World War II; particularly as a proponent of the British Empire, powerful orator, or symbol of dogged and successful perseverance).


Bismarck

A major German battleship during World War II (named after the statesman).


antinuclear

en-adj

antinuclear (comparative more antinuclear, superlative most antinuclear)

more antinuclear (comparative)
most antinuclear (superlative)

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

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

antiatòmic

opposed to the use of nuclear weapons or nuclear energy


nuclear deterrent

en-noun

nuclear deterrent (plural nuclear deterrents)

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

核威懾 /核威慑

Nuclear weapons viewed as a deterrent to an enemy from attacking


mutual assured destruction

mutual assured destruction (uncountable)

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

destrucción mutua / mutual / recíproca asegurada


destalinization

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

destalinizasiya

process of discrediting and the reforming the policies of Joseph Stalin


supercritical

en-adj

supercritical (comparative more supercritical, superlative most supercritical)

more supercritical (comparative)
most supercritical (superlative)

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

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


American Revolutionary War

the American Revolutionary War (canonical)

The American Revolution (1775–1783) of the contiguous southern 13 colonies of the British Empire on the east coast of the North American mainland


stovepipe

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

From stove + pipe. The firearms sense is due to the trapped cartridge case resembling a stovepipe of the stove sense.

(military slang, World War I– World War II) A trench mortar such as the Stokes mortar.


atom bomb

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

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


nuclear power

en-noun

nuclear power (countable and uncountable, plural nuclear powers)

(countable) A nation that possesses nuclear weapons.


thermonuclear weapon

thermonuclear weapon (plural thermonuclear weapons)

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


radiological

Of or pertaining to radiation, radioactivity or nuclear weapons.


Korean War

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

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

(pedantic) A situation of formal war that is de jure in progress since the 1950s on the Korean Peninsula, that has not had a formal resolution and peace treaty, but only has a longstanding armistice in place.


milch cow

From Middle English melche cow, mylche cowe.

(military, slang) A German WWII submarine designed to carry large cargoes of supplies and transfer them to other submarines.


The Few

From a speech by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".

(historical) The British and Allied fighter pilots during the Battle of Britain in World War II.


fallout shelter

fallout shelter (plural fallout shelters)

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


fall-out shelter

fall-out shelter (plural fall-out shelters)


trench warfare

(uncountable) Warfare in which opposing sides occupy trenches and repeatedly fire at one another; usually involving high casualty rates over a long period of time.

skyttegravskrig

warfare in which opposing sides occupy trenches


proxy war

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

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

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


mutually assured destruction

mutually assured destruction (uncountable)

mutual assured destruction
mutual assured destruction#English

Alternative form of mutual assured destruction


Phoney War

(historical) During World War Two, the period of limited military activity from the outbreak of hostilities on September 3rd, 1939 until Germany's attack on the Low Countries on May 10th, 1940.


doughface

(derogatory) A person, especially a politician, who is perceived to be pliable or moldable.

In particular, in the antebellum United States, a Northerner who espoused sympathies with the Southern Slave Power, especially a Northern Democrat who was more allied with the ideology of Southern Democrats than that of the majority of Northerners.


King Cotton

/ˌkɪŋˈkɒtn̩/

(obsolete) A personification of the cotton production of the southern United States.


Nixon

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

An English surname transferred from the given name.

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

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

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


Spitfire

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

(historical) A single-seat fighter used by the RAF and allies during World War II, especially during the Battle of Britain.


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

af

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

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

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


DEFCON

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


boogaloo

en-noun

boogaloo (countable and uncountable, plural boogaloos)

/ˈbuːɡəˌluː/

/ˌbuːɡəˈluː/

Attested as a style of dance since at least January 1966 (and found in the titles of many songs around that time), perhaps from boogie (for the ending, compare crackaloo, hullabaloo). (Compare Spanish bugalú, the Spanish name for the style of music and dance.) Kent Harris used the stage name "Boogaloo" in the 1950s. The sense "sequel or repetition" refers to the title of Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984), a sequel which was considered to be so bad it became a cult classic. Compare the sense "black person" to boogalee, a term for a Cajun, attested since 1960 or earlier.

Today, boogaloo has seeped out of the gaming community and found fertile ground in militant fringe movements. That includes anarchists and others on the far left. But it's especially popular among right-wing militias and self-described patriot groups.

2020 January 10, Hannah Allam, “'Boogaloo' Is The New Far-Right Slang For Civil War”, in NPR:

This month, the party involved itself once again with the boogaloo movement, when Cohen spoke at a gun rights rally co-hosted by a self-described “boogaloo boy” in Richmond, Virginia. Cohen used his speech to argue relaxing gun laws could end police violence.

2020 August 23, Adam Gabbatt, “The Libertarian party was up and coming in 2016. What happened?”, in The Guardian:

(Internet slang, US politics) A hypothetical second American Civil War, in which far-right or antigovernment activists rise up against the government.


Tito

Josip Broz Tito, a Yugoslav revolutionary and politician.


War on Terrorism

(US) An ongoing campaign by the United States (and some of its allies) the stated aim of which is to counter international terrorism, but especially to counter al-Qaeda and other militant Muslim groups.

反恐戰爭 /反恐战争

ongoing campaign by the US and its allies

The common term for the military, political, legal and ideological conflict against Islamic terrorism, and specifically used in reference to operations by the United States, in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

反恐戰爭 /反恐战争

common term for conflict against Islamic terrorism


coventrate

en-verb

coventrate (third-person singular simple present coventrates, present participle coventrating, simple past and past participle coventrated)

coventrates (present singular third-person)
coventrating (participle present)
coventrated (participle past)
coventrated (past)

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

From Coventry + -ate (verb-forming suffix), following German coventrieren. Coventry, England, was devastated by German firebombing in November 1940, during World War II.

(transitive) To devastate by heavy bombing.


Reichstag

Borrowed from German Reichstag (“imperial parliament”).


Nazi Germany

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

(historical) Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party (from 1933 to 1945).


comfort woman

Calque from Japanese 慰(い)安(あん)婦(ふ) (ianfu).

She carefully watches the efforts of Koreans who are suing Japan to get reparations for the comfort women. It was only in 1993 that Japan formally recognized its involvement in the forced prostitution.

1995 September 10, Jane H. Lii, “The Memories of a Comfort Woman”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(idiomatic, historical, euphemistic) A woman forced, or supposedly recruited, into brothels by the Japanese occupation forces before or during World War II.


denuclearize

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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


Iwo Jima

Bernardo de la Torre
Iwo Jima
Iōjima (Kagoshima)
James Cook

From the early modern Japanese misreading Iwōjima for 硫黄島 (Iwōtō, “Sulfur Island”), a calque of English Sulphur Island in accounts of James Cook's voyages, possibly originally from Early Modern Spanish Isla Sufre although the island was left unnamed by its first known discoverer Bernardo de la Torre.

Not many weeks before, during the battle for Iwo Jima, Joe Rosenthal, an Associated Press photographer, had taken his inspired photograph of the American flag being raised on Mount Suribachi.

1955, Harry S Truman, Memoirs of Harry S. Truman: Year of Decisions, volume I, Signet Books, published 1965, →OCLC, →OL, page 82:

A volcanic island in the Volcano Islands, in the North Pacific, now administered as part of Tokyo's Ogasawara Subprefecture and most famous for a major battle in World War II.


Reagan

Audio (US)

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

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

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

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

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

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


Confederate States of America

the Confederate States of America (canonical)

United States of America
United States of America

(historical) An unrecognized nation existing from 1861–1865, consisting of the eleven Southern states who sought independence from the United States of America over the issue of slavery.


truck driver

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

(military slang, World War I– World War II) A bomber pilot.


pro-nuclear

en-adj

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

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

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


Manassas

Μανασσας

city in the northeastern part of the state of Virginia in the United States

Prince William County
Prince William County#English

An independent city, the county seat of Prince William County, in northeastern Virginia, United States, known as Manassas Junction in the 19th century.

A minor city in Tattnall County, Georgia, United States.


counterforce

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


mossback

From moss + back (in senses 1 (“person with old-fashioned views; one who is very conservative or reactionary”) and 2.3 (“fish that is large and old”) probably a variant of mossyback, which is attested earlier), alluding to someone or something that is so old or has remained so unmoving that it is as if moss has grown on them or it.
Sense 2.4 (“largemouth bass”) may refer to the back of the fish being a dark green colour.

(informal, historical) A person who stayed hidden to evade conscription (especially by the Confederate States Army) during the American Civil War (1861–1865); a mossyback.


aluminum shower

en-noun

aluminum shower (plural aluminum showers)

The Office of Production Management, the OPM, has directed the Office of Civilian Defense to conduct an "Aluminum Shower". In other words, we are to collect all the available old aluminum in order to turn it over to the Government.

c 1940, United States. Office of Production Management, Press releases:

William S. Knudsen, director-general of O. P. M., has advised General R. B. Rathbun, director of the Minneapolis aluminum shower committee, to leave no possible source of scrap aluminum untouched because of the "critical shortage"

Most of you remember the "aluminum shower" which the American housewives gave Uncle Sam about eight months ago. Well, the Office of Emergency Management has been trying to find out what happened to all the pots and pans

1942, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's magazine, volumes 112-113:

(figuratively, dated) An event at which people give household items made of aluminum to the war effort.


Hundred Years' War

A series of conflicts between France and England, lasting 116 years from 1337 to 1453.


reprocessing

reprocessing (countable and uncountable, plural reprocessings)

eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

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

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

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


bag of rations

(slang, dated, World War I) A fussy or overly zealous military superior.


DEW line

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


Barbarossa

Borrowed from Italian Barbarossa, from barba (“beard”) + rossa (“red”).

(historical) Operation Barbarossa: the 1941 Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, named after the emperor.


four score and seven years ago

en-adv

four score and seven years ago (not comparable)

/ˈfɔː skɔː‿ɹən ˌsɛvən jɪəz əˌɡəʊ/

/ˈfɔɹ skɔɹ ən ˌsɛvən jɪɹz əˌɡoʊ/

En-au-four score and seven years ago.ogg

Literally, “87 years ago” (score sense: “group of 20”) the beginning of the Gettysburg Address made on November 19, 1863, by United States President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The widespread familiarity of Lincoln’s address, the unusual and poetic wording, and its status as the first words of the speech have caused the phrase to enter the public consciousness.

It was established four score and seven years ago, and since that time its activities have been intertwined with the internal development of the Nation itself.

1936 April 16, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Address at the Dedication of the New Department of the Interior Building:

I imagined momentarily that it was four score and seven years ago, that I had just been brought forth from my mother […]

2010 December 23, Phillip Roth, “Prologue”, in The Great American Novel, →ISBN, page 21:

Four score and seven years ago, I began writing an annual letter to be enclosed in my Christmas cards.

2012 February 20, Vicky DeCoster, “The Letter”, in The Wacky World of Womanhood, →ISBN, page 93:

(idiomatic, often humorous) Used (sometimes sarcastically) to indicate that a past event being mentioned is particularly important: a long time ago; many years ago.


Juneteenth

en-proper noun

Juneteenth (countable and uncountable, plural Juneteenths)

Blend of June + nineteenth, commemorating the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when Union Army General Gordon Granger (1821–1876) issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, to enforce President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862. The General Order stated that all previously enslaved people in Texas were now free. Entered wider usage after becoming a federal holiday in 2021.

There was^([sic – meaning were]) not so many colored people in the city as usual on Saturday evening, all of them, very near, being out at the "Juneteenth siliibration."

1891 June 25, “Local news”, in Brenham Weekly Banner, volume XXVI, number 26, Brenham, Tex.: J[ohn] G. Rankin, →OCLC, page [7], column 1:

If there is plenty of sunshine within the next ten days there will be sufficient supply of watermelons in Southwest Texas to take care of the "Juneteenth" celebrations of San Antonio's colored population.

1912 June 15, “Watermelons are Moving”, in Fruit Trade Journal and Produce Record, volume XXXXVII, number 10, New York, N.Y.: Fruit Trade Journal Company, →OCLC, page 12:

"'Twere Juneteenth day," she began reverentially, "when my light firs' broke. The darkies all bunched up down in the live oak grove were a-singin' an' a-dancin', 'spressin' their glory 'cause they warnt no mo' slaves nohow.["]

1921, Julia Walcott Hoffman, chapter I, in Pearl o’ Great Price or A Woman’s ’Sperience, Chicago, Ill.: Gift and Music Shop, →OCLC, page 11:

"But whut if it rains?" asked Josy. "It always do rain on Juneteenth." / "Dat's jes' de way of it," said John. "Someone is always a-th'owin' cold water on eve'ything I does."

1922, Hubert Anthony Shands, chapter VIII, in White and Black, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 50:

He had invited her to attend the Juneteenth picnic as his guest all day. And now he had done something that never, in all his life, had he heard of any colored boy doing before—planned an expensive outing right on the eve of the big annual event. [...] "Juneteenth"—white people also pretty generally use the phrase—is their Emancipation Day, and it is the one day in the year when every Caucasian is supposed to consider the comfort and enjoyment of his negro friends ahead of his own.

1925, J. Frank Davis, “Episode I. Juneteenth and Joada”, in Almanzar Evarts, Hero, Macon, Ga.: J. W. Burke Company, →OCLC, pages 13–14:

Truck drivers, business men, and school teachers belonging to the racial group have told me tales, but the best of tale-tellers has been some ex-slave buoyed up by the spirit of a Nineteenth of June celebration—the "Juneteenth"—the day on which all colored people in the South commemorate the freedom of their race from slavery. The significance of the day is so great and the tales I have collected are so bound up with the legalized slavery which, in 1865, this day put an end to, that I have used Juneteenth as a title. Nobody who does not understand a Juneteenth celebration can ever understand the Negro or his songs and tales.

1932, J[ohn] Mason Brewer, “Juneteenth”, in J[ames] Frank Dobie, editor, Tone the Bell Easy (Publications of the Texas Folk-lore Society; no. 10), Austin, Tex.: Texas Folk-lore Society, →OCLC, pages 8–54:

The annual celebration by Negroes of June 19—the day when emancipation from slavery became effective in the State [...]—is general; few Texas Negroes would consider working on "Juneteenth" if it can be avoided. The holiday is generally observed by a picnic at which everyone eats, dances and sings to his heart's content.

1940, Writers’ Program, Work Projects Administration, Texas, “Folklore and Folkways”, in Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State (American Guides Series), New York, N.Y.: Hastings House, published 1943, →OCLC, part I (Texas: Yesterday and Today), page 97:

As I chewed on my extra-hot barbecue sandwich, Mr. Artis Lovelady, the vendor and celebration sponsor, explained why he was having a Juneteenth observance: "I just wanted to do something, just wanted to kinda bring back old times and let the younger people see what we used to do to celebrate it on account of our Emancipation Proclamation."

1987, William H. Wiggins, Jr., “Following the Freedom Trail”, in O Freedom!: Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations, Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, published 2000, →ISBN, page 5:

But what they [black people] chose to emphasize by means of traditional activities each year was the memory of gaining freedom. Consequently in African-American communities, especially in the South, a day of prayer, preaching, and festivities usually known as "Juneteenth" came to be observed [...].

1991, Michael Kammen, “The Civil War Remembered—but Unreconciled”, in Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture, 1st Vintage Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, published February 1993, →ISBN, part 2 (Circa 1870 to 1915), page 122:

There's been a heap of Juneteenths before this one and I tell you there'll be a heap more before we're truly free!

1999, Ralph Ellison, chapter 7, in John F. Callahan, editor, Juneteenth: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 131:

On June 19, 1883, an eighteen-gun salute on the plaza in front of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, signaled the start of the annual Juneteenth observance.

2005, W[illiam] Fitzhugh Brundage, “Celebrating Black Memory in the Postbellum South”, in The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory, Cambridge, Mass., London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 55:

Proud Pelham in Navarro County had a long history of major Juneteenths. Every year on June 19, pigs and goats roasted over open pits or old bedsprings, while fish deep-fried in lard in big washpots hung from trees.

2005, Thad Sitton, James H. Conrad, “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings”, in Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow (Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture; no. 15), Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 105:

Senator Taylor, with unanimous consent, asked that when the Senate adjourn, it do so in honor of "Juneteenth Day," to symbolize the struggle for freedom and equality in the United States. [...] Indeed, Juneteenth Day is much more about the future than the past. It is a day where we gather to continue the struggle. We all realize the true freedom still eludes many of us.

2009 June 17, Lena C. Taylor, “Announcements, Adjournment Honors, and Remarks under Special Privilege”, in State of Wisconsin Senate Journal: Ninety-ninth Regular Session (Wisconsin State Senate), Madison, Wis.: State Printer, →OCLC, page 218, column 2:

[M]aking Juneteenth a federal holiday is both urgent and necessary. [...] A Juneteenth federal holiday would be more than a "day off," but one filled with educational experiences about the institution and affliction of slavery, community conversations on race and reconciliation, and cultural experiences that bring the history, challenges, and contributions of Black Americans to the forefront of the nation's consciousness.

2020 June 14, Seth Cohen, “No More Excuses – It’s Time to Declare Juneteenth a Federal Holiday”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-06-14:

(US) Also more fully as Juneteenth Day: the United States national holiday commemorating the end of slavery, observed on June 19.

Abraham Lincoln
Emancipation Proclamation
General Order No. 3
Gordon Granger
Union Army

Dia De l'Emancipació

holiday celebrated in the U.S. on June 19, commemorating the end of slavery


Berlin Wall

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


Bent Spear

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


Broken Arrow

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

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

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


Broken Arrow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2017, Kevin Ikenberry, Vendetta Protocol, page 155:

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


nonproliferation

en-noun

nonproliferation (usually uncountable, plural nonproliferations)

Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

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


doomsday device

doomsday device (plural doomsday devices)

Coined as Doomsday Machine by military strategist Herman Kahn.

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

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

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

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

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


Doomsday Device

Doomsday Device (plural Doomsday Devices)


Pax Americana

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

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

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

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

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

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


declaration of war

declaration of war (plural declarations of war)

Make no mistake, the sway of the railways' mandate in the middle of the 19th century was, in some quarters, a declaration of war on the old.

2022 January 12, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Castles: ruined and redeemed by rail”, in RAIL, number 948, page 55:

A formal announcement by a country or other body with military capability that it is in a state of war with another such entity.

oorlogsverklaring

a formal announcement by an entity that it is in a state of war with another entity


duck and cover

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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


nuclear-free

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


theater of war

The area in which armed conflict takes place.

مَسْرَح حَرْب

the area in which armed conflict takes place


spoils of war

Theſe ſo great Slaughters, Nations mighty dread, / Like Whirlwinds through ſo many Cities ſpread, / Which might have been anothers cloſing Fame, / Were but his Marches Actions; thus he came: / And in ſo many glorious Conqueſts ſhar'd / The Spoils of War, while he for War prepar'd.

1701, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, “Troades; or The Royal Captives. A Tragedy, Written Originally in Latin, by Lucius Annæus Seneca, the Philosopher. Englished by Sir Edward Sherburne, Knight. With Annotations.”, in Edward Sherburne, transl., The Tragedies of L. Annæus Seneca the Philosopher; viz. Medea, Phædra and Hippolytus, Troades, or the Royal Captives, and The Rape of Helen, out of the Greek of Coluthus; Translated into English Verse; with Annotations. To which is Prefixed the Life and Death of Seneca the Philosopher; with a Vindication of the said Tragedies to Him, as Their Proper Author. Adorn'd with Sculptures Representing each History, London: Printed for S. Smith and B. Walford, at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard, published 1702, →OCLC, act II, scene ii, pages 241–242, lines 33–38:

For according to that Hiſtorian [Josephus] upon Nebuchadnezzar [II]'s coming to Babylon in the year after, upon his father's death, and becoming Lord of all his father's Empire, He with the SPOILS of WAR magnificently repair'd, and deckt the Temple of Bel, &c.

1725, Benjamin Marshall, “A Chapter. Shewing that the Abstracted Nature of the Seventy Weeks of Years of this Prophecy, as the Said Number of Weeks of Years Contains Exactly Four Hundred and Ninety Years, and that as They Cannot Possibly Contain Less, so neither Can They Contain More than That Number of Years; …”, in A Chronological Treatise upon the Seventy Weeks of Daniel; …, London: Printed for James Knapton, at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard, →OCLC, page 56:

The march of mankind from ſavageneſs to refinement is devious and ſlow. In that iron age when the multitude look for ſubſiſtence to the ſpoils of war, and the wants of a powerful empire are relieved by the tributes impoſed on ſubjugated ſtates, the haughty victors, devoting their captives to the taſk of cultivating the ſoil, riot in the fruits of that drudgery which they diſdain to ſhare.

1800, James Sedgwick, “chapter XIII”, in Remarks, Critical and Miscellaneous, on the Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone, London: Printed by M. Ritchie, Middle Street, Cloth Fair; for G. G. & J. Robinson, Paternoster Row; J[oseph] Butterworth, Fleet Street; W. Clarke & Son, Portugal Street; J. White, Fleet Street; A. Sutton, Long Acre; and John Glanville, St. James's Street, →OCLC, page 261:

Stripp'd of his trappings, and his head declin'd; / Æthon, his gen'rous warrior-horse, behind, / Moves with a solemn, slow, majestic pace; / And the big tears rolling down his face. / These, the young hero's [Pallas's] lance and helmet bear; / The rest, the victor seiz'd, the spoils of war.

1810, Virgil, “Virgil’s Æneid. Book XI.”, in Christopher Pitt, transl., edited by Samuel Johnson, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper; including the Series Edited, with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Dr. Samuel Johnson: and the Most Approved Translations. The Additional Lives by Alexander Chalmers, F.S.A. In Twenty-one Volumes, volume XIX, London: Printed for J. Johnson [et al.], →OCLC, page 614, column 2:

The taking of the spoils of war was important to both Muslim and Christian communities during the Crusades. This was particularly so due to its feudal nature, whereby large numbers of men served without pay, and booty became one of the few sources of reward and resources from which campaigns could be sustained.

2011, Alexander Gillespie, A History of the Laws of War: Volume 2: The Customs and Laws of War with regards to Civilians in Times of Conflict, volume 2, Oxford: Hart Publishing, →ISBN:

Tens of thousands of Yazidis were forced to flee their homes after IS [Islamic State] fighters took the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar in August 2014. Thousands of women and girls were treated as "spoils of war" and openly sold in slave markets to IS militants. They were separated from the men and boys, many of whom were shot dead.

2016 October 27, “Sakharov prize: Yazidi women win EU freedom prize”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 2016-10-28:

Any profits extracted as the result of winning a war or other military activity.

Frans Hogenberg
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen


interstage

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


EW

electronic warfare
electronic warfare#English


Mao

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

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

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

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

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

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


Mao

A branch of the Omotic languages spoken in Ethiopia.


law of war

Law concerning acceptable practices while engaged in war.

oorlogsrecht

law concerning acceptable practices while engaged in war


blood diamond

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

Several certification systems already exist throughout the world. The Kimberly Process certifies the origin of rough diamonds from areas that have conflict-free diamond production. The process aims to prevent “blood diamonds.”

2011 July 11, Erin Banco, “Is Your Cell Phone Fueling Civil War in Congo?”, in The Atlantic:

A diamond that has been mined in a war zone and sold in order to finance the conflict.

bloeddiamant

1. a diamond that has been mined in a war zone and sold in order to finance the conflict


HEU

highly-enriched uranium
highly-enriched uranium#English


IJN

Imperial Japanese Navy
w:Imperial Japanese Navy

(US, military, nautical) Initialism of Imperial Japanese Navy, the navy of Imperial Japan, predecessor of the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, usually in reference to WWII.


massive retaliation

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


war machine

/ˈwɔː məˌʃiːn/

/ˈwɔːɹ məˌʃiːn/

The German war machine was more powerful than that of the allies at the start of the war.

The Covenant war machine continues its march to conquest; even with its head severed it is still dangerous.

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, published 2009 February 26, Xbox 360, level/area: Assembly:

[…] instead of dismantling the surveillance state and war machine, the Obama administration and Democrats institutionalised it – and it will soon be in the hands of a maniac.

2016 November 9, Trevor Timm, “Obama has handed a surveillance state and war machine to a maniac”, in The Guardian:

From the one million civilians killed in the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–89) to the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who’ve perished at the receiving end of Russia’s and Assad’s war machine, the chain of impunity is long.

2019 June 28, Natalie Nougayrède, “Forget Putin’s ‘liberalism’ jibe. This man runs a war machine”, in The Guardian:

Go, Rihanna, go / Watch the fighter jet fly high / War machine gets glamorized

2023, “Namesake”, in Sundial, performed by Noname:

The military resources of a belligerent country considered as a whole.


black rain

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


SEATO

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
w:Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

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


hypocentre

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

derived

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


Pathet Lao

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

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