tweak

en-verb

tweak (third-person singular simple present tweaks, present participle tweaking, simple past and past participle tweaked)

tweaks (present singular third-person)
tweaking (participle present)
tweaked (participle past)
tweaked (past)

From Middle English twikken, from Old English twiccian (“to pluck”), from Proto-West Germanic *twekkōn (“to fasten; clamp; pinch”). Related to twitch. The drug-related sense may be a blend of twitch and freak.

inh

(military, weaponry, uncommon) From a catapult, to strike a target with a missile.


vedette

The enemy made no effort to pursue Marshal Blücher. On the contrary, a patrole which I sent to Sombref in the morning found all quiet; and the enemy's vedettes fell back as the patrole advanced.

1815 June 19, Arthur Wellesley, Wellingon's Waterloo dispatch to Lord Bathurst:

My goal was Desolation Peak, the cabin where rookie vedette Jack Kerouac spent 63 eventful days in the summer of 1956.

2021 February 16, Dan Richards, “Peak cabin: a fire-spotter's lonely vantage point in Washington state”, in The Guardian:

(historical, military) A sentinel, usually on horseback, stationed on the outpost of an army, to watch an enemy and give notice of danger.


volunteer

/ˌvɑlənˈtɪɹ/

Borrowed from Middle French voluntaire, from Latin voluntārius (“willing, voluntary”); or from voluntary + -eer.

der

(military) One who enters into military service voluntarily (but who, when in service, is subject to discipline and regulations like other soldiers), as opposed to a conscript.

That summer and fall the Army organized twenty-five regiments of volunteers, including two black regiments, which would have all-black captains and lieutenants. All officers were to be selected from regulars and volunteers who had distinguished themselves[…]

2007 April 30, Edward M. Coffman, The Regulars: The American Army, 1898-1941, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 16:

(military) A voluntary member of the organized militia of a country, as distinguished from a regular or member of the standing army.


waster

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-waster.wav

Or, as they that play at wasters exercise themselves by a few cudgels how to avoid an enemy's blows, let us arm ourselves against all such violent incursions which may invade our minds.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 6:

(obsolete, chiefly fencing) A kind of cudgel; also, a blunt-edged sword used as a foil.


feud

feuds (plural)
fead (alternative)
feaud (alternative)
fede (alternative)
feood (alternative)
fewd (alternative)
fewde (alternative)
fuide (alternative)
fude (alternative)

Oxford English Dictionary
Survey of English Dialects

Inherited from Northern Middle English fede, feide, from Old French faide, feide, fede, from Proto-West Germanic *faihiþu (“hatred, enmity”) (corresponding to foe + -th), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“hostile”).
Cognate to Old English fǣhþ, fǣhþu, fǣhþo (“hostility, enmity, violence, revenge, vendetta”), German Fehde, and Dutch vete (“feud”) (directly inherited from Proto-West Germanic) alongside Danish fejde (“feud, enmity, hostility, war”) and Swedish fejd (“feud, controversy, quarrel, strife”) (borrowed from Middle Low German).

der

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(professional wrestling) A staged rivalry between wrestlers.


boots

[…] he sent on the 22d. Vice-Admiral Rook into it, with several Men of War and Fire-Ships, besides the Boots of the Fleet, to endeavour to destroy them: […]

1705, The Life of William III, Late King of England, and Prince of Orange, page 334:

The captain of Hotspur was Lieutenant T. Herrick, the youngest commanding officer in all the destroyers, and says Hotspur was the “boots” of the fleet! Being the junior ship, she was given jobs no-one wanted.

2005, Frank Wade, A Midshipman's War, page 115:

(UK, naval, slang) The ship in a fleet having the most junior captain.


boozer

From booze + -er (agent noun suffix) or (pub) + -er (relational noun suffix).

(UK, military, obsolete) A World War II fighter radar detector, fitted to British bombers.


ringer

A group of naval one- and two-ringers were chatting by the office door with a few ratings, complete with kit-bags and oilskins.

The senior officer of the escort was an RN two and a half ringer who had a reputation of being one of the best.

(UK, military, informal, in combination) An officer having the specified number of rings (denoting rank) on the uniform sleeve.


khakis

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

(military) A khaki uniform of pants (trousers) or shorts, shirt, and hat or other head covering such as a turban.


clip

→ Japanese: クリップ (kurippu)

→ Portuguese: clipe

From Middle English clippen, cleppen, clüppen, from Old English clyppan (“to hug, embrace, cherish, clasp”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *glemb-, *glembʰ- (“lump, clump, clod, clamp”). Cognate with Old Frisian kleppa, klippa (“to hug, embrace”), Middle High German klimpen, klimpfen (“to contract tightly, constrict, squeeze”).

inh

(military) A frame containing a number of rounds of ammunition which is intended to be inserted into an internal magazine of a firearm to allow for rapid reloading.

(military, colloquial) A removable magazine of a firearm.


Star Wars

[ˈstɑɹ ˈwɔɹz]

[ˈstɑ˞ ˈwɔɹz]

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Star Wars.wav

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

Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative

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


jalousie

/ˈd͡ʒæləsiː/

Borrowed from French jalousie. Doublet of jealousy.

(naval architecture) A component in a ventilation system.


caisson

Borrowed from French caisson. Doublet of cassone and cajón.

Over hill, over dale / As we hit the dusty trail, / And those caissons go rolling along.

1908, Edmund Louis Gruber, “The Caissons Go Rolling Along”:

(military) A two-wheeled, horse-drawn military vehicle used to carry ammunition (and a coffin at funerals).

vaigín armlóin

two-wheeled horse-drawn military vehicle

(military) A large box to hold ammunition.

(military) A chest filled with explosive materials, used like a mine.


U-boat

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

U艇

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


bingo

Alternative form of bing, suggesting a ringing sound. Attested since 1925.

Well, the old pucker factor went up about 75 notches at that point cause that length of time would put my wingman below Bingo fuel, plus the thought of sitting in an orbit several miles West of the Yen Bai […]

1993, Red River Valley Fighter Pilots, page 40:

The first pilot to get down to this bingo fuel state would call, “Banjo 4, bingo fuel,” or whatever.

2012, Larry R Gibson, Recollections of a Marine Attack Pilot, page 54:

(US, aviation slang, chiefly military, primarily of fuel) Just sufficient to return to base (or, alternatively, to divert to an alternative airfield). (also written Bingo or BINGO)


bingo

en-verb

bingo (third-person singular simple present bingos, present participle bingoing, simple past and past participle bingoed)

bingos (present singular third-person)
bingoing (participle present)
bingoed (participle past)
bingoed (past)
Bingo (alternative)

Tony's den

10; in the UK, referring to the Number 10, Downing Street, the prime minister's residence

on its own

followed by the number: any single-digit number

(intransitive, US, aviation slang, chiefly military) To return to base.


peloton

Borrowed from French peloton (“small ball (of thread, etc.), pellet; (cycling) group of riders formed during a cycling road race; (military) small group of soldiers, platoon”), from pelote (“small ball (of thread, etc.)”) (ultimately from Latin pila (“ball; ball game; globe, sphere”) (probably referring to a ball of hair), from pilus (“strand of hair”), from Proto-Indo-European *pil- (“strand of hair”)) + -on (augmentative suffix). Doublet of platoon.

der

And so here, I suppose you intend to make a stand against your followers, Ranald—voto a Dios, as the Spaniard says—a very pretty position—as pretty a position for a small peloton of men as I have seen in my service—no enemy can come towards it by the road without being at the mercy of cannon and musket.

1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume IV (A Legend of Montrose), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 135:

A regiment of cavalry consists of six squadrons, each squadron of four pelotons, each peloton of two companies, each company of two escouardes, and each escouarde of two men.

1840 November, R[ichard] W[illiam] H[oward] Howard Vyse, “Some Account of the Composition and Force of the Egyptian Army”, in The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine, part III, number 144, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 307:

Then the chief of each peloton came forward, snapped fingers with us as we sat on our chairs under the tree, our guards ranged on the right, a mob of gazers—women scratching and boys pulling—on the left, and an open space in front.

1864, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “We Enter Whydah in State”, in A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 44:

In Bauske, on 2 July, the local commandant had twenty hostages publicly shot at the Memel bridge by a peloton supplied by the local headquarters, allegedly in "reprisal" for the German soldiers who had fallen in the battles for the town.

2000, Margers Vestermanis, “Local Headquarters Liepaja: Two Months of German Occupation in the Summer of 1941”, in Hannes Heer, Klaus Naumann, editors, War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II, 1941–1944 (Studies on War and Genocide; 3), New York, N.Y.: Berghahn Books, published 2009, →ISBN, page 232:

(military, chiefly historical) Synonym of platoon (“a small group of soldiers”) or synonym of section (cognate with the former; not invariably synonymous with it, depending on century of use)


HMS

One of the other two nations to operate the F-35B, the United Kingdom, has had US versions of the jet operating off its HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier.

2018 November 29, Brad Lendon and Zachary Cohen, “Japan preparing to put US-designed stealth jets on an ‘aircraft carrier’”, in CNN:

(military, nautical) Initialism of His/Her Majesty's Ship (prefix for ships in the navy of a monarchy, such as the British Royal Navy).


COB

contingency operating base
contingency operating base#English

(US, military) Initialism of contingency operating base.


PTA

en-noun

PTA (countable and uncountable, plural PTAs)

Their computer cannot issue a Permit to Acquire to somebody who does not have the appropriate category of licence; or whose licence is about to expire. I am hearing from lots of people who want to know why it's taking weeks, or even months, for the PTA to be issued, when the waiting period is supposed to be only 28 days. The reason is, of course, that the massive backlog of five-year licence renewals, caused by the under-resourcing of the Registry, is holding up PTA′s because they can't be issued until after the licence renewal is issued.

2003 October 21, CD, “NEWSLETTER FROM THE OFFICE OF JOHN TINGLE MLC 15.10.03”, in aus.politics.guns (Usenet):

I think that is the most meaningless sections of the law out of the whole thing, PTA for second and subsequent arms. They are likely processing hundreds of thousands of PTA′s weekly for absolutely no demonstratable purpose with tax payer monies.

2004 January 28, Seb, “NEWSLETTER FROM NSW SHOOTERS PARTY January 27 2004”, in aus.politics.guns (Usenet):

get your PTA, and then think about spending a few hundred on a more modern .22 and a scope.

2004 June 18, Lindsay, “Yaaaay. PTA in less than a month”, in aus.sport.shooting (Usenet):

Recently, people applying for a Permit to Acquire have received a letter back from the Firearms Registry saying they had to submit a Certificate of Inspection of their secure storage, before the application could be processed. This was a new thing, and, in the case of people who already have a firearm, was pretty pointless, since we all had our secure storage inspected in that great state-wide sweep; and unless the applicant's address had changed, there was little point in a new inspection. In any case, I had countless reports of people asking their local police to do a new inspection to go with the PTA and being told the police were much too busy to do all that again.

2006 February 22, CD, “NSW Shooters party Newsletter Feb 21 2006”, in aus.politics.guns (Usenet):

(Australia, firearms) Initialism of permit to acquire: a form lodged with the police to acquire a specific firearm; the authorisation subsequently acquired.


crunchy

From crunch + -y. The slang sense is derived from the concept of crunchy granola.

crunchie

chocolate sweet; infantry soldier; white Afrikaner

"Inside, tankers carry full-length M16s for crew protection from crunchies."

2009, James Wesley Rawles, Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse:

Since tankers are no brighter than infantry types, those men assigned to the Twelfth Infantry Division's armored unit thought their tour was a bitter waste, rather than being grateful for not getting wiped out nearly as regularly as the crunchies did.

2009, Chris Bunch, Allan cole, A Reckoning For Kings: A Novel of Vietnam:

(military slang) An infantryman, as opposed to a tanker (combatant manning a tank).


camouflage

camouflage (countable and uncountable, plural camouflages)

/ˈkæ.məˌflɑːʒ/

Unadapted borrowing from French camouflage, from camoufler (“to veil, disguise”), alteration (due to camouflet (“smoke blown in one's face”)) of Italian camuffare (“to muffle the head”), from ca- (from Italian capo (“head”)) + muffare (“to muffle”), from Medieval Latin muffula, muffla (“muff”). This Medieval Latin, from which there is also English muffle, is either derived from a Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”)) + *fell (“hide, skin”), from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”), or, an alternate etymology traces it to a Frankish *muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) composed of *mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”) + *fell (“skin, hide”) from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”).

der

(military) The use of natural or artificial material on personnel, objects, or tactical positions with the aim of confusing, misleading, or evading the enemy.


offensive

en-noun

offensive (countable and uncountable, plural offensives)

offensives (plural)
offencive (alternative obsolete)

From Middle French offensif, from offendre + -if by analogy with défensif. Offendre is from Latin offendere (“to offend”); see offend.

The Marines today launched a major offensive.

In Central Hupeh, the Japanese launched another offensive from the Kingshan region, but instead of moving southwestward to cooperate with another column of theirs to capture Shasi, this column swerved to the northwest and succeeded in capturing Chunghsiang on the Han River.

1939 January, Lin Yu, “The "China Incident"”, in Philippine Magazine, volume XXXVI, number 1, →OCLC, page 121:


old man

old man (countable and uncountable, plural old men)

old men (plural)
oldman (alternative)
old-man (alternative)

From Middle English alde mann, aldman, elde man, oldeman, from Old English eald man.

(slang, military) A unit's commanding officer, or the commander of a naval vessel, irrespective of age.


barrack

Borrowed from French baraque, from Spanish barraca or Catalan barraca, which is of uncertain origin. It is probably either a diminutive of Vulgar Latin *barra (“bar”), of unclear origin, or a diminutive of Vulgar Latin *barrum (“clay, mud”) from Celtiberian or Paleo-Hispanic.

Before the gates of Bari, he lodged in a miserable hut or barrack, composed of dry branches, and thatched with straw; a perilous station, on all sides open to the inclemency of the winter and the spears of the enemy.

1829, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume 4, page 67:

1919, House Committee on Military Affairs, Army Reorganization: Hearings Before the Committee on Military Affairs, House of Representatives, 66th Congress, 1st Session, on H.R. 8287, H.R. 8068, H.R. 7925, H.R. 8870, Sept. 3, 1919-Nov. 12, 1919, Parts 23-43, page 1956,
How do you distinguish between the disciplinary barracks and the penitentiary? Where are the disciplinary barracks ?

I know the barracks at the training camp out on the moors.

1996, Erich Maria Remarque, translated by Brian Murdoch, All Quiet on the Western Front, page 129:

(military, chiefly in the plural) A building for soldiers, especially within a garrison; originally referred to temporary huts, now usually to a permanent structure or set of buildings.


legion

Attested (in Middle English, as legioun) around 1200, from Old French legion, from Latin legiō, legionem, from legō (“to gather, collect”); akin to legend, lecture. Doublet of León, which was borrowed from Spanish.
Generalized sense of “a large number” is due to an allusive phrase in Mark 5:9, "My name is Legion, for we are many".

Meronyms: cohort, maniple, century

en:the major unit or division of the Roman army

(military, Ancient Rome) The major unit or division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 infantry soldiers and 100 to 200 cavalry troops.

legioen

(military) A combined arms major military unit featuring cavalry, infantry, and artillery, including historical units such as the British Legion, and present-day units such as the Spanish Legion and the French Foreign Legion.

Efforts to unionize were routinely met with clubbings, shootings, jailings, blacklistings and executions, perpetrated not only by well-armed legions of company goons, but also by police officers, deputies, National Guardsmen and even regular soldiers.

2009 February 22, Kevin Baker, “Blood on the Street”, in The New York Times:

(military) A large military or semi-military unit trained for combat; any military force; an army, regiment; an armed, organized and assembled militia.


battleship

From battle + ship; shortened from line-of-battle ship, attested 1794.

(military, nautical) A large capital warship displacing thousands to tens of thousands of tons, heavily armoured and armed with large-caliber guns; now obsolescent and replaced by smaller vessels with guided missiles.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship of comparable role

Schlachtschiff n. Schlachtschiff is used for dreadnought battleships

Linienschiff is used for pre-dreadnought battleships.

(military, nautical, archaic) A ship of the line.


SOS

struck off strength
strike off strength#English

stricken off strength
strike off strength#English

(Commonwealth, military, historical) Initialism of struck off strength or stricken off strength.


banger

→ Estonian: bänger

→ Finnish: bängeri

From bang + -er. The sausages were so called because of their excess water content and impervious skin, leading to the risk of explosion if not punctured before cooking.


pivot

From Middle English pevet, *pivot, from Old French pivot (“hinge pin, pivot”) (12th c.), possibly from Latin pūgiō.

(military) The officer or soldier who simply turns in his place while the company or line moves around him in wheeling.


police

police pl (normally plural, singular police)

Southern US, African-American Vernacular, Indic

From Middle French police, from Latin polītīa (“state, government”), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía). Doublet of policy and polity.

Q. […] What did you do that day? — A. I was cleaning up around quarters.
Q. You had been on guard and went on police duty? You were policing, cleaning up around the barracks? — A. Yes, sir.

1907, Hearings Before the Committee on Military Affairs, United States Senate, concerning the Affray at Brownsville, Tex. on the Night of August 13 and 14, 1906, volume 2:

(military, slang) Cleanup of a military facility, as a formal duty.


police

en-verb

police (third-person singular simple present polices, present participle policing, simple past and past participle policed)

polices (present singular third-person)
policing (participle present)
policed (participle past)
policed (past)

This comes to him through the company housekeeping, for in the field each organization takes care of itself, cooks its own food, makes its own beds, does its own policing (cleaning up); […]

1900, Proceedings of the eighth annual meeting, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States:

ELIAS: Police up your extra ammo and frags, don't leave nothing for the dinks.

1986, Oliver Stone, Platoon (film script)

"Fire off several rounds in a residential building and stop to police the brass?"

2006, Robert B. Parker, Hundred-Dollar Baby, Putnam,, →ISBN, page 275:

(ambitransitive, military, slang) To clean up an area.


challenge

challenge (third-person singular simple present challenges, present participle challenging, simple past and past participle challenged)

challenges (present singular third-person)
challenging (participle present)
challenged (participle past)
challenged (past)

/ˈt͡ʃæl.ɪnd͡ʒ/

/ˈt͡ʃæl.ənd͡ʒ/

From Middle English chalenge, variant with palatalization of Middle English kalange (“an accusation, claim”), from Old French chalenge, chalonge, palatalized Central French variants of Old Northern French calenge, calonge (see Continental Norman calengier), from Latin calumnia (“a false accusation, calumny”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₁l-, *keh₁l- (“to beguile, deceive”). Cognate with Old English hōl (“calumny”). Doublet of calumny.

der

The sentinel challenged us with "Who goes there?"

(military, transitive) To question or demand the countersign from (one who attempts to pass the lines).


assembly

en-noun

assembly (countable and uncountable, plural assemblies)

From Middle English assemblee, from Anglo-Norman asemblee (Old French asemblee, French assemblée). By surface analysis, assemble + -y.

(military) A beat of the drum or sound of the bugle as a signal to troops to assemble.


swivel

swivel (countable and uncountable, plural swivels)

From Middle English swyvel, swivel, from a derivative of Old English swīfan (“to revolve”), + -el, an instrumental suffix, equivalent to swive + -el.

[The settlement] was entirely surrounded by a broad unfordable marsh or swamp, which prevented all communication, except by private paths under water, known only to the rebels, and before which Baron had placed loaded swivels […]

1796, John Stedman, chapter 4, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition,, volume 1, London: J. Johnson, page 81:

Applied to guns mounted upon the cartridges were fired without being tripods, stands, swivels, or carriages

1881, Thomas Wilhelm, A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer:

(military) A small piece of ordnance, turning on a point or swivel; called also swivel gun.


about-face

about-faces (plural)
about face (alternative)

From about + face, first attested in 1861, used in the imperative in the military.

The soldier did an about-face and marched off.

Deciding that he hasn't had enough action for one day, Captain Evans of the Johnston orders another 180-degree about-face to give gunfire support to the new arrivals, this time picking on the heavy cruiser Tone.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 22:11 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03:

(military) An abrupt turn to face the opposite direction.

rechtsomkeert

military: abrupt turn to face the opposite direction


ki

At sea a special cauldron of 'ki,' prepared by the ship's cook, is sent round action stations in 'fannies' or large pitchers.

1917, The Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, volumes 34-35, page 217:

(UK, naval slang) Alternative form of kye (“cocoa”)


grinder

From Middle English grinder, grindere, from Old English grindere (“one or that which grinds; grinder”), equivalent to grind + -er.

inh

We were told then and there that we wouldn't be allowed on the grinder again until we could do a lot better. The grinder is what that large area was called, and it was a fitting name. They literally ground us down on it.

Company formations are held on the grinder (basketball court outside the Quarterdeck).

2013, USMC Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC / TC3) Guidelines:

(US, military, slang) An outdoor space for drills and parades.


torpedo

* Borrowed from Latin torpēdō (“a torpedo fish; numbness, torpidity, electric ray”), from torpeō (“I am stiff, numb, torpid; I am astounded; I am inactive”) + -ēdō (noun suffix), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“stiff”). In the military sense coined by Robert Fulton in 1805. Cognate with Old English steorfan (“to die”), Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós, “solid”), Lithuanian tirpstu (“to become rigid”), Old Church Slavonic трупети (trupeti).
* (type of car): From 1908, after "the Torpedo", a car designed by Captain Theo Masui.

cog

I stood rigid, spellbound, watching the white wake of the torpedo. It struck us on the starboard side almost amidships. The vessel rocked as though the sea beneath it had been uptorn by a mighty volcano.

1918, Edgar Rice Burrows, The Land that Time Forgot, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:

Four Japanese torpedo boats launch an attack on the Suvorov. Despite burning steadily for several hours and now taking a torpedo to the stern, the ship still lashes out at its attackers with a few remaining guns. With no pressing need to continue the attack to closer range, the torpedo boats fall back, noting the position for a night attack if Suvorov survives that long.

2019 September 18, Drachinifel, 25:58 from the start, in Battle of Tsushima - When the 2nd Pacific Squadron thought it couldn't get any worse..., archived from the original on 2022-12-04:

And if fate should turn her back on them, or turn away from them, leaving them to their own devices, and should they find themselves be sore afraid, then they would simply sail away to the other side of the world. They would ride like the wind. They would sail once more into the breach and damn the torpedos! God save the Queen! And the devil take the hindmost!

2020, Ted Bell, Dragonfire, New York, N.Y.: Berkley, published 2021, →ISBN, page 536:

(military) A cylindrical explosive projectile that can travel underwater and is used as a weapon.

(science fiction) A similar projectile that can travel through space.

(obsolete, military) An explosive device buried underground and set off remotely, to destroy fortifications, troops, or cavalry; a land torpedo.


director

directors (plural)
directour (alternative obsolete)

/daɪ̯əˈɹɛktə(ɹ)/

Borrowed from Middle French directeur and its source Late Latin dīrēctor, dīrēctōrem, from Latin dīrēctus.

(military) A device that displays graphical information concerning the targets of a weapons system in real time.


warrant

en-noun

warrant (countable and uncountable, plural warrants)

warrants (plural)
warraunt (alternative)

→ Cantonese: 窩輪 /窝轮 (wo¹ leon⁴⁻²), 花令

→ Italian: warrant

→ Malay: waran

The noun is derived from Middle English warant (“protector; guard, shield, protection”), from Anglo-Norman warrant, Old Northern French warant, warand, a variant of Old French guarant, garant, garand (“assurance, guarantee; authorization, permission; protector; protection, safety”) (modern French garant), from Frankish *warand, present participle of *warjan (“to fend off; to stop, thwart”). The word is cognate with Old High German werento (“guarantor”).
The verb is derived from Middle English warrant, waranten (“to give protection; to protect, shield; to assure, pledge, promise; to guarantee”), from Anglo-Norman warantir, warandir, warentir, and Old Northern French warandir, warantir, variant forms of Old French guarantir (“to protect”) (modern French garantir), a Romance formation from the noun guarant: see above.

inh

[Dave T.] Daniels also stated that many supported the idea of an officers indoctrination course, with the aim of preparing warrants for broader responsibility.

2006, David R. Welsh, “Warrant Officer Associations over the Years: Chief Warrant Officers & Warrant Officers Association U.S. Coast Guard: 1919–Present”, in The Legacy of Leadership as a Warrant Officer, Nashville, Tenn., Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 40:

(military, countable) Short for warrant officer.

Several days passed away, and at length down came an order for [Harry] Bartlett to go on shore and take up his warrant for a sloop of war that was then round at Plymouth, to which place he was to make all haste to join. […] "Well, my man," said Sir Joseph [Sydney Yorke], in his usual deliberative manner, "and so it has pleased the powers aloft to reward your deserts, and you are now a warrant officer."

1854, “The Old Sailor” [pseudonym; Matthew Henry Barker], “Harry Bartlett”, in Floating Remembrances and Sketches of a Sea Life, London: Whittaker and Co.; Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.; Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: Dearden, →OCLC, page 86:

(countable) A certificate of appointment given to a warrant officer.


orderly

orderlies (plural)
ordrely (alternative)

(military) A soldier who carries out minor tasks for a superior officer.

ординарец

soldier who carries out minor tasks for a superior officer — see also batman


debole

From Italian debole, meaning "weak", equivalent to the French foible.

There are two parts to the sword: the forte and the debole. The forte begins from the hilt, extending as far as the middle of the blade; and the remainder is called the debole. The forte is for parrying, and the debole for striking. This is really important because: if you always keep your forte in the way of the opponent's debole, you will never be hit.

(fencing) The flexible part of the blade near the tip of light swords such as rapiers.


cheeseburger

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

Etymology tree
Latin cāseusbor.
Proto-Germanic *kāsijaz
Proto-West Germanic *kāsī
Old English ċīese
Middle English chese
English cheese
English hamburger
English cheeseburger
Blend of cheese + hamburger (1928). By surface analysis, cheese + -burger.


rock and roll

/ˈɹɒk ən(d)ˈɹəʊl/

From rock (move back and forth) + and + roll; originally a verb phrase common among African Americans, meaning "to have sexual intercourse"; it was an euphemism that appeared in song titles since at least 1914 (Trixie Smith's "My Man Rocks Me With One Steady Roll").
As a name for a specific style of popular music from the early 1950s, popularized by disc jockey Alan Freed in reference to the euphemistic use in song titles.

rock-and-roll (alternative)
rock'n'roll (alternative)
rock 'n' roll (alternative)
rock n roll (alternative)
rock 'n roll (alternative)
rock-n-roll (alternative)
rock-'n'-roll (alternative)
rock & roll (alternative)

(military, slang, US) The full automatic fire capability selection on a selective fire weapon.


mount

From Middle English mounten, from Anglo-Norman munter, from Vulgar Latin *montāre (“climb”), from Latin montem (“mountain”). Compare modern French monter.

(martial arts) A dominant ground grappling position, where one combatant sits on the other combatants torso with the face pointing towards the opponent's head.


mount

en-verb

mount (third-person singular simple present mounts, present participle mounting, simple past and past participle mounted)

mounts (present singular third-person)
mounting (participle present)
mounted (participle past)
mounted (past)

(transitive, martial arts) To sit on a combatant's torso with the face pointing towards the opponent's head; to assume the mount position in ground grappling.


warble

en-noun

warble (countable and uncountable, plural warbles)

(military) In naval mine warfare, the process of varying the frequency of sound produced by a narrowband noisemaker to ensure that the frequency to which the mine will respond is covered.


gabion

Borrowed from Italian gabbione, augmentative of gabbia (“cage”), itself from Latin cavea (whence also English jail, English cajole), from Latin cavus (whence also English cage, English cave).

sap

several mentions of gabions in the context of fortifications

When our artillery came before the walls of the town, the English within the walls killed some of our men, and several pioneers who were making gabions. And seeing they were so wounded that there was no hope of curing them, their comrades stripped them, and put them still living inside the gabions, which served to fill them up.

1563, Ambroise Paré, The Journey to Havre de Grace.:

(historical, military) A cylindrical basket or cage of wicker which was filled with earth or stones and used in fortifications and other engineering work (a precursor to the sandbag).


kinetic

From Ancient Greek κινητικός (kinētikós, “puts in motion”), from κινέω (kinéō, “I move, put in motion”).

der

(military, euphemistic) Relating to active warfare or the use of lethal force.^([W])


shoulder

shoulders (plural)
shouder (alternative dialectal)

From Middle English schuldre, sholder, shulder, schulder, from Old English sculdra, sculdor (“shoulder”), from Proto-West Germanic *skuldru (“shoulder”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), see shield. Cognate with Old Frisian skuldere (“shoulder”) (West Frisian skouder (“shoulder”)), Middle Low German scholder (“shoulder”), Low German Schuller, Schulder (“shoulder”), Dutch schouder (“shoulder”), German Schulter (“shoulder”).

inh

you can't put an old head on young shoulders

(of an object) The portion between the neck and the body.

(firearms) The angled section between the neck and the main body of a cartridge.


CV

en-noun

CV (countable and uncountable, plural CVs)

CVs (plural)
C.V. (alternative)
C. V. (alternative)

Abbreviation
* (anime, Japanimation): From Japanese CV (CV), from English character+voice
* (aircraft carrier): Initialism of cruiser (“croiseur”) + French voler (“to fly”).

initialism of

(military) Initialism of combat vehicle.

aircraft carrier
aircraft carrier#English

(US, navy) aircraft carrier (“Cruiser Voler”), a diesel-powered warship launching and landing heavier than air flying vehicles (a nuclear-powered one is a CVN)


bloke

blokes (plural)
bloak (alternative archaic)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-bloke.wav

Origin unknown; the following borrowings have been hypothesized:
* From a modern Celtic language, such as Irish bloc (“block”) or Scottish Gaelic ploc (“large, stubborn person”, literally “block of wood”), themselves borrowings from English block
* From Hindustani لوک (lok) / लोक (lok, “people, folk”) or Shelta loke (“man”).

bor

A second green chit and then you get your hat for a talk with the bloke.

1989, Rick Jolly, Trugg Willson, Jackspeak: The Pusser’s Rum: Guide to Royal Navy Slanguage […], Torpoint, Cornwall: Palamanando Publ., →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, naval slang) (A lower deck term for) the captain or executive officer of a warship, especially one regarded as tough on discipline and punishment.


AOT

(aviation, military) Initialism of angle off tail (the angle between the flightpaths of the attacking and defending aircraft in a dogfight).


UDP

(military, US) Initialism of Unit Deployment Program.


snowbird

(US military slang) One who enlists in fall to desert after winter.


organic

en-adj

organic (comparative more organic, superlative most organic)

more organic (comparative)
most organic (superlative)
organick (alternative)

From Middle English organic, organik, from Old French organique, from Latin organicus.

Socially, the term “organic” unit implies a military force characterized by relatively high cohesion, overlapping primary groups and a certain sense of shared past.

1998, Eyal Ben-Ari, Mastering Soldiers: Conflict, Emotions, and the Enemy in an Israeli Military Unit, Beghahn Books, page 29:

Most types of German field divisions include an organic reconnaissance battalion, and the remainder have strong reconnaissance companies.

1945, U.S. War Department, Handbook on German Military Forces, LSU Press, published 1990, page 161:

(military) Of a military unit or formation, or its elements, belonging to a permanent organization (in contrast to being temporarily attached).


rhubarb

en-noun

rhubarb (countable and uncountable, plural rhubarb or rhubarbs)

From Middle English rubarbe, from Anglo-Norman reubarbe (modern French rhubarbe), from Late Latin reubarbarum, rheubarbarum, rubarbera, rybarba, probably from Koine Greek ῥῆον βάρβαρον (rhêon bárbaron), from ῥῆον (rhêon, “rhubarb”) + Ancient Greek βάρβαρον (bárbaron), neuter of βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign; barbaric”) (English barbarian).
There is also a Medieval Latin variant rabarbarum, which appears to be influenced by Ancient Greek ῥᾶ (rhâ, “rhubarb”), and gave rise to some of the forms in modern languages. The Ancient Greek variant term appears to have been folk-etymologically influenced by Ancient Greek Ῥᾶ (Rhâ, “the River Volga”), which is in the region from which the plant came to the Mediterranean. The ultimate origin of the Ancient Greek terms is, however, Proto-Iranian *(h)rabā́š (“rhubarb, fennel”).
The word is cognate with Catalan ruibarbre, Italian rabarbaro, Dutch rabarber, German Rhabarber, Old Occitan reubarbe, Portuguese ruibarbo, Spanish ruibarbo.

der

ῥῆον βάρβαρον

cog

On 13 December 1942, Squadron Leader [Brian] Lane made his first flight from Ludham, a local familiarisation flight. That afternoon, he led a section of Spitfires low over the North Sea on a ‘Rhubarb’, a low-level sweep over the Dutch coast, looking for targets of opportunity.

2009, Dilip Sarkar, “Foreword”, in Brian Lane, edited by Dilip Sarkar, Spitfire!: The Experiences of a Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, →ISBN, page 11:

(British, military, aviation, historical) A Royal Air Force World War II code name for operations by aircraft (fighters and fighter-bombers) involving low-level flight to seek opportunistic targets.


rhubarb

en-verb

rhubarb (third-person singular simple present rhubarbs, present participle rhubarbing, simple past and past participle rhubarbed)

rhubarbs (present singular third-person)
rhubarbing (participle present)
rhubarbed (participle past)
rhubarbed (past)

der

ῥῆον βάρβαρον

(British, military, aviation) Of fighter aircraft: to fire at a target opportunistically.


zigzag

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


rush

Perhaps from Middle English ruschen, russchen (“to rush, startle, make a loud rushing noise”), from Old English hrysċan (“to jolt, startle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hurskijan, from Proto-Germanic *hurskijaną (“to startle, drive”), from *hurskaz (“fast, rapid, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run, hurry”).
Cognate with Old High German hursken (“to hurry, speed, incite, accelerate”), Old English horsc (“quick, quick-witted, clever”).
etymology note
An alternative etymology traces rush via Middle English rouschen (“to rush”) from Old English *rūscian (“to rush”) from Proto-Germanic *rūskōną (“to rush, storm, be fierce, be cruel”), a variant (with formative k) of Proto-Germanic *rūsōną (“to be cruel, storm, rush”) from Proto-Indo-European *(o)rewə- (“to drive, move, agitate”), making it akin to Old High German rosc, rosci (“quick”), Middle Low German rûschen (“to rush”), Middle High German rūschen, riuschen (“to rush”) (German rauschen (“to rush”)), North Frisian ruse (“to rush”), Middle Dutch ruuscen (“to make haste”), Middle Dutch rūsen (“to rush”) (Dutch ruisen (“to rush”)), Danish ruse (“to rush”), Swedish rusa (“to rush”). Compare Middle High German rūsch (“a charge, rush”). Influenced by Middle English russhen (“to force back”) from Anglo-Norman russher, russer from Old French ruser, rëuser.
Alternatively, according to the OED, perhaps an adaptation of Anglo-Norman russher, russer (“to force back, down, out of place, by violent impact", "to pull out or drag off violently or hastily”), from Old French re(h)usser, ruser (although the connection of the forms with single -s- and double -ss- is dubious; also adopted in English ruse; French ruser (“to retreat, drive back”)), from an assumed Vulgar Latin *refūsāre and Latin refundō (“I cause to flow back”), although connection to the same Germanic root is also possible. More at rouse.

раш

video games: act of running at another player with large swarm of weak units — see also zerg

(military) A sudden attack; an onslaught.

turrje

military: sudden attack — see also onslaught


rush

en-verb

rush (third-person singular simple present rushes, present participle rushing, simple past and past participle rushed)

rushes (present singular third-person)
rushing (participle present)
rushed (participle past)
rushed (past)

(intransitive, military) To make a swift or sudden attack.

rynnäköidä

(intransitive, military) to make a swift or sudden attack

A detachment of cavalrymen rushed the enemy's position.

(transitive, military) To swiftly attack without warning.

突襲 /突袭

(transitive, military) to swiftly attack without warning


issue

From Middle English issue, from Old French issue (“an exit, a way out”), feminine past participle of issir (“to exit”), from Latin exeō (“go out, exit”), from prefix ex- (“out”) + eō (“go”).
The legal meaning originated from the concept of "the end or result of pleadings in a suit (by presenting the point to be determined by trial)," leading to the sense of "the controversy over facts in a trial" (early 14th century, Anglo-French). This later extended to mean "a point of contention between two parties" (early 15th century) and more generally, "an important point to be decided" (1836). Consequently, the verbal phrase take issue with emerged in 1797 (preceded by join issue in the 1690s), meaning "to adopt an affirmative or negative stance in a dispute with another." The expression to have issues, meaning "to have unresolved conflicts," dates back to 1990.

drain

small incision etc. to drain excess bodily fluid

The action or an instance of flowing or coming out, an outflow, particularly:

(military, obsolete) A movement of soldiers towards an enemy, a sortie.


IBM

en-noun

IBM (countable and uncountable, plural IBMs)

Alternative form: ICBM

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

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

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

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

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

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

(weaponry) Initialism of intercontinental ballistic missile.


stun

en-verb

stun (third-person singular simple present stuns, present participle stunning, simple past and past participle stunned)

stuns (present singular third-person)
stunning (participle present)
stunned (participle past)
stunned (past)

From Middle English stunien, stonien, stounien, from Old English stunian (“to crash, make a loud sound, resound, roar, strike with a loud sound, dash, impinge, knock, confound, astonish, stupefy”), from Proto-West Germanic *stunōn, from Proto-Germanic *stunōną, *stunjaną (“to sound, crash, bang, groan”), from Proto-Germanic *stenaną (“to moan, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tona-, *(s)tena- (“to thunder, roar, groan”) (compare thunder). Cognate with Middle Low German stonen (“to groan”), Middle High German stunen, stunden (“to drive, push, knock, strike”), Swedish stöna (“to moan, groan”), Danish stønne (“to moan, groan”), Icelandic stynja (“to moan”). Related also to Dutch steunen (“to groan; support”), German stöhnen (“to groan, moan”), German staunen (“to be astonished, be amazed, marvel at”), Russian стонать (stonatʹ), стена́ть (stenátʹ, “to moan, groan”). See also Occitan estonar, Old French estoner, English astonish.

cog

(Singapore, military, slang) To confiscate (an unguarded rifle, magazine, piece of equipment, etc.) from an unsuspecting soldier as punishment for neglect.


blouse

→ Bengali: ব্লাউজ (blauj)

→ Gujarati: બ્લાઉઝ (blāujha)

→ Hindi: ब्लाउज़ (blāuz)

desc

→ Japanese: ブラウス (burausu), ブルーズ (burūzu)

→ Korean: 블라우스 (beullauseu)

1828, from French blouse (“a workman's or peasant's smock”), see that for more.
More at blee, fold.

der

(military fashion) A loose-fitting uniform jacket.

工作罩衫

military: a loose-fitting uniform jacket


blouse

en-verb

blouse (third-person singular simple present blouses, present participle blousing, simple past and past participle bloused)

blouses (present singular third-person)
blousing (participle present)
bloused (participle past)
bloused (past)

An anonymous black soldier summed up his feelings by declaring, "If I fail to blouse my boots, or [if I] wear an Afro, I get socked. […]"

1989, Bernard C. Nalty, Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military, page 311:

(military) To tuck one's pants/trousers (into one's boots).


ingress

ingress (third-person singular simple present ingresses, present participle ingressing, simple past and past participle ingressed)

ingresses (present singular third-person)
ingressing (participle present)
ingressed (participle past)
ingressed (past)

From Latin ingressus, from the verb ingredior.

"We ingressed North Vietnam over Cam Pha on a westerly heading," reported Captain Madden.

1976, The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia: Aces and Aerial Victories, page 108:

We were ingressing the target area.

1998, Michael William Donnelly, Falcon's Cry, →ISBN, page 93:

(transitive, US, chiefly military) To enter (a specified location or area)


magnum

From Latin magnum, neuter of magnus (“great”).
* (bottle): Ellipsis of magnum bonum.
* (handgun): Name registered 1935 by Smith & Wesson Inc., of Springfield, Massachusetts.

(firearms) A powerful firearm cartridge, often derived from a shorter, less powerful cartridge calibre that uses the same bullet.


stable

From Middle English stable, borrowed from Anglo-Norman stable, singular derived from the plural Latin stab(u)la (“dwellings, stables”).

close the stable door after the horse has been stolen

close the stable door after the horse has bolted

lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen

lock the stable door after the horse has bolted

shut the stable door after the horse has bolted

(sumo) An organization of sumo wrestlers who live and train together.

Paul, who signed with WWE in late June, appeared in a segment with Reigns' stable, the Bloodline, on Friday's episode of SmackDown after making comments earlier in the week regarding a potential match with the Tribal Chief.

2022 September 17, Thomas Kika, “WWE's Logan Paul Confronts Roman Reigns Amid Rumors of Major Title Bout”, in Newsweek:

(professional wrestling) A group of wrestlers who support each other within a wrestling storyline.


tango

From translingual Tango (representing the letter T), from English tango (see above).

Tango down!

The two tangoes running toward the carnage at the prison door dropped simultaneously, dead in their tracks.

2005, Charles W. Sasser, Detachment Delta: Operation Aces Wild, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 370:

The sharp crack of breaking glass preceded Emily's calm voice. "One tango dead and Marcus is down, John."

2017, Beth Rhodes, Strike Zone, →ISBN, page 210:

(US, law enforcement, military slang) A target; an enemy.


ricochet

/ˈɹɪk.ə.ʃeɪ/

/ˈɹɪk.ə.ʃɛt/

Borrowed from French ricochet, of uncertain origin.

(military) A method of firing a projectile so that it skips along a surface.


ricochet

ricochet (third-person singular simple present ricochets, present participle ricocheting or ricochetting, simple past and past participle ricocheted or ricochetted)

ricochets (present singular third-person)
ricocheting (participle present)
ricochetting (participle present)
ricocheted (participle past)
ricocheted (past)
ricochetted (participle past)
ricochetted (past)

/ˈɹɪk.ə.ʃeɪ/

/ˈɹɪk.ə.ʃɛt/

(military) To operate upon by ricochet firing.


regiment

/ˈɹɛd͡ʒɪmənt/

From Middle French regement, régiment, and its source, Late Latin regimentum (“direction for government; course of medical treatment”), from Latin regō (“rule”).

der

It was an old, withered man, who had served the Government in the days of the Mutiny as a native officer in a newly raised cavalry regiment.

1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter III, in Kim (Macmillan’s Colonial Library; no. 414), London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 65:

As the prime minister insisted that he had "never told a lie" in his life, the Tory leader attacked him for ordering Scottish troops into battle with no warning that their regiments would be disbanded.

2005 April 28, Nicholas Watt, Michael White, The Guardian:

(military) A unit of armed troops under the command of an officer, and consisting of several smaller units; now specifically, usually composed of two or more battalions.


mousetrap

en-noun

mousetrap (countable and uncountable, plural mousetraps)

mousetraps (plural)
mouse trap (alternative)

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

From Middle English mouse-trappe, mous trappe, mouse trape, equivalent to mouse + trap. Cognate with Dutch muizetrap, muizentrap (“mousetrap”), German Low German Muustrappe, Muustrapp (“mousetrap”). In the Internet sense, refers to a computer mouse.

Besides depth charges, they were armed with smaller forward firing antisubmarine rocket launchers called mousetraps. Fired in groups, these rockets detonated when they contacted a submarine.

2003, Nautical Research Journal, volume 48, page 199:

(military, historical) An antisubmarine rocket used mainly during World War II by the US Navy and US Coast Guard.


boomer

Distant contact, probably submerged. It's a wild guess, but I'd say we hit a boomer coming out of the barn. Could be a missile boat out of Polijarny.

(US, nautical, military, slang) A nuclear ballistic missile submarine, SSBN.


Gitmo

From GTMO (Guantanamo), pronounced as if it were a word rather than letter by letter.

(informal, military) Guantanamo Bay, the US naval base at the eponymous location, on the island of Cuba.


drum

Perhaps back-formation from drumslade (“drummer”), from Middle Dutch trommelslach (“drumbeat”), from trommel (“drum”) + slach (“beat”) (Dutch slag).
Or perhaps borrowed directly from a continental Germanic language; compare Middle Dutch tromme (“drum”), Middle Low German trumme (“drum”) et al. Compare also Middle High German trumme, trumbe (“drum”), Old High German trumba (“trumpet”).


rear

From Middle English rere, from Anglo-Norman rere, ultimately from Latin retro. Compare arrear. Doublet of retro.

задник

the posterior, butt(ocks)- only terms with directional notion

When the fierce Foe hung on our brok'n Rear

1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, line 78:

(military) Specifically, the part of an army or fleet which comes last, or is stationed behind the rest.


corner

→ German: Corner

→ Japanese: コーナー (kōnā)

From Middle English corner, from Anglo-Norman cornere (compare Old French cornier, corniere (“corner”)), from Old French corne (“corner, angle”, literally “a horn, projecting point”), from Vulgar Latin *corna (“horn”), from Latin cornua, plural of cornū (“projecting point, end, horn”). The sense of "angle, corner" in Old French is not found in Latin or other Romance languages. It was possibly calqued from Frankish *hurnijā (“corner, angle”), which is similar to, and derived from *hurn, the Frankish word for "horn". Displaced native cognate Middle English hirn, herne, from Old English hyrne, from Proto-Germanic *hurnijǭ (“little horn, hook, angle, corner”), whence modern English hirn (“nook, corner”), itself related to horn.

nurkka

business: interest that is sufficient for price manipulation

(heading) Relating to the playing field.

(boxing) The corner of the ring, which is where the boxer rests before and during a fight.

(boxing, by extension) The group of people who assist a boxer during a bout.


officer

→ Central Dusun: upisor

→ Punjabi: ਅਫ਼ਸਰ (afasar)

→ Swahili: afisa

From Middle English officer, from Anglo-Norman officer, officier, from Old French officer, Late Latin officiarius (“official”), from Latin officium (“office”) + -ārius (“-er”). By surface analysis, office + -er.

en:a contraction of the term "commissioned officer"

(colloquial, military) A commissioned officer.


strip

en-noun

strip (countable and uncountable, plural strips)

Brill Publishers
en:strip (disambiguation)

From alteration of stripe or from Middle Low German strippe, of uncertain ultimate origin, perhaps derived from a lost strong verb Proto-Germanic *strīpaną, with no clear cognates outside of Germanic except for Irish sríab (“line, stripe”).

(fencing) The playing area, roughly 14 meters by 2 meters.


defense

defense (countable and uncountable, plural defenses)

defenses (plural)
defence (alternative British)

From Middle English defens, defense, from Old French defens, defense, from Late Latin dēfēnsa (“protection”). Displaced native Old English bewering. The verb is from the noun.

obrana

argument in support or justification of something

Department of Defense

(government, military, euphemistic) Government policy or (infra)structure related to the military.


corridor

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-corridor.wav

Borrowed from French corridor, from Italian corridore (“long passage”) (= corridoio), from correre (“to run”).

(military, historical, rare) The covered way lying round the whole compass of the fortifications of a place.


cutter

→ Catalan: cúter

→ Korean: 커터 (keoteo)

From Middle English cutter, cuttere, kutter. By surface analysis, cut + -er.

(wrestling) A three-quarters facelock bulldog move in which the attacker drives the opponent's head into the mat while falling onto their back.


woods

(military, attributive) For chemical behavior purposes, trees in full leaf (coniferous or medium-dense deciduous forests).


bomber

As many as 100,000 Japanese people were killed and another million injured, most of them civilians, when more than 300 American B-29 bombers dropped 1,500 tons of firebombs on the Japanese capital that night.

2020 March 7, Brad Lendon and Emiko Jozuka, “History’s deadliest air raid happened in Tokyo during World War II and you’ve probably never heard of it”, in CNN:

(aviation, military) A military aircraft designed to carry and drop bombs.

chidí naatʼáʼiʼtsoh beeʼeldǫǫh bikǫʼ neiyéhé


tertiary

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

/ˈtɜː.ʃə.ɹiː/

/ˈtɜː.ʃə.ɹiː/

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

bor

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

thermonuclear weapon
thermonuclear weapon

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


basic

The drill sergeants gave him hell in basic.

When I shipped out for basic, the Orbital Defense Grid was all theory and politics.

2004 November 9, Bungie, Halo 2, spoken by Avery Johnson (David Scully), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: The Armory:


bunker

→ Catalan: búnquer

desctree

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

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

cog

(military) A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.


blank

en-adj

blank (comparative blanker or more blank, superlative blankest or most blank)

blanker (comparative)
more blank (comparative)
blankest (superlative)
most blank (superlative)

Belizean Creole: blank

From Middle English blank, blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Anglo-Norman blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Old French blanc, feminine blanche, from Frankish *blank (“gleaming, white, blinding”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“white, bright, blinding”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”). Akin to Old High German blanch (“shining, bright, white”) (German blank), Old English blanc (“white, grey”), blanca (“white steed”), Spanish blanco. More at blink, blind, blanch. Doublet of blanc.

cog

The recruits were issued blank rounds for a training exercise.

(military) Of ammunition: having propellant but no bullets; unbulleted.


blank

It was an unloaded gun that fired only blanks.

(firearms) Short for blank cartridge. [since the 19th century].


Charlie

en-noun

Charlie (usually uncountable, plural Charlies)

Charlies (plural)
Charley (alternative)
charley (alternative)
charlie (alternative)

I learned a thing or two from Charlie, don't you know? You better stay away from Copperhead Road.

en:Victor Charlie, Viet Cong, or sometimes any enemy

(military slang) The Vietcong (Victor Charlie); (by extension, sometimes) any enemy.


LP

LP (countable and uncountable, plural LPs)

(military) Abbreviation of listening post.


FOC

full operational capability
full operational capability#English

(military) Initialism of full operational capability.


blackjack

blackjack (countable and uncountable, plural blackjacks)

blackjacks (plural)
black jack (alternative)
black-jack (alternative)

→ Polish: blackjack

The pain is sometimes like the dull, heavy thud of being hit with a lead-filled blackjack; other times like a wizard is reaching deep below the skin and ripping muscles, tendons, and nerves.

2016, Justin O. Schmidt, The Sting of the Wild, Johns Hopkins University Press,, →ISBN, page 131:

(weaponry) A small, flat, blunt, usually leather-covered weapon loaded with heavy material such as lead or ball bearings, intended to inflict a blow to the head that renders the victim unconscious with diminished risk of lasting cranial trauma.


cartridge

cartridges (plural)
cartage (alternative)

/ˈkɑɹtɹɪd͡ʒ/

Corruption of earlier cartage, from French cartouche, from Italian cartoccio (“roll of paper”), from Medieval Latin carta (“paper”). Doublet of cartouche.

Cartridge (firearms)
Magnetic tape data storage
cartridge

Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.

1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

(firearms) The package consisting of the bullet, primer, and casing containing gunpowder; a round of ammunition.


victual

en-verb

victual (third-person singular simple present victuals, present participle victualing or victualling, simple past and past participle victualed or victualled)

victuals (present singular third-person)
victualing (participle present)
victualling (participle present)
victualed (participle past)
victualed (past)
victualled (participle past)
victualled (past)
victual (infinitive)
victual (first-person present singular)
victualed (first-person past singular)
victualled (first-person past singular)
victual (present second-person singular)
victuallest (present second-person singular)
victualed (past second-person singular)
victualled (past second-person singular)
victuals (present singular third-person)
victualleth (present singular third-person)
victualed (past singular third-person)
victualled (past singular third-person)
victual (plural present)
victualed (past plural)
victualled (past plural)
victual (present subjunctive)
victualed (past subjunctive)
victualled (past subjunctive)
victual (imperative present)
victualing (participle present)
victualling (participle present)
victualed (participle past)
victualled (participle past)
victuall (alternative)
vittle (alternative)

From Middle English vitailen (“to provide (someone, a castle, a ship, etc., or oneself) with supplies of food, drink, or other needs; (figuratively) to load (a ship with troops and materiel); to fortify, nourish”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman vitailer, vitailler, and Old French vitailler, victuailler [and other forms], from vitaile, vitaille, victaille (“food, provisions, victuals”) (see further at etymology 1) + -er (a variant of -ier (suffix forming infinitives of first conjugation verbs)).

nb...

fetaile, vetaile, vetaille, vetayle, vetele, vitail, vitaile, vitaille, vitale, vitayle, vitaylle, vitel, vitell, vitele, vittail, vittaile, vittall, vitule, vytaile, vytaille, vytale, vytayle, vytaylle, vytel, (Scotland) wittale, wittule, vittale

[T]hy louing voyage / Is but for two moneths victuall’d: […]

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv], page 207, column 2:

Spinola [Ambrogio Spinola, 1st Marquess of Los Balbases] continueth in his trenches before Breda, and victualeth and strengtheneth Breda, which being done, it is thought he will besiege Bergen op Zoom.

1625 July, Walter Yonge, edited by George Roberts, The Diary of Walter Yonge, Esq. […], Written at Colyton and Axminster, Co. Devon, from 1604 to 1628, London: Printed for the Camden Society, by J[ohn] B[oyer] Nichols and Son, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 85:

He victualleth his soldiers during the time they are upon the guard, either about the palace or abroad in the wars: whereas it is contrary in the King's country; for the Cingalese soldiers bear their own expenses.

1681, Robert Knox, “[Nineteen Years’ Captivity in the Kingdom of Conde Uda in the Highlands of Ceylon, […].] Concerning Some Other Nations, and Chiefly European that Now Live in the Island. The Portuguese and Dutch.”, in Edward Arber, compiler, An English Garner: Ingatherings from Our History and Literature, volume I, London: […] E. Arber, […], published 15 November 1877, →OCLC, part II, stanza XXXIX, page 435:

I could here ſet down the very number of Acres that would bear Bread and Drink, Corn, together with Fleſh, Butter, and Cheeſe, ſufficient to Victual nine Millions of Perſons, as they are Victualled in Ships and regular Families; but I ſhall only ſay in general that 12,000,00. will do it, […]

1683, J. S., “[A Discourse of Trade. […].] That the People and Territories of the King of England are Naturaly as Considerable for Wealth and Strength as Those of France.”, in The Present State of England. Part III. and Part IV. […], London: […] [R. Holt] for William Whitwood, […], →OCLC, part IV, page 59:

It was then, among other proof to the ſame purpoſe, given in evidence by a Virginia merchant, that in March, 1763, he had victualled his ſhips for twenty-four or twenty-five ſhillings the hundred weight of beef, which he conſidered as the ordinary price; […]

1776 March 9, Adam Smith, “Of the Rent of Land”, in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. […], volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, book I (Of the Causes of Improvement in the Productive Powers of Labour, […]), I (Of the Produce of Land which Always Affords Rent), page 189:

These veterans were commissioned to defend the place to the last extremity; and, as due time had been given for preparation, the town was victualled for fifteen months' provisions, and even the crops growing in the vega had been garnered before their prime, to save them from the hands of the enemy.

1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, “War of Granada.—Conquest of Baza.—Submission of El Zagal. 1487–1489.”, in History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. […], 3rd edition, volume I, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt, →OCLC, pages 308–309:

In 1512 an agreement was made between him [Henry VIII] and his admiral, Sir Edward Howard, which affords an interesting view of the manner in which fleets of war were then maintained. […] It was also stipulated that, "forasmuch as our Sovereign lord at his costs and charges victualeth the said army and navy, the said admiral shall therefore reserve for the king the one-half of all gains and winnings of the war,[…]"

1857 March, I. P. W., “Historical Sketches of British Commerce.—No. 3. A.D. 1400–1600.”, in The Sailor’s Magazine, volume 29, number 7, New York, N.Y.: The American Seamen’s Friend Society, […], →OCLC, page 194, column 2:

(transitive, reflexive, chiefly military, nautical) To provide (military troops, a place, a ship, etc., or oneself) with a stock of victuals or food; to provision.

zásobit potravinami

to provide (military troops, a place, a ship, etc., or oneself) with a stock of victuals or food — see also provision

[Letter from Sir William Drury to Sir William Cecil, 3d April 1568 (Julian calendar).] The Lord Fleming [i.e., John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming], notwithstanding he still victualleth and maketh provision, he hath offered three personages of as great livehood as himself to enter caution and surety unto the [James Stewart, 1st] Earl of Moray, that he shall only hold the place at the devotion and service of the young King, and to no other.

1568 April 13, William Drury, “Containing Matters of State from the Earl of Moray’s Acceptation of the Regency in the Month of August 1567, till the Queen’s Retreat into England in the Month of May 1568”, in Robert Keith, edited by John Parker Lawson, History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland, from the Beginning of the Reformation to the Year 1568. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [Alexander Laurie and Co.] for the Spottiswoode Society, published 1845, →OCLC, page 792:

For though we took a little Flower hard by, yet the ſame Guide which told us of that Ship would have conducted us where we might had ſtore of Beef and Maiz: but inſtead thereof we lost both our time and the opportunity of providing our ſelves, and ſo were forced to be victualling when we ſhould have been cruizing off Cape Corrientes in expectation of the Manila Ship.

1697, William Dampier, chapter IX, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 260:

A letter from Lt.-Gen. [John] Burgoyne to Maj.-Gen. [William] Heath, Jan. 24. 1778. […] [T]he fleet was fully victualled for four months, for the whole of the land-army and ſeamen.

1779 March, “America”, in The Scots Magazine; or, General Repository of Literature, History, and Politics, volume XLI (volume , New Series), Edinburgh: […] A. Murray and J. Cochran, →OCLC, pages 143–145:

(intransitive, chiefly military, nautical) To lay in or procure food supplies.


leapfrog

en-verb

leapfrog (third-person singular simple present leapfrogs, present participle leapfrogging, simple past and past participle leapfrogged)

leapfrogs (present singular third-person)
leapfrogging (participle present)
leapfrogged (participle past)
leapfrogged (past)
leap-frog (alternative)

Sam Hood
State Library of New South Wales

In late November and early December, General [William] Rosecrans juggled his units in preparation for the upcoming drive against [Braxton] Bragg. Among the changes, Sill's brigade relinquished its position in the advance of the army as other units leap-frogged south to the head of the army.

2012 December 4, James Genco, “Rosecrans Forges His Army”, in Into the Tornado of War: A History of the Twenty-First Michigan Infantry in the Civil War, Bloomington, Ind.: Abbott Press, →ISBN:

(transitive, military) To advance by engaging the enemy with one unit while another moves further forward.

koukata

military: to advance by engaging the enemy with one unit while another moves further forward


wtf

(military slang, Internet slang, text messaging, vulgar) Alternative letter-case form of WTF


flyer

→ Finnish: flaijeri

→ French: flyer

→ German: Flyer

→ Korean: 플라이어 (peullaieo)

→ Portuguese: flyer

From fly + -er (agent noun suffix).
With regard to the sense "female kangaroo": because of the high speed at which they move.

(firearms) A stray shot away from the group on a target.


valet

Borrowed from Middle French valet, from Old French vaslet, from Medieval Latin *vassellittus, diminutive of Late Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas). Doublet of varlet.

der

(professional wrestling) A female performer in professional wrestling, acting as either a manager or personal chaperone; often used to attract and titillate male members of the audience.

خادمَة

a female performer in professional wrestling


passé

From French passé (“passed”, past participle of passer (“to pass”)).

bor

(fencing) An attack that passes the target without hitting.


sergeant

sergeants (plural)
serjant (alternative)
sergeaunt (alternative)
serjeant (alternative)

From Middle English sergeant, sergeaunt, serjent, serjaunt, serjawnt, sergant, from Old French sergeant, sergent, serjant, sergient, sergant (“sergeant, servant”), from Medieval Latin servientem, accusative of serviens (“a servant, vassal, soldier, apparitor”), from Latin serviēns (“serving”), present participle of serviō (“serve, be a slave to”). Doublet of servant and servient.
The shift from /vj/ > /dʒ/ was a regular development in Old French. Compare cavea > cage, salvia > sage.
The fish is so called because of its stripes, supposed to resemble a sergeant's insignia of rank.
The pronunciation with /ɑɹ/ is due to a widespread development of Middle English er + consonant (see barn, start etc.). In sergeant, the spelling was standardised in one way, the pronunciation in another (compare clerk, derby in Commonwealth English, further parson vs. person, and varsity vs. university).

(military) A UK army rank with NATO code OR-6, senior to corporal and junior to warrant officer ranks.


effective

From French effectif, from Latin effectīvus (“productive; effective”), from efficiō (“I make; I bring about”), equivalent to effect + -ive.

der

The Army of the West reached Corinth sometime after the battle of Shiloh. We were 15,000 effectives, and brought Beauregard's effective force up to 45,000 men.

1876, Dabney Herndon Maury, Southern Historical Society Papers: Volume 2, Number 4, Recollections of the Elkhorn Campaign:


extend

en-verb

extend (third-person singular simple present extends, present participle extending, simple past and past participle extended)

extends (present singular third-person)
extending (participle present)
extended (participle past)
extended (past)

From Middle English extenden, from Anglo-Norman extendre, estendre, from Latin extendō (“I stretch out”).

Two years later, back to amtracs, this time at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, and I liked it so much I extended.

1993, The Leatherneck, volume 76, page xxxvi:

(intransitive, US, military) To reenlist for a further period.


concealment

en-noun

concealment (countable and uncountable, plural concealments)

From Old French concelement (“concealment, secrecy”). By surface analysis, conceal + -ment.

uder

(military) protection from observation or surveillance.


surveillance

en-noun

surveillance (countable and uncountable, plural surveillances)

Unadapted borrowing from French surveillance (“a watching over, overseeing, supervision”), from surveiller (“to watch, oversee”), from sur- (“over”) + veiller (“to watch”), from Middle French, from Old French veillier (“to stay awake”), from Latin vigilāre (“to be watchful”). More at vigilant.

ubor

The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.

2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23:

Cook was making an impassioned plea to end the technology industry’s collection and sale of user data. “This is surveillance,” he continued.

2019 January 31, Ian Bogost, quoting Tim Cook, “Apple’s Empty Grandstanding About Privacy”, in The Atlantic:

And that sight will become more common in the coming years, as the city’s police pursue an ambitious campaign to install thousands of cameras to elevate their surveillance capabilities.

2024 October 5, Jessie Yeung, “Hong Kong plans to install thousands of surveillance cameras. Critics say it’s more proof the city is moving closer to China”, in CNN:

(military, espionage) Systematic observation of places and people by visual, aural, electronic, photographic or other means.


maverick

Named after Texan lawyer and politician Samuel Maverick (1803–1870), who refused to brand his cattle. For probable origin and meaning, see Maverick.
The poker noun sense (“a queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em”) may be from the theme song of the US Western television series Maverick (1957–1962), which says of the eponymous protagonist that “[g]amblin’ is his game” and that he is “livin’ on jacks and queens”.

named-after

They had been working for and with each other for a very long period and their tolerance for “mavericks” was very high, especially if these mavericks continued to get promoted.

2013, John T. Kuehn, “The Navy, Treaties, and Innovation”, in Agents of Innovation: The General Board and the Design of the Fleet that Defeated the Japanese Navy, Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, page 9:

(military) A person in the military who became an officer by going to college while on active duty as an enlisted person.


engineer

→ Burmese: အင်ဂျင်နီယာ (anggyangniya)

→ Hawaiian: ʻenekinia

→ Hindi: इंजीनियर (iñjīniyar)

→ Japanese: エンジニア (enjinia)

desc

အိန်ဂျေန်နဳယျာ

→ Mon: အိန်ဂျေန်နဳယျာ

→ Mon: အိန်ဂျေန်နဳယျာ

→ Persian:

Dari: اِنْجِنِیر (injinīr)

/ˌɛn(d)ʒɪˈnɪə/

/ˌɛnd͡ʒɪˈnɪ(ə)ɹ/

/ɪnˈd͡ʒɪnɪjə(ɾ)/

The noun is derived from:
* Middle English enginour (“one who designs, constructs, or operates military works for attack or defence, etc.; machine designer”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman enginour, engigneour [and other forms], and Middle French and Old French engigneor, engigneour, engignier (“one who designs, constructs, or operates military works for attack or defence; architect; carpenter; craftsman; designer; planner; one who deceives or schemes”) (modern French ingénieur), from engin (“contraption, device; machine; invention; creativity, ingenuity; intelligence; deception, ruse, trickery”) + -eor, -or (suffix forming agent nouns); engin is derived from Latin ingenium (“innate or natural quality, nature; intelligence, natural capacity; ability, skill, talent; (Medieval Latin) engine; machine”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + gignere (the present active infinitive of gignō (“to bear, beget, give birth to; to cause, produce, yield”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget, give birth to; to produce”)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns); and
* from engine + -er (occupational suffix); and
* from engine + -eer (suffix forming nouns denoting people associated with, concerned with, or engaged in specified activities), possibly modelled after Middle French ingénieur (a variant of Middle French, Old French engigneour; see above), and Italian ingegniere (“engineer”) (obsolete; modern Italian ingegnere).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* Medieval Latin, Late Latin ingeniārius (“engineer”)
* Medieval Latin ingeniator (“one constructing or using an engine”)
* Old Occitan engenhador, enginhador
* Portuguese engenhador (obsolete), engenheiro (“engineer”)
* Spanish engeñero (obsolete), ingeniero (“engineer”)

nb...

(Late Middle English) engyner, (Middle English) engineour, enginer, engyneour, engyneor, engynour, yngynore

engineor, enginere, engineur, enginor, enginur

cog

For tis the ſport to haue the enginer / Hoiſt with his ovvne petar, an't ſhall goe hard / But I vvill delue one yard belovve their mines, / And blovve them at the Moone: […]

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], signature [I4], verso:

For it's amusing to have the engineer / Hoisted into the sky with his own explosive, and if I'm lucky / I will dig one yard below their mines, / And blow them towards the Moon: […]

Novv he began another Trade, and became an Ingenor, hauing got eight Fire-brands of hell more to him, onely of purpoſe to ſet our houſe a fire.

1625, Edmund Scot, “A Discourse of Iaua, and of the First English Factorie there, with Diuers Indian, English, and Dutch Occurrents, […]”, in [Samuel] Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 1st part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, § IIII, page 173:

Cannons vpon their Carriage mounted are, / VVhole Battery Fraunce muſt feele vpon her VValls, / The Engineer prouiding the Petar, / To breake the ſtrong Percullice, and the Balls / Of VVild fire deuis'd to throvv from farre, / To burne to ground their Pallaces and Halls: […]

1627, Michaell [i.e., Michael] Drayton, “The Battaile of Agincourt”, in The Battaile of Agincourt. […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for William Lee, […], →OCLC, page 12:

But your Lordships must have heard with astonishment, that, upon points of law, relative to the tenure of lands, instead of producing any law document or authority on the usages and local customs of the country, he has referred to officers in the army, colonels of artillery and engineers, to young gentlemen just come from school, not above three or four years in the country.

1794 May 28, Edmund Burke, “Trial of Warren Hastings, Esq. Wednesday, 28th May 1794. First Day of Reply.”, in [Walker King], editor, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, new edition, volume XV, London: […] [Luke Hansard & Sons] for C[harles] & J[ohn] Rivington, […], published 1827, →OCLC, pages 63–64:

And she began praising Hereward's valour, his fame, his eloquence, his skill as a general and engineer; and when he suggested, smiling, that he was an exile and an outlaw, she insisted he was all the fitter from that very fact.

1866, C[harles] Kingsley, “How Earl Godwin’s Widow Came to St. Omer”, in Hereward the Wake, “Last of the English.” […], volume I, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 341:

A soldier engaged in designing or constructing military works for attack or defence, or other engineering works.

This is hard welcome, but it was not you, / At whom the fatal enginer did ayme, / My breaſt the levell was, though you the marke, / In which conſpiracie anſwere me Duke, / Is not thy ſoule as guiltie as the Earles?

1599, [Thomas Heywood], “[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044086749090&view=1up&seq=121 The Second Part […]]”, in The First and Second Partes of King Edvvard the Fourth. […], London: […] I. W. for Iohn Oxenbridge, […], →OCLC; reprinted Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: The Rosenbach Company, 1922, →OCLC:

Wit's an unruly engine, wildly ſtriking / Sometimes a friend, ſometimes the engineer.

[1633], George Herbert, “The Church-porch”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC, page 9:

An Author who points his ſatyr at a great man, is to be looked upon in the ſame view with the engineer who ſignalized himſelf by this ungenerous practice.

1716 March 6 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 19. Friday, February 24. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC, page 426:

In war he [the poet] is the most deadly force of the war. Who recruits him recruits horse and foot … he fetches parks of artillery the best that engineer ever knew.

1855 July 4, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: [James and Andrew Rome], →OCLC, page v, column 1:

(obsolete) A soldier in charge of operating a weapon; an artilleryman, a gunner.


hyper

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-hyper.wav

Mason of Blencogo was a strong fellow, with no great science or action, and how he disposed of Nichol of Bothel, who was one of the best hypers of the day, puzzled not a few.

1868, The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review:


gallery

From Middle English galery, gallerye, from Middle French galerie, gallerie, from Old French galerie, gallerie (“a long portico, a gallery”), from Medieval Latin galeria (“gallery”), of unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of Latin galilea (“church porch”), probably from Latin Galilaea, Galilee, region of Israel. More at Galilee.

unk

unknown origin

the galleries of the fort

(fortification) A covered passage cut through the earth or masonry.


cootie

Probably from Malay kutu (“flea, louse”) (and/or Tagalog/Maori). First attested in English in 1917 as British army slang during World War I.

"Tell Rilla I'm glad her war-baby is turning out so well, and tell Susan that I'm fighting a good fight against both Huns and cooties."
"Mrs. Dr. dear," whispered Susan solemnly, "what are cooties?"
Mrs. Blythe whispered back and then said in reply to Susan's horrified ejaculations, "It's always like that in the trenches, Susan."
Susan shook her head and went away in grim silence to re-open a parcel she had sewed up for Jem and slip in a fine tooth comb.

1921, L. M. Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside:

Pediculus humanus
Pediculus humanus#Translingual

(dated, British Army military slang or Canada, US, colloquial) A louse (Pediculus humanus).


illegal

Borrowed from French illégal, from Medieval Latin illegalis, from Latin legalis, by surface analysis, il- + legal. In senses relating to immigration, via clipping from illegal alien or illegal immigrant.

Anna Chapman, whose glamorous appearance won her more publicity in the Western media than all the other illegals combined, was so successfully deceived by a US sting operation that she handed over her SVR laptop to an FBI agent posing as a Russian.

2012, Christopher Andrew, ‘Colder War’, Literary Review, number 399:

Traditionally, illegals have been extremely hard for counterintelligence agencies to find, but in a world of biometric data, facial recognition software and open source investigation possibilities, it has become harder for Russia to keep its illegals below the radar.

2022 August 26, Shaun Walker, “Socialite who charmed Nato staff in Naples was Russian spy, say investigators”, in The Guardian:

(espionage) A spy operating abroad illegally and under non-official cover, without visible ties to his or her country’s authorities.


Blighty

Corruption of the Hindustani विलायती (vilāytī) / وِلائتی (vilā'iyatī, “foreign”), which is related to Arabic ولاية (wilāyah, “state, province”), whence also, through Turkish, vilayet.
Sir Henry Yule and Arthur C. Burnell explained in their Anglo-Indian dictionary, Hobson-Jobson, published in 1886, that the word was used in the names of several kinds of exotic foreign things, especially those that the British had brought into the country, such as the tomato, विलायती बैंगन (vilāytī baiṅgan, literally “foreign aubergine”), and especially to soda water, which was commonly called विलायती पानी (vilāytī pānī, literally “foreign water”).
Blighty was the inevitable British soldier’s corruption of it. But it only came into common use as a term for Britain at the beginning of the First World War in France about 1915. It turns up in popular songs "There’s a ship that’s bound for Blighty", "We wish we were in Blighty", and "Take me back to dear old Blighty, put me on the train for London town", and in Wilfred Owen's poems, as well as many other places.
The sense of a minor wound comes from attributive use of the noun, as in “a Blighty wound,” “a Blighty one,” 1916.
In modern Australian usage, Old has been added, as in Old Country and Old Dart, as a sentimental reference to Britain.

The ones who did get a good Blighty were returned to England.

Well maybe I'll have luck this time in the shape of a decent little “Blighty” as its^([sic]) the only way out of it for a while.

2010, Y.A. Bennett, Kiss the kids for dad, Don’t forget to write, →ISBN:

"Talk about Blighties——” He lifted his bandaged arm.

2016, Ronald Gurner, Pass Guard at Ypres: A Novel, →ISBN:


measles

Either from Middle Dutch masels (“blood blisters, measels”) or Middle Low German maselen (“red blemishes, measels”), both from Old High German masala (“blood blister, phlegmon”). Doublet of measlings. Cognate with mazer & mase and Middle Low German masele & māsel. Influenced in pronunciation and some senses by mesel (“leprous, leper”).

der

measle (alternative)
the measles (alternative)
measels (alternative)

[…] they would prefer having him "die of the measles," as wags at the CIA put it, than be punished by legal means. If there is no convenient way of administering the "measles," they may even favor simply letting him go.

1975, Miles Copeland, Beyond Cloak and Dagger: Inside the CIA, page 204:

Such final solutions, sometimes referred to as termination with extreme prejudice, are known in the CIA as dying of the measles — that is, the death appears to be of natural causes.

1977, Raymond Edward Palmer, The Making of a Spy, page 99:

(US, espionage jargon) A discreet assassination made to look like death from any natural cause.


spook

Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”).

cog

From Ian Fleming to John Le Carre - authors have long been fascinated by the world of espionage. But, asks the BBC’s Gordon Corera, what do real life spooks make of fictional spies?

2009 July 24, “Spies like them”, in BBC News Magazine:

The congressional study frets that Huawei’s and ZTE’s products could be used as Trojan horses by Chinese spooks.

2012 October 13, “Huawei and ZTE: Put on hold”, in The Economist:

(espionage, slang) An undercover agent, spy, or intelligence analyst.


forces

(rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) -oːɹsɪz

(non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) -oəsɪz


motti

(military) encirclement; pocket, siege, entrapment


outer

From Middle English outre, outer, outter, uttre, from Old English ūtre, ūtera, ūterra (“outer”), equivalent to out + -er. Compare German äußere (“outer”), Danish ydre (“outer”), Swedish yttre (“outer”), Icelandic ytri (“outer”). Piecewise doublet of utter.

(military, firearms) The fourth circle on a target, outside the inner and magpie.


yessir

yessuh (alternative)
yessiree (alternative)
yessirree (alternative)

Japanese: イエッサー (slang)

(informal or military) Used to express assent, especially to a male superior.

نَعَم سَيِّدِي

used to express assent, especially to a superior


laager

From South African Dutch lager (“camp”) (modern Afrikaans laer), from German Lager, from Middle High German leger, from Old High German legar, from Proto-Germanic *legrą. Doublet of lager and lair.

(military) A temporary formation of armoured vehicles for resupply.


uncover

en-verb

uncover (third-person singular simple present uncovers, present participle uncovering, simple past and past participle uncovered)

uncovers (present singular third-person)
uncovering (participle present)
uncovered (participle past)
uncovered (past)

From Middle English uncoveren, equivalent to un- + cover.

(military, transitive) To expose (lines of formation of troops) successively by the wheeling to right or left of the lines in front.


scope

en-noun

scope (countable and uncountable, plural scopes)

→ Irish: scóp

From Italian scopo (“purpose”), from Latin scopus (“target”), from Ancient Greek σκοπός (skopós), from σκέπτομαι (sképtomai), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-. Etymologically related to skeptic and spectrum.

Coastie yanked her eye away from the night scope when those big lights were caught by it and amplified in intensity. Her entire view had gone white in an instant. “I can't see!” Temporarily blinded, she let touch become her primary sense, dropped the M40, and grabbed her alternate weapon, an M16 with an ACOG day scope that was already registered for the same distance.

2014, Sgt. Jack Coughlin, Donald A. Davis, On Scope: A Sniper Novel, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN:

(weaponry) A device used in aiming a projectile, through which the person aiming looks at the intended target.


exuviae

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-exuviae.wav

Learned borrowing from Latin exuviae, from exuō (“cast off, undress”).

(historical, military) Among the Ancient Romans, weaponry and equipment stripped from the person of a foe; booty.


sight radius

sight radius (plural sight radiuses or sight radii)

sight radiuses (plural)
sight radii (plural)

(firearms) The distance between the front and rear sights of a firearm.


lock time

lock times (plural)
lock-time (alternative)

(firearms) The time, usually measured in milliseconds, from when the trigger is pulled until the firing pin strikes the primer.


foxhole

foxholes (plural)
fox-hole (alternative)

From Middle English foxhol, from Old English foxhol, equivalent to fox + hole.

The statement made during the Second World War that “there are no atheists in foxholes” is absurd. Foxholes teem with atheists—who, to be sure, frequently infringe the Third Commandment in their desperation.

1962, Hoxie Neale Fairchild, Religious Trends in English Poetry: 1880-1920: Gods of a Changing Poetry, Columbia University Press, page 378:

Four pilots from the St. Lo, returning from a strike, land at the Dulag Airstrip and are promptly handed carbines, given a foxhole, and told to help repel a Japanese infantry counterattack. With that job done, with the aid of some stacked boxes and buckets full of petrol, they rearm and repair their aircraft, and then head back out to land on other ships.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 36:27 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03:

(military) A small pit dug into the ground as a shelter for protection against enemy fire.


lines

(fortifications) Dispositions made to cover extended positions, and presenting a front in but one direction to an enemy.


peep sight

(firearms) On some rifles, a type of sight where the shooter looks through a small aperture on the rear sight.


Damascus barrel

Damascus barrel (plural Damascus barrels)

(firearms) A gun barrel formed by twisting and welding strips of metal around a hard die; no longer commonly used now due to its inability to handle high cartridge pressure on modern ammunition.


plebe

From Latin plēbs (“the plebeian class”), probably via Middle French plebe (“plebeians, commoners, the rabble”) and possibly later understood as a clipping of plebeian. Cognate with Italian plebe, Spanish plebe, Portuguese plebe.

der

My drill master, a young stripling, told me I was not so ‘gross’ as most other pleibs, the name of all new cadets.

1834 October, Military & Naval Magazine, page 85:

"But is a plebe forbidden to stroll here?"
"If a plebe did have the brass to try it," replied Anstey slowly, "I reckon he would have to fight the whole yearling class in turn."

1910, H. Irving Hancock, Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point, page 84:

Plebes spend their first summer at Cadet Basic Training — Beast Barracks — where they get soldierized.

2014, David Lipsky, Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point, page 8:

“You went to The Citadel?” her mother chimed in. “I’ve heard so many great things about that institution. Did you go through a plebe year?” I told her I did and that we called it the knob year because freshman cadets had to shave their heads bald to resemble the butt end of a door knob and keep it that way for an entire ten months while going through the process of being broken down, only to be built back up.

2018 October 26, Joe Crochet, My Winning Seasons: Discovering the Champion Within, page 3:

(US, military, slang) A freshman cadet at a military academy.


separation

en-noun

separation (countable and uncountable, plural separations)

/ˌsɛp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/

/ˌsep.əˈɹæɪ.ʃən/

Attested in the 15th Century C.E.; from Middle English separacioun, from Old French separacion, from Latin separatio, separationem. Morphologically separate + -ion.

(military) Departure from active duty, while not necessarily leaving the service entirely.


taps

From tap (noun) + -s. Sense 1 (“signal for extinguishing all lights in soldiers’ quarters and retiring to bed”) is from the fact that the signal was originally made using a drum.

(military) A signal, by drum or trumpet, for extinguishing all lights in soldiers' quarters and retiring to bed, usually given about a quarter of an hour after tattoo; the signal is sometimes also given during the funeral of a soldier.


missile

From Latin missile (“thrown weapon, projectile”), neuter of missilis (“throwable, capable of being thrown”), from mittere (“to send”). From 1611. Compare Middle French missile (“projectile”), from 1636.

bor

That missile is explosive enough to kill hundreds.

(military) A self-propelled projectile whose trajectory can be adjusted after it is launched. [from 20th c.]


hull-down

(military) Of a tank: stopped with its hull protected by ground to the front, so that its occupants or weapons have a line of sight forward.


ville

The fighting holes and trenches scattered in and around each ville indicate battle after battle - some only planned, others fought. We move toward a tree-lined ville.

1989, Ernest Spencer, Welcome to Vietnam, Macho Man: Reflections of a Khe Sanh Vet, page 247:

On Halloween, this real hot spooky night, the dude paints up his body all different colors and puts on this weird mask and hikes over to a ville and goes trick-or-treating almost stark naked, just boots and balls and an M-16.

1990, Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried:

(US, military, historical) A Vietnamese village.


crew-served weapon

en-noun

crew-served weapon (plural crew-served weapons)

A heavy machine gun, anti-materiel rifle, or rocket launcher might be a crew-served weapon.

(military, notably USMC) Any weapon system that requires a crew or more than one individual to function due to its high operational complexity.


Vulcan cannon

Originally coined by General Electric for their electric gatling guns.

(military, slang) Any electric Gatling gun.


Judy

(military) Aircrew has radar/visual contact on the correct target, has taken control of the intercept, and only requires situation awareness information.


thermonuclear

thermonuclears (plural)
thermo-nuclear (alternative)

China detonated her first thermonuclear in June 1967.


CP

CP (countable and uncountable, plural CPs)