snap election

From snap (“done, performed, etc., quickly and unexpectedly”) + election.

A legislature should no more encourage and sustain snap elections, than a court should encourage and sustain snap judgment.

1852, “No. 18. Notes and Comments Submitted by S. R. Mallory, of Florida, upon the Printed Statements and Arguments Addressed to the Select Committee of the United States Senate, by and in behalf of D. L. Yulee, to Sustain His Claim to the Seat Held by S. R. Mallory. July, 1852.”, in The Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States, during the First Session of the Thirty-second Congress, Washington, D.C.: A. Boyd Hamilton, […], →OCLC, page 254:

The echoes of the election of President by snap election ticket, which had been brewing sub rosa for almost a year, forced these views upon my mind.

1887 September, Clara Brinkerhoff, “Art or Trade?: The Music Teachers’ National Association Dividing into an Eastern and a Western Wing”, in Edgar S. Werner, editor, The Voice: Devoted to the Human Voice in All Its Phases, volume IX, number 9, New York, N.Y.: Edgar S. Werner, →OCLC, page 139, column 1:

Mr. [Sidney] HOLLAND.—I think it is important for the House to know, because there are fairly widespread rumours going round of a general election. I do not know where the rumours came from. The Right Hon. Mr. [Peter] FRASER said that he could not authenticate the rumours. There would not be anything in the nature of a snap election.

1942 December 4, Peter Fraser, Prime Minister, “Business of the House”, in New Zealand. Parliamentary Debates. Fourth Session, Twenty-sixth Parliament. Legislative Council and House of Representatives (House of Representatives), volume 261, Wellington, New Zealand: E. V. Paul, government printer, →OCLC, page 948, column 2:

Let hon. members stop putting the red strips of bacon under the cellophane in the hope that because they are getting in first or are yelling the loudest they are going to take all the political advantage they can from it, hoping to win a snap election by offering the old people nothing and covering it up with aid to a few in the 55 to 65 age group.

1965 February 23, F. J. Bigg, “Pensions: Provisions for Establishment of Contributory Program”, in Canada: House of Commons Debates: Official Report: Second Session—Twenty Sixth Parliament: 13 Elizabeth II (House of Commons of Canada), volume XI, Ottawa, Canada: Roger Duhamel, […], →OCLC, page 11654, column 2:

Last year, in an excess of arrogance, the dictatorship called for its doom in a snap election. The people obliged. With over a million signatures, they drafted me to challenge the dictatorship. And I obliged.

1986 September 22, Corazon Aquino, “Speech during the Joint Session of the US Congress 1986”, in Anna Russell, So Here I Am: Speeches by Great Women to Empower and Inspire, London: White Lion Publishing, The Quarto Group, published 2019, →ISBN, page 103, column 1:

The chief whip was in no doubt that had [Marilyn] Waring agreed to tear up the letter, stay in the caucus, and attend select committees, [Robert] Muldoon would have accepted that and not contemplated a snap election.

2000, Barry Gustafson, “The 1984 Election”, in His Way: A Biography of Robert Muldoon, Auckland: Auckland University Press, →ISBN, page 375:

By dissolving the Lower House and calling a snap election, Thaksin [Shinawatra] intended to release the pressure from street protesters led by the PAD who had been demanding his immediate resignation.

2006, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, “Thaksin’s Political Zenith and Nadir”, in Daljit Singh, Lorraine C[arlos] Salazar, editors, Southeast Asian Affairs 2006, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, →ISBN, page 299:

The Parliament was to be elected for fixed four-year terms, so that the Prime Minister would no longer be able to call snap elections to suit his own party's fortunes, nor cajole Parliament with the threat of arbitrary dissolution.

2011, W. Elliot Bulmer, “Introduction”, in A Model Constitution for Scotland: Making Democracy Work in an Independent State, Edinburgh: Luath Press, →ISBN, page 13:

Spain’s PM calls snap election after conservative and far-right wins in local polls [title]

2023 May 29, Sam Jones, “Spain’s PM calls snap election after conservative and far-right wins in local polls”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(politics) An election that is called earlier than the regularly scheduled election time.

提前選舉 /提前选举

election called before the regularly scheduled time


AWS

“The concern that these weapons might misidentify targets is the least of our worries,” he said. “More significant is the threat of an A.W.S. arms race and proliferation crisis.”

2021 June 3, Maria Cramer, quoting James Dawes, “A.I. Drone May Have Acted on Its Own in Attacking Fighters, U.N. Says”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(military, robotics, artificial intelligence) Initialism of Autonomous Weapons System.

(UK politics) Initialism of all-women shortlist.


CHOP

en-noun

CHOP (countable and uncountable, plural CHOPs)

(military) Acronym of change of operational control.


fast mover

In order to bring in the jets, or fast movers, the artillery had to be shifted while the planes were in the area.

1993, Edward F. Murphy, Dak To: The 173d Airborne Brigade in South Vietnam's Central Highlands, June–November 1967, Random House Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 64:


UNDEX

(military) Abbreviation of underwater explosion.


clientitis

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

Their relationship with the governments in their region is usually one of warmth and understanding, often described as “clientitis” or “clientism.”

1990, Iain Guest, Behind the Disappearances: Argentina's Dirty War Against Human Rights and the United Nations, University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN:

We also learned two new words: “clientitis” and “ambassadoritis”. Clientitis is the disease of those enthralled by a host country that they promote its interests, rather than their own country's.

2009, Vera Blinken, Donald M. Blinken, Vera and the Ambassador, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 58:

In the case of diplomats, the State Department has had to wrestle with criticisms that regional specialists—say, those who concentrate on the Arab world and speak Arabic—will suffer from “clientitis”: the disease of “going native,” of developing such sympathy for the people and culture of a given region that one begins to represent its interest to America rather than vice versa.

2011, John Lenczowski, Full Spectrum Diplomacy and Grand Strategy: Reforming the Structure and Culture of U.S. Foreign Policy, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 108:

(diplomacy, slang) The situation where an organization's resident in-country staff come to regard the officials and people of the host country as "clients", and thus lose touch with the norms and aims of their home country.


Betsygate

(informal, UK politics) A 2004 controversy around allegations that former United Kingdom Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith had put his wife Betsy on his payroll, without her doing any work.


Bigotgate

(informal, UK politics) A 2010 controversy that arose when British prime minister Gordon Brown was accidentally recorded calling a party supporter a bigot.


Donnygate

(informal, UK politics) A political scandal of the 1990s involving expenses fraud by councillors in Doncaster, United Kingdom.


Traingate

The train company did not breach data protection law for publishing the clip during the so-called traingate controversy.

2017 July 12, Katie Mansfield, “Virgin Trains cleared of rumbling Jeremy Corbyn with traingate CCTV clip”, in Daily Express:

(informal, UK politics) A 2016 controversy around a video of the politician Jeremy Corbyn sitting on the floor of a supposedly crowded train, which Corbyn used in support of his policy to reverse the 1990s privatization of British railways. Later, CCTV images were released that appeared to show Corbyn walking past available seats, leading to accusations that the incident had been staged for political gain.


Taxigate

(informal, UK politics) A 2005 scandal in which David McLetchie, leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, was found to have claimed thousands of pounds in taxi expenses, some for party business rather than parliament business.


Travelgate

(informal, US politics) The White House travel office controversy of 1993.


Utegate

The Australian Federal Police revealed this afternoon that the email that sparked the so-called Utegate controversy was faked.

2009 June 22, Phillip Coorey, Annabel Crabb, Sydney Morning Herald:

(informal, Australian politics) A 2009 scandal around the lending of a ute to Australian Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by car dealer John Grant, and subsequent allegations of improper favourable treatment of Grant by the Department of the Treasury.


undy

The Atchievement of the Lord MADERTT, is Or, three Barrs undy Gules, and on a Canton Argent, a Lion's Head erased within a double Tressure,[…]

1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 67:

191. John louel . Barry undy of six or and gules . No trace of a label. (Munsire Ioh'n Iouel, lescu undee dor & de gules a un label de azur.)

Argent, fretty sable. Gules, three bars undy argent, each charged with three martlets sable, on a chief argent three pellets. Crest: A camel's head and neck erased or, charged with three bends undy gules.

1899, Thomas Benolt, The Visitations of the County of Surrey Made and Taken in the Years 1530, page 231:


Brothelgate

(informal, politics, historical) The Willie O'Dea affidavit incident, a 2010 political controversy in Ireland relating to remarks made by Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea about the alleged connection between a brothel and Sinn Féin politician Maurice Quinlivan. O'Dea falsely swore by affidavit that he had not made these remarks.


Corngate

genetically modified
genetically modified

(informal, New Zealand politics) A 2002 scandal around the suspected release in 2000 of genetically modified corn seed in New Zealand.


Gloriagate

(Philippine politics, neologism, colloquial) A 2005 electoral scandal in the Philippines involving leaked telephone conversations between former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a commissioner of the Commission on Elections, the two allegedly conspiring to rig the results of the presidential election.


Grangegate

(informal, Australian politics) A 2014 scandal over Australian politician Barry O'Farrell's failure to declare a gift of a $3,000 bottle of Grange Hermitage wine from a business executive.


Chinagate

(informal, US politics) The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy.


Emailgate

(informal, US politics) A 2015 controversy around Hillary Clinton's use of a private email account and server, in violation of federal security and transparency guidelines.


Debategate

(informal, US politics) A 1980s political scandal affecting the administration of Ronald Reagan, where Reagan's team somehow acquired President Jimmy Carter's briefing papers for a debate with Reagan.


airland

en-verb

airland (third-person singular simple present airlands, present participle airlanding, simple past and past participle airlanded)

airlands (present singular third-person)
airlanding (participle present)
airlanded (participle past)
airlanded (past)

(transitive, military) To transport (troops, etc.) to a place by aircraft, landing there rather than using parachutes.


superfight

Ken Shamrock (right) is the current owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship superfight belt and will defend his title February 16 against Kimo Leopoldo.

1996 March, John P. Patton, “Royce Gracie's Biggest Rival: Ken Shamrock”, in Black Belt, volume 34, number 3, page 38:

Ali would go into that superfight symbolizing everything valuable and heroic, but I'm afraid he's getting the chance too late, after too many years of idleness.

1971, Jack Newfield, Bread and Roses Too, →ISBN, page 98:

Reid outpointed Australian Kevin Kelly and former WBC champ Keith Mullings in defenses and then met Felix Trinidad in a superfight on March 3, 2000, in Las Vegas.

2002, Nat Fleischer, Sam Andre, An Illustrated History of Boxing, →ISBN, page 441:

(boxing) A bout between two championship title holders.


thatch-rake

thatch-rakes (plural)
thatch rake (alternative)

A. __Puckering, impaling, S. three thatch-rakes

1796, Daniel Lysons, The Environs of London: Counties of Herts, Essex & Kent, page 331:

See Plate XLVI. fig. 10, viz. three thatch-rakes, barwise.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry:

The thatch-rake or thatcher's rake is drawn as in the margin; but it is liable to be confused with the wool-comb and thatch-hook.

1894, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 488:

The pitchfork, the hay-fork, and the dung-fork, the tillage-rake and the thatch-rake, all occur, but there is little or no difference discernible between one and another, the forks are forks and the rakes rakes.

1971, Julian Franklyn, Shield and Crest: An Account of the Art and Science of Heraldry:

(heraldry) A representation of such a rake, used as a charge on the field or as a bordure device consisting of a straight line from which periodically project short perpendicular lines with slightly curved tips.


field ration

(military) A prepackaged meal, easily prepared and eaten, carried by military troops on the battlefield.


assault course

(sports, military) A path for running, with a series of obstacles such as nets and walls, used for military training.


Lord Privy Seal

(politics, UK) The fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, the position is now considered to be sinecure.


Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal

(politics, UK) Synonym of Lord Privy Seal.


geniocracy

(politics) A system of government based on creative intelligence and problem-solving, proposed especially by Raëlians.


Leaver

(UK politics) Someone who supports Brexit, the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.


Brexodus

2016 June 29, Bloomberg, “Vodafone mulls London HQ move in Brexodus”, in Irish TImes:

2016 July 2, Márton Hoványi, Ádám Sághy, “Brexit or Brexodus. The theological evaluation of the Brexit”, in Shekinah Research Institute for Theology - Kötőszó, archived from the original on 2021-01-31:

Brexodus fears: Banks may leave London after the vote, it was claimed

2016 October 11, Nicholas Cecil, Pippa Crerar, “Fears grow of bank Brexodus from the City as pound slumps”, in Evening Standard:

So the Brexodus will also include skilled locals, who know they too are better off working in an environment that provides them with opportunities rather than constraints.

2016 November 10, Timothy Devinney, “Brexodus: the world’s highly skilled have options other than the UK”, in TES:

2017 August 7, Lucy McNulty, “City of London urges government to stop Brexodus”, in Financial Times:

(UK politics) The departure of people or companies from the UK due to Brexit.


Fultonism

From Fulton + -ism, after the town of Fulton, Missouri, where Winston Churchill gave a famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College in 1946.


First Daughter

(politics) The daughter of the chief executive of a country, such as that of a nation's president.

First Family

the immediate family of the chief executive of a state

First Gentleman

husband of the chief executive of a state


maj.

(military) Abbreviation of major (military rank).


shitlib

Shitlibs have dehumanized themselves in our eyes. We simply don't give a shit about them, don't consider them human.

2017 August 15, Jared Yates Sexton, quoting a 4chan member, The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage, Counterpoint, →ISBN:

You arrived here as the mysterious Deepthroat Two, then you immediately told me that you work with CTV, informed me that your two exes were victims of the blasts, and laid out exactly what you'd do with the money we're giving you, so the moment either of those projects premiered, we'd have your name- not that we didn't have it already on account of you being the most loose-lipped deepthroater this shitlib state has ever seen.

2018, Richard Kelly, T/James Reagan, Southland Tales: The Complete Saga, →ISBN, page 388:

For a year and a half, on every social media platform, the Deplorables had waxed breathless about the extent to which they and their MAGA brethren were about to MAGA until every last shitlib had been pwned and rekt and BTFO'd.

2020, Andrew Marantz, Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation, Penguin, →ISBN, page 38:

"George Shaw's contribution emphasizes the importance of undermining the "Newspeak" of the "Marxist social engineers," which the alt-right does in part by reappropriating language and creating neologisms like "Cuckservative," "Counter-Semite," and "shitlib," a term that refers to pseudo-intellectual liberal "wearers of pussy hats" who are "slovenly, perverted, mongrelized, devious, tantrum-prone buffoons and lunatics."

2021 April 21, Alexander Laban Hinton, It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US, NYU Press, →ISBN:

However, this isn’t to say shitlibs are incapable of, or lack the desire to effect, a cultural revolution. […] Whenever left populists tried to make a nuanced point on gender politics, defend free speech, or propose a different way to address racism, the shitlib simply rejected all nuance and branded every proposed modification of the full-spectrum cultural agenda as "right-wing."

2023 September 4, Lama Abu Odeh, “How the Shitlibs Won”, in Compact, archived from the original on 2024-03-17:

(vulgar, slang, derogatory, US, politics) A political liberal, especially a hypocritical one.


MCI

en-noun

MCI (countable and uncountable, plural MCIs)

(US, military, food) Initialism of meal, combat, individual.


auxiliary cruiser

auxiliary cruiser (plural auxiliary cruisers)

(military, nautical) An armed merchantman, typically used as a commerce raider or as a convoy escort.

German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
auxiliary cruiser


Weimarization

tlb

(American spelling, Oxford British English)

From Weimar (city in Thuringia, Germany) + -ization. On 11 August 1919, the national assembly of the German state met in Weimar to adopt a new constitution (the Weimar Constitution), leading to the formation of the Weimar Republic which proved to be a time of economic and political upheaval.

suf

In a last frantic move, the Peronist government again turned to a stringent stabilization plan (i.e. another 100 per cent peso devaluation, 90 per cent increases in publicly-controlled prices, coupled with a meagre 20 per cent increase in nominal wages). […] Some idea of this incredibly rapid ‘Weimarization’ of Argentine politics can be gleaned from an extrapolation of the first quarter’s inflation to a 3,000 per cent annual rate. Using the March figure, the same calculation yields a fantastic 17,000 per cent annual rate.

1985, William C. Smith, “Reflections on the Political Economy of Authoritarian Rule and Capitalist Reorganization in Contemporary Argentina”, in Philip O’Brien, Paul Cammack, editors, Generals in Retreat: The Crisis of Military Rule in Latin America, Manchester, Dover, N.H.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 47:

Politicians have several times warned that there could be a "Weimarisation" of the postsocialist region, including Hungary. It should be remembered that it was mass unemployment and waves of inflation in Weimar Germany that led to mass disillusionment and rejection of the institutions of democracy and the parliamentary system. This economically-induced disillusionment provides a fertile breeding ground for demagogy, cheap promises and desires for iron-handed leadership.

1995, János Kornai, “Transformational Recession: The Example of Hungary”, in Christopher T[homas] Saunders, editor, Eastern Europe in Crisis and the Way Out (European Economic Interaction and Integration; 15), Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press in association with the Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies, →ISBN, page 58; republished [London]: Macmillan in association with Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, →DOI, →ISBN, part I (Stabilisation Policies Assessed), page 58:

If the strength of this discontent reaches a certain threshold, that could bring dangers to the new Hungarian democracy … we have to defend ourselves from Weimarisation in the political and ideological spheres … we also need to draw the necessary conclusions in economic policy.

1998, László Andor, Martin Summers, Market Failure: A Guide to the East European “Economic Miracle”, London: Pluto Press, →ISBN, page 146:

On the one hand, it was feared that right-wing conservatism could go to extremes by admitting racism into government offices, threatening a scenario of Weimarization; on the other, the revival and in certain cases the return of postcommunist parties represented a threat of restoration.

2000, László Andor, “Transition Politics: Running the New Democracy”, in Hungary on the Road to the European Union: Transition in Blue, Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 57:

There has been a kind of Weimarization of the American working class, and there's a terrible instability in the middle class.

2008 January, Chris Hedges, “A Conversation with Chris Hedges”, in American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Free Press, →ISBN, page 266:

The ‘Weimarisation of Europe’ staged in the German and international press seems to correspond to a simultaneous affirmation that all European citizens are members of the same community, ‘in precisely the same way [as] the modern bourgeoisie [sees] its non-earning members’ […].

2015, Giulia Palladini, “The Weimar Republic and Its Return: Unemployment, Revolution, or Europe in a State of Schuld”, in Marilena Zaroulia, Philip Hager, editors, Performances of Capitalism, Crises and Resistance: Inside/Outside Europe, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, part I (Returns):

(politics) A state of economic crisis leading to political upheaval and extremism.


IFS

At the IFS, they laboured in vain to bring the nation’s attention back to the real economic news, which wasn’t the budget so much as the tax and benefit changes set to kick in next month: […]

2017 March 13, Zoe Williams, “Cuts are a feminist issue. So what would a suffragette do?”, in The Guardian:

Institute for Fiscal Studies
w:Institute for Fiscal Studies

(UK politics, economics) Initialism of Institute for Fiscal Studies: an economic research institute based in London, United Kingdom, which specialises in UK taxation and public policy.


Stirnerism

(anarchism) The philosophy of Max Stirner, credited as a major influence in the development of nihilism, existentialism, postmodernism, and anarchism.


popular front

(politics) A broad coalition of different political groupings, usually made up of leftists and centrists.


thirty-thirty

"What do you know about thirty-thirties?" "Huh, I know lots. My other pop was tellin' me you could git a man with a thirty a whole heap farther than you could with any ole forty-four or them guns. I shot heaps of rabbits with his."

1919, Hennry Herbert Knibbs, The Ridin' Kid from Powder River, page 16:

Now that the season has arrived in many parts of the country for the nimrods to load their trusty Thirty-Thirties and go forth in quest of the elusive deer, it seems an appropriate time to say a word about the skilleting of venison — which can be a pretty tough and dry proposition if not properly handled.

1960, The Cattleman, volume 47, page 46:

“I'll get one of those thirty-thirties out of the rack and slip her into the boat . Maybe we won't use it, and maybe we will . We might meet that Pirate Shark, you know!”

2014, Robert E. Howarad, The Pirate Story Megapack: 25 Classic and Modern Tales, page 2301:

(firearms) A thirty calibre firearm designed for cartridges that originally held thirty grains of smokeless powder.


PMA

Pakistan Military Academy
w:Pakistan Military Academy

(Pakistan, military) Initialism of Pakistan Military Academy.

Philippine Military Academy
w:Philippine Military Academy

(Philippines, military) Initialism of Philippine Military Academy.


regressive leftism

(derogatory, politics, rare) The politics of the regressive left.


Judeo-Bolshevist

en-adj

Judeo-Bolshevist (comparative more Judeo-Bolshevist, superlative most Judeo-Bolshevist)

more Judeo-Bolshevist (comparative)
most Judeo-Bolshevist (superlative)

(derogatory, ethnic slur, politics) Communist and Jewish.


Judeo-Bolshevist

(derogatory, ethnic slur, politics) A communist, either of Jewish heritage or serving Jews.


open-door policy

en-noun

open-door policy (plural open-door policies)

open-door policies (plural)
open door policy (alternative)

Take Continental Airlines's Robert F. Six's view of much touted open-door policies: “‘My door is always open—bring me your problems.’ This is guaranteed to turn on every whiner, lackey and neurotic on the property.”

1986 August 24, Edwin McDowell, “What's New on the Corporate Bookshelf”, in New York Times, retrieved 2016-01-15:

She's a warm but no-nonsense administrator who has an open-door policy for all students.

2001 June 13, Rebekah Denn, “Seahawks Academy gives students a sporting chance”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved 2016-01-15:

Ashley: Commander. You have a minute to talk?
Shepard: I keep an open-door policy. If you have any concerns, lay them on me.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1:

"[M]anagers are trained to be culturally sensitive and have an open door policy to staff for issues like this.

2008 September 29, “Muslim man sues Tesco for being told to handle alcohol”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2016-01-15:

(idiomatic, management, politics) A policy or usual practice, by a person in authority, of permitting subordinates or constituents to visit his or her office unannounced and at any reasonable time for the purpose of discussing matters of concern.

They also have tried to enlist support from the National Cattlemen's Association, on grounds this open-door policy could lead to easier entry for foreign beef.

1984 June 18, Bill Keller, “Llama Owners' Lobby is Set to Fight Imports”, in New York Times, retrieved 2016-01-15:

Philosopher John Ralston Saul calls Canada "on the cutting edge, the most experimental country in the world on immigration and citizenship" for its open-door policy on immigration.

2006 February 6, Doug Struck, “Canada Thriving as New Leader Steps In”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2016-01-15:

Britain's open-door policy on foreign takeovers is a net gain for the economy.

2012 October 29, “Editorial: Protectionism is not the answer, Lord Heseltine”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 2016-01-15:

(idiomatic, politics) A governmental policy of encouraging immigration or of permitting increased access by foreigners for purposes of tourism, trade, investment, etc.


Nixon in China

A reference to U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 establishment of direct diplomatic relations with, and personal visit to, the People's Republic of China. Nixon's unyielding opposition to Communism had been well-known.

“People have tried to duplicate Nixon in China over and over again, including Iran,” Mann said. He cites the ill-fated 1986 journey by President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser Robert “Bud” McFarlane, who traveled to Tehran carrying a Bible with a handwritten verse from Reagan and a key-shaped cake as a goodwill gesture for Iranian leaders.

2015 March 14, Steven Mufson, “Is Obama’s Iran overture like Nixon’s opening to China?”, in The Washington Post:

(idiomatic, politics) Suggesting the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among his or her supporters for representing and defending their values to take actions that would draw their criticism and even opposition if taken by someone without those credentials.

People's Republic of China
Richard Nixon


contra-trading

(finance, taxation) A form of carousel fraud that evades detection by using two "carousels" of traded goods, where one carousel is legitimate and the other is not, and thus the input and output VATs neutralize each other to conceal the fraud.


Arrow's theorem

Named after economist Kenneth Arrow, who demonstrated the theorem in his doctoral thesis and popularized it in his 1951 book Social Choice and Individual Values.

(politics) A theorem stating that no voting system can be perfectly fair in all circumstances. Specifically, when voters have three or more distinct alternatives, no ranked voting electoral system can convert the ranked preferences of individuals into a community-wide (complete and transitive) ranking while also meeting the specified set of criteria: unrestricted domain, non-dictatorship, Pareto efficiency, and independence of irrelevant alternatives.


another place

(UK politics, In the House of Commons) the House of Lords.

House of Commons
House of Commons#English

(UK politics, In the House of Lords) the House of Commons.


alternative fact

alternative fact (plural alternative facts)

alternative facts (plural)
alt-fact (alternative)

This term gained prominence after it was used by Kellyanne Conway in January 2017 and widely repeated in the US media.

They are creating their own facts, but one need not be in Government to create alternative facts.

2017 February 25, R. E. Guyson Mayers, “A GUY"S VIEW: Season of discontent”, in Barbados Advocate:

According to Donald Trump we live in an era of "fake news" where his "alternative facts" should be swallowed whole, and without scrutiny.

2017 March 3, “Private Sydney: Celebrities quick to present their own 'alternative facts'”, in The Sydney Morning Herald:

Prime ministers have not been immune to spreading alternative facts.

2017 March 3, Chantal Hébert, “It's not just Donald Trump who shifts the truth, Canada's politicians have been using alternative facts for years”, in Toronto Star:

― Secretary: Now, I did not mislead you. That was merely an alternative fact.

2017 May 30, Moe! Ninja Girls, Japan: NTT Solmare, iOS, Android, scene: Season 6, Chapter 6:

2018 March 26, “Association of Herpes Viral Infections, Antiherpetic Therapy, and Dementia: Real or Alternative Fact?”, in Neurotherapeutics, volume 15, →DOI, pages 415–416:

(politics, media) Something presented as a fact for reasons of political expediency; a fiction, a falsehood, a lie.


presidential memorandum

presidential memorandum (plural presidential memoranda)

presidential memoranda (plural)
Presidential Memorandum (alternative)

17 The Council on Economic Policy, established in February 1973 by Richard Nixon, was formally created by presidential memorandum, generally considered less prestigious than an executive order. The September 19 Haig memorandum to ...

1982, Roger B. Porter, Presidential Decision Making: The Economic Policy Board, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 41:

Not surprisingly, agencies faced with massive hiring have concerns about making the process both faster and more user-friendly, and the presidential memorandum responds to those concerns quite concretely. As we saw earlier, currently, ...

2015, Norma M. Riccucci, Public Personnel Management, Routledge, →ISBN, page 143:

14, edited by L. Galambos and D. van Ee, Part II, Chapter 5, Document #373, p. 461 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). © 1996 The Johns Hopkins University Press, used by permission. This presidential memorandum ...

2013, Daniel M. Shea, Brian M. Harward, Presidential Campaigns: Documents Decoded, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 14:

... US assistance to refugees, presidential memorandum (4/21/99), 9510-1.375 Kosovo, conflict between Serbia authorities and ethnic Albanians, US emergency refugee admissions, presidential memorandum (4/30/99), 9510-1.394 Kosovo, ...

1999, American Foreign Policy and Treaty Index:

year unknown, Obama Administation’s Open Government Initiative: Issues for Congress, DIANE Publishing →ISBN
The presidential memorandum included a series of staggered deadlines for implementing each part of the directive. Both the Administration and private organizations have examined federal agency efforts to meet the OGD's requirements.

(US, government) A legally binding directive issued by the President of the United States, typically requiring one or more government agencies to carry out specified actions or to commence a regulatory process.


proggie

Proggies want to regress society to pre-market era, when the "economy" was run by nobility and priests - in effect, there was no economy. The proggies have different names for the people running the economy and making the decision, but it's functionally the same thing.

2015 January 3, Rudy Canoza, “Re: The Left's Central Delusion: Sowell nails it, as usual”, in can.politics (Usenet):

(politics, informal, often derogatory) A progressive.


under arms

They were preceded by a small party of the national guard, in their uniform, and under arms.

1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 325:

The Taliban have only about 40,000 men under arms.

(military) Equipped with weapons (of a country, army etc.); in a state of armed, military readiness.

aseissa

equipped with weapons; in a state of military readiness


Brexshit

Blend of Brexit + shit, perhaps in reference to bullshit (“statements that are false or exaggerated to impress or cheat the listener”).

My modest proposal is to construct a set of your own Brexshit bingo cards.

2016 June 16, AFP, “How to call bullshit on EU referendum campaign claims”, in New Statesman:

Demonstrators hold a banner reading "This is Brexshit" during a protest near Britain's embassy in Berlin on July 2, 2016.

2016 July 2, AFP, “Anti-Brexit protesters march in London”, in Express Tribune:

(UK politics, derogatory, vulgar) Brexit.


confidential informant

confidential informant (plural confidential informants)

confidential informants (plural)
CI (alternative)
C.I. (alternative)

(law, law enforcement, criminology) An individual who secretly provides information to the police about wrongdoing which they are aware of due to the individual's relationship to the wrongdoer.

indic

person who secretly provides information to the police


wildcat cartridge

wildcat cartridge (plural wildcat cartridges)

(firearms) A cartridge modified from another calibre rather than being commercially produced.


Trumpification

Donald later tells me about the Trumpification of all that he surveys.

2005, Timothy L. O'Brien, TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald:

The Trumpification of Republican politics during the summer of 2015 provided gaudy confirmation that something is amiss.

2016, E. J. Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong, page 2:

The Trumpification of the Latin American Right

2018 April 16, Omar G. Encarnación, Foreign Policy:

But getting rid of Modly will only slow, not stop, the growing Trumpification of the military.

2020 April 7, Max Boot, “Capt. Crozier’s firing shows the growing Trumpification of the military”, in The Washington Post:

(US politics, neologism, originally derogatory) The implementation of Donald Trump's political ideas or influence.


Trumpmania

Even Fox News couldn't seem to make a dent in Trumpmania.

2015, McKay Coppins, The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House:

Trumpmania, on the other hand, was still going strong after five years from the time he declared his presidential candidacy in June, 2015.

2020, Michael Maccoby, Ken Fuchsman, “Conclusion”, in Psychoanalytic and Historical Perspectives on the Leadership of Donald Trump, →ISBN:

(US politics, neologism, originally derogatory) Strong attachment or commitment to Donald Trump.


de-Trumpification

From de- + Trumpification. In the political sense used by opponents of Trump, possibly influenced by denazification and de-Baathification.

If we expect America to ever again be more than a squalid kleptocracy, we’re going to need a comprehensive plan of de-Trumpification, including wide-ranging investigations and legal reforms.

2018 February 23, Michelle Goldberg, “The De-Trumpification Agenda”, in New York Times:

Once President Trump leaves office, a “de-Trumpification” process will have to course through the Republican Party’s veins if it is to again be a worthy part of the American experiment in self-government.

2019 January 30, Chris Stevenson, “After Trump, the Republican Party will need to do some soul-searching”, in The Washington Post:

Listening to a podcast about the Iran-Contra scandal in 2020 doesn’t provide the frisson of excitement that listening to a podcast about Watergate did in 2017, when the Trump Administration was new, our stress was primal, and the show’s dominating conceit—Watergate took longer to reach a breaking point than we might have realized—seemed to portend a comforting, if distant, de-Trumpification.

2020 March 13, Sarah Larson, “The podcasts to listen to while you're social-distancing”, in The New Yorker:

(US politics) Removing Trump from power or undoing the effects of his presidency.


play pussy

en-verb

play pussy (third-person singular simple present plays pussy, present participle playing pussy, simple past and past participle played pussy)

plays pussy (present singular third-person)
playing pussy (participle present)
played pussy (participle past)
played pussy (past)

(UK, military, slang) To conceal one's aircraft by taking advantage of cloud cover, moving from one cloud to another.


pink tide

(politics) A tendency towards left-wing governments in Latin American democracies, primarily between the late 1990s and the late 2000s.


anarcho-Marxism

(anarchism, Marxism) Anarchist theory that incorporates Marxism.


LIA

LIAs (plural)
L.I.A. (alternative)
L. I. A. (alternative)

(military fiction) Initialism of lost in action.


LIA

L.I.A. (alternative)
L. I. A. (alternative)


KEW

kinetic energy weapon
kinetic energy weapon#English

(weaponry) Acronym of kinetic energy weapon.


alt-left

From alt- + left, by analogy with alt-right.

Turner approvingly noted that when The Canary – the doyen of the alt-left media outlets – first launched in late 2015 it was dubbed “the left-wing Daily Mail” by virtue of being written in a way that is accessible to everyone.

2017 May 6, Jim Waterson, “The Rise Of The Alt-Left British Media”, in BuzzFeed UK:

According to the Skwawkbox, the excitable alt-left blog, he is “Labour’s media man on fire” – and he has “interviewers feeling the burn”.

2017 May 30, Patrick Maguire, “How Barry Gardiner went from wannabe vicar to high priest of Corbynism”, in New Statesman:

When it comes to explaining Jeremy Corbyn’s success at the British general election, much attention is paid to the rise of alt-left news sites such as The Canary and Evolve Politics.

2017 June 23, Richard Thomas, Stephen Cushion, “From cat gifs to serious political clout: Buzzfeed^([sic]) and the 2017 UK election”, in The Conversation:

Corbyn’s team will never recognise in themselves a symmetrical alt-left to the “alt-right” menace they revile.

2018 September 25, Rafael Behr, “On Europe, Labour’s left is revealing its affinity to the ‘alt-right’”, in The Guardian:

(politics, derogatory) A segment of the political left that is prone to conspiracy theories and treating opposition as illegitimate, or is considered authoritarian in some other way.

The alt-left trolls are not over it - now they decided to bus in protestors to protest against a democratic result. The alt-left media have been slow to bash these undemocratic revolting bussed in peasants.

2016 November 24, 7, “The alt-left media cooking up glow ball wumming anti-Trump racket Group”, in alt.global-warming (Usenet):

Sadly, the alt-left's previous apoplectic chicken little month is not limited to nominations, though...is it? It is focused on anything trump does, says, thinks, might have thought, could have thought...etc etc....

2016 December 10, Irie, “Just so I can save the alt left from wasting time posting on future Trump nominations/actions/thoughts, words or deeds”, in Political Euwetopia (Usenet):

Instead, today, a subversive alt-government is emerging, in line with the alt-left's growing resistance to use any means necessary to slow, stop and obstruct Trump’s agenda, from inside the government, to make America ungovernable.

2017 February 13, Joe Cooper, “There's An Alt-Left, And It's Trying To Make America Ungovernable”, in alt.politics.democrats (Usenet):

The President then explicitly and aggressively made the case for why the anti-racism counter-protesters were as much at fault as the armed white militias—a contention at odds with local police accounts. "What about the alt-left that came charging at the – as you say — the alt-right?" Trump challenged the reporters. "Do they have any semblance of guilt?"

2017 August 16, Noah Bierman, “Trump again decries both sides' actions in Virginia”, in Los Angeles Times, page A1, A10:

(US politics, derogatory) The part of the political spectrum that is considered too left-wing; the extreme or radical left.


bipolarism

en-noun

bipolarism (countable and uncountable, plural bipolarisms)

Political scientists and international observers debated whether the international system had become unipolar (with the United States as the sole superpower) or multipolar (with competing economic and military powers represented by the United States, China, Europe, and perhaps other countries and regions, depending on the political scientist consulted) in the aftermath of bipolarism.

2004, Ellen Grigsby, Analyzing Politics, →ISBN, page 250:

East–West bipolarism is also associated with the “zero-sum” game (“my gain your loss”) of political-military rebalancing through military interventions or subversions in any Third World area where the adversary makes fresh inroads.

2009, Marco Rimanelli, The A to Z of NATO and Other International Security Organizations, →ISBN:

To give credibility to its separation from the PD, the ApI had to declare bipolarism a failure and once again stress the usefulness, in the present situation in Italy, of a centrist, reforming party—one whose strength relies on concrete proposals and not on ideological radicalism.

2011, Elisabetta Gualmini, Eleonora Pasotti, Much Ado About Nothing?, →ISBN, page 106:

One of the most prominent features of Cypriot party politics is the one which is also systemic at the party system level: bipolarism – the deep social, ideological and political division between right and left.

2014, James Ker-Lindsay, Resolving Cyprus: New Approaches to Conflict Resolution, →ISBN, page 52:

Born after the end of the First Republic (1948–92), bipolarism had gone through different phases, but never faded away.

2016, Susannah Verney, Anna Bosco, Protest Elections and Challenger Parties, →ISBN:

(politics) The characterization and practice of politics as the struggle and balance between left-wing and right-wing powers or ideologies.


Welrod

All clandestine equipment devised at Station IX in Welwyn Garden City had names starting with Wel, e.g. Welbike, Welman.

(firearms, historical) A British bolt-action, magazine-fed suppressed pistol devised during World War II.


decrime

en-verb

decrime (third-person singular simple present decrimes, present participle decriming, simple past and past participle decrimed)

decrimes (present singular third-person)
decriming (participle present)
decrimed (participle past)
decrimed (past)

(law enforcement) To remove the criminal status of a reported crime, typically due to insufficient evidence or to artificially reduce crime statistics


Colonel

Consequently the necessity for the reorganization of the Guard, during the ten months’ absence of yourself and Colonels Smith and Banks, could not have been averted under our present Military Code.

1899 March 31, Geo[rge] W[esley] Atkinson, “Status of Members of National Guard, Who were Volunteers In the Spanish War.—Correspondence Between Governor Atkinson and General [Baldwin Day] Spilman.”, in Public Addresses, Etc., of Geo. W. Atkinson, LL. D., D. C. L., Governor of West Virginia, During His Term of Office. […], [Charleston, W.Va.]: […] Public Printer, published 1901, →OCLC, page 291:


nageant

(heraldry) Synonym of naiant (“swimming”).


CBO

On spending, the biggest option CBO outlined was recalculating what the government pays Medicare Advantage health insurance plans in relation to their participants’ health ($1.05 trillion over 10 years).

2024 December 28, Jonathan Nicholson, “Yes, There Are Ways To Cut The Budget Deficit. 'DOGE' Hasn’t Found Them So Far.”, in HuffPost:

Congressional Budget Office
w:Congressional Budget Office

(US politics) Initialism of Congressional Budget Office.


social policy

(politics, sociology) The sociopolitical guidelines that deal with communal issues.


dumbocrat

Blend of dumb + Democrat, equivalent to dumb + -o- + -crat.

(US politics, Internet slang, derogatory) A foolish Democrat.


per pale

per pale gules and argent; tierced per pale; an escutcheon tierced per pale and per chevron

Alexander Wemyss of Lathocar, however, in 1511 bears, per pale, dexter a lion rampant for Wemyss, and sinister a saltire. The saltire is probably his wife's arms.

1914, John Horne Stevenson, Heraldry in Scotland, page 161:

(heraldry) (Partitioned) vertically; (especially) partitioned vertically into two halves (formally party per pale).

partit

heraldry: partitioned vertically: party per pale


AWALT

I'm from Russia. It's not better there than it is anywhere else... . stop thinking different places are better about women or whatnot. You're forgetting the single most important rule. AWALT [All Women Are Like That].

2019, "CzarCronik", quoted in Amanda DiGioia, Duelling, the Russian Cultural Imagination, and Masculinity in Crisis, unnumbered page

In expressing any attitude beyond the “it’s over” narrative, or refusing to believe AWALT, the incel is denoted as “coping”, a negatively charged label indicating that you have yet to completely swallow the blackpill, and are therefore naïve and “low IQ”.

2020, Katrine Rummelhoff, "Incels and Misogyny; what’s so appealing about hatred?", thesis submitted to the University of Oslo, pages 59-60

Personal stories about unhappy relationships, cheating partners and manipulative ex-wives were often described in detail, usually to illustrate AWALT and serve as the basis for the MGTOW lifestyle.

2020, Scott Wright, Verity Trott, Callum Jones, “‘The pussy ain’t worth it, bro’: assessing the discourse and structure of MGTOW”, in Information, Communication & Society, volume 23:

(manosphere slang) Initialism of all women are like that.


free speech zone

en-noun

free speech zone (plural free speech zones)

(politics, US) An area set aside in public places for the purpose of protesting.


double envelopment

double envelopment (countable and uncountable, plural double envelopments)


collective note

collective note (plural collective notes)

The undersigned, ministers for Russia, Germany, the United States, Great Britain, and France, have the honor to refer to their collective note of the 24th February, in which they expressed their desire to have an audience of His Majesty the Emperor of China for the purpose of presenting their congratulations to His Majesty, and requested his imperial highness to move His Majesty to issue orders for their reception.

1873, United States Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, page 156:

On the other hand, French Foreign Minister Delcassé thought that this collective note would be more effective and successful if all the European Powers joined it.

2011, Pinar Senisik, The Transformation of Ottoman Crete, →ISBN:

A collective note was sent to Germany on the interpretation of Article 16.

2015, Willard N. Hogan, International Conflict and Collective Security, →ISBN, page 65:

(diplomacy) A formal piece of diplomatic correspondence signed by the representatives of several governments addressed to one or more other governments.


tetradarchy

From Ancient Greek τετραδαρχία (tetradarkhía), from τετράς (tetrás, “tetrad, group of four”) + -αρχία (-arkhía, “-archy: rule”).

uder

(politics) Alternative form of tetrarchy: rule by four people.


decadarchy

From Ancient Greek δεκαδαρχία (dekadarkhía), from δεκάς (dekás, “a group of ten”) + -αρχία (-arkhía, “-archy: rule”). Equivalent to deca- + -archy.


dekadarchy

From Ancient Greek δεκαδαρχία (dekadarkhía), from δεκάς (dekás, “a group of ten”) + -αρχία (-arkhía, “-archy: rule”). Equivalent to deka- + -archy.

(politics) Synonym of decarchy: rule by ten people.


EFP

en-noun

EFP (countable and uncountable, plural EFPs)

The RAF device which killed Herrhausen is generally described as a platter charge, rather than an Iraq-style EFP. That's because the RAF are not thought to have had the skill to produce an EFP.

2008 July 29, David Hambling, “Superbomb Mystery: The Herrhausen Assassination”, in Wired, →ISSN:

explosively formed penetrator
explosively formed penetrator#English

(weaponry, countable) Initialism of explosively formed penetrator.


Dart

(UK, naval slang) An officer trained at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, England.


myriarchy

/ˈmɪɹiˌɑɹki/

From myriarch + -y, after the pattern of heptarchy etc.; see myriarch for more. As a military unit, Calque of Mongolian түмэн (tümen).

(military) A regiment of 10,000 soldiers, especially (historical) a Mongolian toman.


close order drill

close order drill (countable and uncountable, plural close order drills)

close order drills (plural)
close-order drill (alternative)

Mr. Bosland said, “Close order drill may be OK in Nazi Germany, but we are here in America.”

2004, Arnold Von der Porten, 50 Years in America, →ISBN, page 186:

Garrison life and close order drills had never been my forte.

2007, James Megellas, All the Way to Berlin: A Paratrooper at War in Europe, →ISBN, page 340:

One of the areas that were most concentrated on at DI School was close order drill.

2008, Gregg Stoner, The Yellow Footprints to Hell and Back, →ISBN:

(military) Practice in marching, formations, and formal handling of arms carried out standing shoulder-to-shoulder and at attention.

tūmatohi

arranged in compact units for marching or drill - of troops


extended order drill

extended order drill (countable and uncountable, plural extended order drills)

extended order drills (plural)
extended-order drill (alternative)

The land now owned by the Government is too small for extended order drills and maneuvers and General Wood was very desirous of securing more room.

1977, Frank Everson Vandiver, Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing, →ISBN:

To account for the exigencies of terrain, extended order drill was practised on different types of ground in platoon, company, or battalion-sized formations.

2008, Andrew Iarocci, Shoestring Soldiers: The 1st Canadian Division at War, 1914-1915, →ISBN, page 36:

Coming to the Fourteenth Pennsylvania he required them to go through certain movements in the extended order drill which not being done entirely to his satisfaction, he sent his orderly to the commanding officer of the Ninth Battalion, requesting him to have his command on the drill ground at once.

2014, T. G. Steward, Buffalo Soldiers: The Colored Regulars in the United States Army, →ISBN:

(military) Practice in battle formations and maneuvers.


neo-Trotskyist

en-adj

neo-Trotskyist (comparative more neo-Trotskyist, superlative most neo-Trotskyist)

more neo-Trotskyist (comparative)
most neo-Trotskyist (superlative)

(communism) Of or pertaining to neo-Trotskyism.


neo-Trotskyist

(communism) A proponent of neo-Trotskyism.


helicopter carrier

en-noun

helicopter carrier (plural helicopter carriers)

(military, aviation, nautical) A category of aircraft carrier designed to operate helicopters


Mother of all Bombs

From a reinterpretation of the acronym MOAB (originally for "Massive Ordnance Air Blast"), using the mother of all construction.

(military) A type of large-yield conventional bomb, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast.


Father of all Bombs

In reference to the US Mother of all Bombs, which the Russian military sought to surpass.

(military) A type of Russian-designed, large-yield conventional bomb, the Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power.


Buff

(UK, military, mostly in plural) A member of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).


Makarov

Borrowed from Russian Макаров (Makarov). A transliteration of the Russian surname Макаров (Makarov).

name translit

(firearms) A Soviet service pistol, the PM

A Soviet service pistol, the PM
A Soviet Cold-War era service pistol

(firearms) A handgun deriving from the PM design pattern


Tokarev

(firearms) A Soviet service pistol, the TT-33 and TT-30

(firearms) A handgun deriving from the TT-30 design pattern


South Park Republicanism

South Park Republicans
South Park Republican#English

(rare, US politics, colloquial) The center-right political ideology held by the South Park Republicans.


pyroballogy

A variant of pyrobology, from pyro- (prefix meaning ‘fire, heat’) (from Ancient Greek πῦρ (pûr, “fire; lightning”)) + Ancient Greek βάλλειν (bállein, “to throw”) + -logy (suffix indicating a branch of learning or study of a particular subject) (from Ancient Greek -λογῐ́ᾱ (-logĭ́ā), from λόγος (lógos, “word, speech; reason, reckoning; account, explanation”)). βάλλειν is derived from βᾰ́λλω (bắllō, “to hurl, throw; to strike, touch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to pierce; to throw, to hit by throwing”).

refn

From Codex Vindobonensis 3069, folio 11, recto, from the collection of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, Austria.

der

[H]e was enabled, by the help of ſome marginal documents at the feet of the elephant, together with Gobeſius’s military architecture and pyroballogy, tranſlated from the Flemiſh, to form his diſcourse with paſſable perſpicuity.

1759, [Laurence Sterne], chapter III, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 2nd (1st London) edition, volume II, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 18:

[H]e threw a faithless cipher of moon into the sky, put beneath it a fatherless girl craving affection, and then helpless before the doom of his own contrivances watched in his mind, possibly on that very prom night or in a car parked on an overlook up in the Blue Ridge mountains, the hideous pyroballogy of some vile teenager with a hanging lip, his suspenders disengaged, prying off her gown with his grice-fingered hands and then bucking away like a country stink-cat, whereupon she— […]

1981, Alexander Theroux, Darconville’s Cat, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 137:

Pyroballogy, Lieutenant Drinkwater, is the art of throwing fire. 'Tis both scientific and alchemical, and that is why officers in my profession cannot purchase their commissions like the rest of the army, so it is. […] 'Tis an ancient art, this pyroballogy. Archimedes himself founded it at the siege of Syracuse and the Greeks had their own ballistic fireballs.

1984, Richard Woodman, “Powder and Shot: February 1801”, in The Bomb Vessel, London: John Murray, →ISBN; republished as The Bomb Vessel: A Nathaniel Drinkwater Novel (Mariner’s Library Fiction Classics), Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Sheridan House, 2000, →ISBN, part 1 (Tsar Paul), page 45:

And how, by what law of mechanics, can such decisions contribute to the maintenance of its gyration? It is that they are taken suddenly and violently: explosions of disgust. It is what's called repulsion, one of the forces most commonly employed in pyroballogy.

1985, Kris Hemensley, editor, The Best of The Ear: The Ear in a Wheatfield 1973–76: A Portrait of a Magazine, Melbourne, Vic.: Rigmarole Books, →ISBN, page 20:

Instead of clarifying the geometry of fortification, however, the treatises only bring confusion, such that Toby's attempts to follow the rules of pyroballogy result in his mistaking a parabola for a hyperbola, and so on.

2015, Anders Engberg-Pedersen, “The Geometry of War: Siege Architecture and Narrative Form”, in Empire of Chance: The Napoleonic Wars and the Disorder of Things, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, →ISBN:

(weaponry, obsolete, rare) The study of artillery; the practice of using artillery as a weapon.


smoke bomb

Smoke bombs would be used. The thick fumes resulting from their explosion between the lines would cover our advance.

1916, Patrick MacGill, chapter 3, in The Great Push: An Episode of the Great War, London: Herbert Jenkins, page 48:

Over every German battery would soar the observation plane indicating by tinsel or smoke bombs the location of the guns […]

1918, Willis J. Abbot, chapter 9, in Aircraft and Submarines: The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day Uses of War’s Newest Weapons, New York: Putnam:

Margot would plant smoke-bombs in Kuno’s bedroom and then rush in to rescue him from the fumes.

1935, Christopher Isherwood, chapter 13, in Mr Norris Changes Trains, Penguin, published 1942, page 147:

The agent gave them the two camera-cases you saw. […] He told them that the blue case contained a very powerful smoke-bomb. The red case was the explosive. As one of them threw the red case, the other was to press a switch on the blue case and they would escape under cover of the smoke.

1953, Ian Fleming, chapter 9, in Casino Royale, London: Jonathan Cape:

(military) An explosive or incendiary device designed to produce smoke in order to mark a position or produce a smokescreen.


Calexiter

Could it possibly be, #Calexiters, that maybe it's you who don't the share values with rest of the country?

2016 December 15, “California's Latest Ballot Initiatives Prove Residents Live In Fantasy World”, in The Federalist:

The Calexiters think that California would be better off as its own nation, and, taking a page from the British and their “Brexit” election last year, thinks that the rest of the state’s voters can be convinced that separation would be a good idea.

2017 July 13, David Ross, “The cuckoo “Calexit” movement”, in Valley Roadrunner:

The decision marked a revival of sorts for Calexiters: initial efforts at winning support for a ballot initiative collapsed in the spring after it was discovered that a prominent figure in the movement, Louis Marinelli, head of an organization called YesCalifornia, was living in Russia, and maintained close ties to a Kremlin-funded group.

2017 August 3, Casey Michel, “California Secessionists Retain Russian Connection”, in EurasiaNet:

Undeterred, Calexiters regrouped and strategized anew. Late last month, they returned with a new proposal they're certain will catch on.

2017 August 24, Ben Boychuk, “Calexit is our state's latest delusion, all three versions”, in The Sacramento Bee:

We'd like to think such a kooky idea has no shot at getting on the ballot, like the previous attempts by the two main Calexiters — Marcus Ruiz Evans and Louis J. Marinelli — to get some sort of secession proposal on the ballot. But crazier things have happened.

2018 August 7, “Save us from another kooky California breakup plan”, in w:Los Angeles Times:

(US politics) Someone who supports Calexit.


flying knee

The flying knee is one of the most powerful strikes that one human being can use on another, short of employing a weapon.

1967, John Danaher, Mastering Jujitsu, →ISBN, page 76:

Provided that it makes impact with the head, a flying knee offers substantial momentum and knockout power.

2010, Robert Hill, World of Martial Arts !, →ISBN:

Although charging in with a flying knee can be a reckless move, it does overcome somewhat the limited range of the front knee strike and has a proven track record in MMA fights of getting a quick knockout when fighers have managed to connect with the head.

2012, Ashley Martin, The Complete Martial Arts Training Manual, →ISBN:

(martial arts) A strike performed by jumping forward and hitting the opponent with the knee.


Playmander

Blend of Playford + gerrymander. Thomas Playford IV governed for most of the period that the Playmander was in place.

(historical, Australian politics) A system of electoral overrepresentation of rural areas in South Australia from 1936 to 1968, benefitting the Liberal and Country League.


spit hood

spit hoods (plural)
spithood (alternative)

(law enforcement) A head restraint intended to prevent spitting and biting.


color guard

color guards (plural)
colour guard (alternative)

(military, scouting) A uniformed group, especially of soldiers, police officers, Scouts, or school representatives, who present their institution's flag (and sometimes other flags) on ceremonial occasions.


wokeness

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

Faux wokeness is the act of identifying yourself as an ally to people of color, but supporting color-blind, savior, or colonialistic approaches to activism. Faux wokeness ignores the intersectional, systemic, and institutional functions of racism.

2018, Laura A. Roy, Teaching While White: Addressing the Intersections of Race and Immigration in the Classroom, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 150:

Justice Clarence Thomas served up a twofer last week: a Supreme Court decision, in Terry v. U.S., that’s noteworthy for its judicial restraint as well as for pushing back at another false racial narrative that has gained popularity in this Age of Wokeness.

2021 June 22, Jason L. Riley, “Clarence Thomas vs. the Fictional Progressive Narrative”, in The Wall Street Journal:

What links these developments is a loose constellation of ideas that is changing the way that mostly white, educated, left-leaning Americans view the world. This credo still lacks a definitive name: it is variously known as left-liberal identity politics, social-justice activism or, simply, wokeness.

[2021 September 4, “How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

(slang, politics, sometimes derogatory) The quality or state of being woke.


bunker-busting

(military) Having the penetrative quality of a bunker buster.


Morrisite

(historical, politics) A follower of Lewis Morris, an American revolutionary and Federalist politician.

(historical, politics) A follower of William Morris, a British anarchist socialist and Romantic artist associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.


Morrisite

(historical, politics) Pertaining to Lewis Morris, his followers and their beliefs.

(historical, politics) Pertaining to William Morris, his followers and their beliefs.


Islampolitik

From German Islampolitik, corresponding to Islam + politics.

By the end of the nineteenth century, when the Netherlands began to tighten its hegemony over the whole archipelago and to incorporate interior regions that had remained independent until that time, a clear "Islampolitik" had emerged.

1987, Rita Smith Kipp, Susan Rodgers Siregar, Indonesian religions in transition, page 16:

The misconceptions which were to shape both German Islampolitik and the eventual British support for Sharif Husayn's dynastic ambitions under the heading of the “Arab Revolt” were partly the result of deep-rooted European misconceptions about Islam in general and the caliphate in particular.

2014, Tilman Lüdke, in Joachim Bürgschwentner, Matthias Egger, Gunda Barth-Scalmani (Eds.), Other Fronts, Other Wars, p. 405

The prophet of Germany's Islampolitik was Baron Max von Oppenheim.

2015, Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans, Penguin, published 2016, page 47:

(politics) The political implications of Islam; the evocation of Islam for political ends.


crux ordinaria

Unadapted borrowing from Latin; possibly from Medieval Latin rather than Classical Latin (see crux simplex).

(heraldry) A certain style of cross; an instance thereof.


derank

en-verb

derank (third-person singular simple present deranks, present participle deranking, simple past and past participle deranked)

deranks (present singular third-person)
deranking (participle present)
deranked (participle past)
deranked (past)
de-rank (alternative)

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

"I remember one time," he said, brushing my boots aside, "when I had trouble like this with an M.O. He was going to have me arrested and deranked and marched out and so on and so on. Nothin' came of it."

The uproarious laughter coming from the back of our truck provided small consolation although one kind hearted signaller did point out that it was an honour to be deranked by such a famous General.

1989 -, Lindsay Thompson, I Remember, page 10:

The common theme of the different pieces of Müller's Wolokolamsk Highway is a certain form of heroic stoicism which enables the protagonists to overcome their inhibition against hurting their own men in the name of socialism: The Russian commanders sentence and derank their comrades despite the fact that they are members of their party, and the East German functionaries respectively criticize and denounce their protege and adoptive son.

1997, Bernd-Rüdiger Hüppauf, War, Violence, and the Modern Condition, →ISBN, page 355:

Without any waste of time, he deranked all the officers of the Fifty-first Brigade from the rank of major to the rank of lieutenant.

2010, Obi N. Ignatius Ebbe, Broken Back Axle: Unspeakable Events in Biafra, →ISBN, page 139:


Griswold

Griswolds (plural)
Griswood (alternative)
Griswald (alternative)

(US, law, sexuality, US politics, informal, uncountable) Ellipsis of Griswold v. Connecticut, a 1965 U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized contraception, allowing access to contraceptives for married couples; and reaffirmed the existence of a right to privacy under due process following the 14th Amendment.


big blue blanket

(US, military, historical) A system used in World War II for protecting American warships from Japanese kamikaze attacks, involving (among other things) the constant presence of the blue-painted Hellcat and Corsair aircraft over the fleet at all times.


countervalue

countervalue (third-person singular simple present countervalues, present participle countervaluing, simple past and past participle countervalued)

countervalues (present singular third-person)
countervaluing (participle present)
countervalued (participle past)
countervalued (past)

From counter- + value. The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., records the first use of the word in 1660 and the first use in the modern sense in 1965, where it is described as a "euphemism for attacking cities".

(military) To target an opponent's assets which are of value but not actually a military threat, such as cities and civilian populations.


countervalue

(military) Targeting an opponent's assets which are of value but not actually a military threat, such as cities and civilian populations.


parish pump politics

Never avoid bars or smoke-rooms, because in the former case you miss the chance of marrying a flirt, and in the latter of having your mind improved by local parish-pump politics, and your head broken by a fool in his cups.

[1875?], Thomas Bardel Brindley, chapter I, in Hints, Humorous and Satirical, to All the World and His Wife. […], 3rd edition, London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. […], →OCLC, paragraph 7, page 6:

Unfortunately, the parish-pump politics this perpetuates is congenitally unsuited to deal with the demands of a modern European society.

1981, Electoral Politics in Ireland: Party and Parish Pump, page 144:

Where others looked at Canadian regionalism and saw a fruitful and admirable diversity of human experience, Laskin saw petty fiefdoms, parish pump politics, and constricted horizons.

2005, Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life, University of Toronto Press, page 22:

(Ireland, UK, politics, derogatory, informal) Political activity that is more evidently concerned with addressing the immediate needs of the local electorate than with strategy that might affect the national interest.

местни интереси

political activity concerned with addressing the immediate needs of the local electorate than with strategy that might affect the national interest


UFC

When Dana White barreled up to the microphone, at Donald Trump’s request, to say his piece on election night, it represented confirmation of the UFC CEO’s status as one of the key members of the president-elect’s inner circle.

2024 November 16, Aaron Timms, “How UFC head Dana White became the glue between Maga and the manosphere”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Ultimate Fighting Championship
w:Ultimate Fighting Championship

(US, martial arts) Initialism of Ultimate Fighting Championship, an American mixed martial arts promotion company.


buttocker

It is a chip, however, always fraught with peril, as the slack hold of the buttocker, if he misses his aim, enables his opponent to gain a firmer grip, which he is certain to make the best use of in the commanding position in which he finds himself.

1889, Walter Armstrong, Wrestling, page 199:

(wrestling) One who uses the cross-buttock throw.


Eurasianism

neo-Eurasianism

specifically the ideology by Aleksandr Dugin and the like

Ruscism

a movement supporting Vladimir Putin and militarism

The third intellectual context important for civilizationism in post-Soviet intellectual production is Eurasianism—both the classical Russian émigré movement of the 1920s and the late Soviet and early post-Soviet “neo-Eurasianism” of such thinkers as Lev Gumilev, Aleksandr Dugin, and Aleksandr Panarin.

2020, Kåre Johan Mjør, Sanna Turoma, editors, Russia as Civilization, Routledge, →ISBN, page 1983:

(geopolitics) A Russian political movement focused on the Russian geopolitical interests in Eurasia.

eurasianismi

Russian political movement focused on the geopolitical concept of Eurasia

(politics) A far-right movement and its ideology promoted by Alexandr Dugin, often seen as a Russian kind of fascism


inverted pall

The Chinese running-hand form of the number six is 1, and this scarcely bears comparison with the mark in question, which looks almost exactly like an inverted pall or Y, each of whose three branches is formed of four circlets or dots, making twelve altogether.

It may be embroidered or edged with lace and a cross worked on its centre to distinguish it from the Mass corporal; or an inverted pall of the right size might conveniently be used if preferred.

1956, Edward Cyril Russell Lamburn, Ritual Notes:

When the two arms of the "Y" are on the hoist it may be called a simple pall, with the two arms on the fly a reversed pall, with the two arms on the top edge an upright pall and with the two arms on the bottom edge of the flag an inverted pall.

2008, A. P. Burgers, The South African flag book:


lantaka

lantakas (plural)
lantaca (alternative)
rentaka (alternative)

(historical, military) A kind of portable bronze cannon or swivel gun, sometimes mounted on merchant vessels and warships in Maritime Southeast Asia.


MAGA

The 17-year-old told a CBS affiliate the Maga hats - a staple of President Trump's campaign - are a "racist and hateful symbol." ¶ According to the sheriff's office, the student began verbally attacking her peer on Monday because of the Maga hat, before grabbing and hurling it to the ground.

2018 August 29, “California schoolgirl arrested in Trump hat classroom fracas”, in BBC News, BBC, archived from the original on 2018-08-30:

“Four more years!” the incumbent’s backers called out even louder, largely unencumbered by face coverings. ¶ “Black Lives Matter!” ¶ “Black Lives MAGA!”

2020 October 31, Matt Flegenheimer, “Campaign 2020: Let's Never Do This Again”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2020-11-01:

“Mitch knows he can’t take Trump off the table there,” Scott Reed, a longtime G.O.P. strategist, said of the calculations of Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. “He needs him to energize the MAGA crowd.”

2020 November 18, Richard Fausset, Jonathan Martin, “In Georgia, a Republican Feud With Trump at the Center”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2020-11-18:

Make America Great Again
w:Make America Great Again

(US politics) Acronym of Make America Great Again.


MAGA

en-adj

MAGA (comparative more MAGA, superlative most MAGA)

more MAGA (comparative)
most MAGA (superlative)
Maga (alternative UK)

MAGA Republicans

(US politics) Following the political philosophy of Donald Trump; Trumpist.


MAGA

A terrified mob of these MAGAs in their red hats had gathered in the town square screaming: “Where’s Sarah? Where’s Sarah? She promised to make Stars Hollow great again! She’s the only one who can save us!”

2020, John Pansini, Election 2220: Night of the Voting Dead, RtS Publishing, →ISBN:

A different study by political scientists found that Trump’s anti-immigrant ravings actually inspired more white people to vote against him than it did white MAGAs to vote for him.

2020, Kurt Andersen, Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History, Random House, →ISBN, page 267:

Trump, a man devoted to television like it’s religion, likely couldn’t give a damn, but the RNC, the state parties, and the various victory committees will be working their asses off to deploy MAGAs into the field.

2020, Rick Wilson, “The Trump 2020 War Machine”, in Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump—and Democrats from Themselves, New York, N.Y.: Crown Forum, →ISBN, part 3 (Army of Darkness: Trump’s War Machine), page 138:

There were two problems for an African American in Washington DC, during a MAGA rally. First, there were too many pro-Trump MAGAs in town. Worse, there were lots of police officers too. […] At Harry’s Bar a few blocks from the hotel, Money B had apparently made friends because these MAGAs turned out to be fans of his famous songs, like “The Humpty Dance.”

2021, Erbil Gunasti, Daphne Barak, “[[Coming Home] Trump Extended Hand] Celebrating Christmas at the White House”, in Struggling for One America: Trump vs. Hollywood: The Two White Houses, Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN:

Many of the founders and leaders of today’s populist parties now just aren’t like their followers. The followers either don’t know – there are plenty of vox pops where Magas (Make American Great Agains) still describe Trump as a self-made man – or don’t care: all this fussing about class origins and elite linkages is just what bitter, twisted liberals do.

2021, Peter York, “(Most) Populists aren’t what they seem…”, in John Mair, Tor Clark, Neil Fowler, Raymond Snoddy, Richard Tait, editors, Populism, the Pandemic and the Media: Journalism in the age of Covid, Trump, Brexit and Johnson, Abramis Academic Publishing, →ISBN, section 2 (UK politics and the media), page 103:

MY LIBERAL RUSSIAN FRIENDS STARTED TO CALL THOSE PEOPLE KRYM-NASHI (“CRIMEA’S OURS”-NIKS) MUCH AS AMERICAN LIBERALS CALL DONALD TRUMP’S FANS MAGAS.

[2022, Andrew S. Weiss, Accidental Czar: The Life and Lies of Vladimir Putin, First Second, →ISBN, page 198:

For DeSantis, it’s “Ron De-sanctimonious.” It doesn’t matter whether his MAGAs know what sanctimonious means; Trump makes the point and his loyal servants get a good laugh.

2022, George Waas, Social Media Musings: Book 4, AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

Taylor tweeted about the bind that Zelenskyy found himself in: “Ukraine, of course, is desperate for US support. The biggest risk they face is falling out of favor with the American public. And that explains any upcoming recapitulation of ‘no pressure.’ They can’t afford to piss off the MAGAs. They are truly hostages in this.”

2022, Amanda Sturgill, “National Security”, in We Are #ALTGOV: Social Media Resistance from the Inside, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 146:

In this pop-culture milieu, political parties are like personality cults, and their leaders are symbolic of their group’s identity. So in addition to Janeites (fans of Jane Austen), Beliebers (Justin Bieber) and Swifties (Taylor Swift), we now have MAGAs (Donald Trump), Corbynistas (Jeremy Corbyn) and Boristas (Boris Johnson).

2023, Michael Bond, Fans: A Journey Into the Psychology of Belonging, Picador, →ISBN:

I am sure he reasoned that as an Independent all he would have accomplished would be the sure election of Hillary by splitting MAGAs and Republicans, as Teddy Roosevelt did when he tried to regain the Presidency.

2023, Jack B. Walters, “Who are MAGA- Republicans?”, in One Last Attempt (The Last Angry Man), Trafford Publishing, →ISBN:

The adults were to blame, not just the crazy MAGAs but ordinary people who don’t know any better.

2023, James Oliver Goldsborough, chapter 16, in The Devil’s Presence, City Point Press, →ISBN:

(US politics) A follower of the political philosophy of Donald Trump.


Makhnovism

(anarchism, communism) The theory and strategy of Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary.


Makhnovist

Makhnovist (comparative more Makhnovist, superlative most Makhnovist)

more Makhnovist (comparative)
most Makhnovist (superlative)
Makhnoist (alternative)

(anarchism) Of or pertaining to Makhnovism.


Makhnovist

Makhnovists (plural)
Makhnoist (alternative)


kill zone

You either kept distance or an obstacle between yourself and the engagement area, a buffer zone against the enemy's reaction from the kill zone.

2004, Charles W. Sasser, Craig Roberts, Crosshairs on the Kill Zone, →ISBN, page 90:

We had to get out of the kill zone if at all possible. We were also told if a truck in front of us gets hit and will not move, not to stop, but to go around it and get out of the kill zone.

2007, Gerald L. Hunt, The Kill Zone: Day to Day Convoys in Iraq, →ISBN, page 43:

Wolff radioed Dressler that the Russian had been driven from the first kill zone and was close to being driven from the second kill zone.

2014, Doug Eiderzen, The Ambiance of Victoria, →ISBN, page 322:

If time is available, the ambush group may prepare the kill zone with obstacles, booby traps, mines or trip flares.

2014, Chris McNab, Martin J. Dougherty, Combat Techniques: The Complete Guide to How Soldiers Fight Wars Today, Amber Books Ltd, →ISBN:

The American escort carriers turn south, passing right through what would have been 2nd Destroyer Division's kill zone. But, as a result of Kurita's orders, they, and their Long Lances, are still off to the north of the formation, looking for Kongō.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 19:38 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03:

(military) The area of engagement where an attack on the enemy is focused and which has the highest percentage of fatalities.


neo-Leninism

(communism) Leninist theory updated for the contemporary era.


buckraking

From buck (“dollar”) + raking (“hauling in with a rake”). Inspired by muckraking.

compound

conflict of interest
conflict of interest

(politics, derogatory) The practice of paid speaking before commercial interests, viewed as a potential source of conflict of interest.


Rogergnome

Compound of Roger + gnome, in reference to Rogernomics.

(New Zealand politics, derogatory) A supporter of Rogernomics; a market liberal, a neoliberal.


pornotroping

Coined by Hortense J. Spillers in her 1987 essay “Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book”; porno- + trope + -ing.

(feminism) The process of reducing a person or group of people to mere flesh, stripped of personhood and made into the object of violent and sexual impulses.


Bloggins

(Canada, military) A generic name placeholder


Qutbist

en-adj

Qutbist (comparative more Qutbist, superlative most Qutbist)

more Qutbist (comparative)
most Qutbist (superlative)
Quṭbist (alternative)

(Islam, politics) Of or pertaining to Qutbism.


Qutbist

(Islam, politics) A supporter of Qutbism.


Qutbism

The ideology of Qutbism was pursued by Muhammad Abdul al-Salam Faraj, who emerged after Qutb as Egypt's most important Islamist revolutionaries.

2007, Bilveer Singh, The Talibanization of Southeast Asia: Losing the War on Terror to Islamist Extremists:

(Islam, politics) An Islamist ideology developed by Sayyid Qutb, the figurehead of the Muslim Brotherhood, involving the use of military force to propagate sharia law.


DUP

Democratic Unionist Party
w:Democratic Unionist Party

(Northern Ireland, politics) Initialism of Democratic Unionist Party.


Maybot

From May + -bot. Popularised by John Crace for political sketches published since November 8th 2016.

Whirr. Clunk. Clang. The Maybot’s eyes rotated into life.

2016 November 8, John Crace, “Theresa struggles to take back control – from her own Maybot”, in The Guardian:

Theresa Villiers, the former Northern Ireland Secretary, sacked in the Maybot takeover, sported a vacuous grin throughout the whole mechanical exercise, confirming perhaps that the election chip had been successfully inserted.

2017 May 8, Michael Settle, “Election sketch: the Maybot repeats herself - strong and stable leadership; me not him”, in The Herald Scotland:

Her campaign team seemed to have found a patch for the Maybot.

2017 June 3, Andrew Rawnsley, “The Maybot and Monsieur Zen. A drama that didn’t obey the script”, in The Guardian:

2018 November 21, Brian Smith, letter to the editor in "‘Queue-jumping’ comment reveals the Tories’ moral vacuum", The Guardian.
The perils of AI decision-making incorporating false assumptions is nicely illustrated by the Maybot’s latest output: EU citizens will no longer be able to “jump the queue ahead of ... software developers from Delhi”.

(UK politics, derogatory, humorous) A nickname for Theresa May.


AHS

(Canada, health, medicine, government) Initialism of Alberta Health Services.


slicktop

(US, Canada, law enforcement, informal) a police car with painted markings and decals but no external rooftop lights.


identity parade

en-noun

identity parade (plural identity parades)

He moved through the circle and sat down on Cost’s left like a criminal taking his place in an identity parade.

1943, Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear, London: Heinemann, published 1950, Book 1, Chapter 4, p. 61:

‘I deny it, I utterly deny it, my movements were those I’ve given you.’
‘Yet you refuse to take part in an identity parade?’

1984, Alan Hunter, chapter 6, in The Unhanged Man, New York: Walker, pages 87–88:

(UK, Ireland, law enforcement) A process by which a witness confirms the identity of a criminal suspect, by viewing the suspect together with other people who were not involved in the crime.


jurisdictionalism

jurisdictionalism (usually uncountable, plural jurisdictionalisms)

(politics) A policy of affirming a laical jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical one.

juridictionnalisme

policy advocating the superiority of the State over the Church


Nucflash

(US military) Code word indicating the actual or possible detonation of a nuclear weapon and consequent risk of an outbreak of nuclear war.

United States military nuclear incident terminology


special relationship

Very satisfactory indeed. We got what we came for, and our special relationship is still very special.

2003, Richard Curtis, Love Actually, spoken by US president (Billy Bob Thornton):

(diplomacy, politics) The political and diplomatic relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom beginning in the World War II era.


confidence and supply

(politics) In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, an agreement by a party or individual members to support the government in motions of confidence and appropriation or budget (supply) votes, by either voting in favour or abstaining.


augmentee

(US, military) A person assigned to a unit to provide particular skills or to make up for a staff shortage.


UDD

(politics, historical) Initialism of National United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (“supporters of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who opposed the 2006 Thailand coup d'etat”).


Alliance

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
w:Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

(Northern Ireland, politics) Ellipsis of Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.

(UK politics, historical) The alliance in the 1980s between the SDP and the Liberal Party, precursor of the Liberal Democrats.


wag the dog

en-verb

wag the dog (third-person singular simple present wags the dog, present participle wagging the dog, simple past and past participle wagged the dog)

wags the dog (present singular third-person)
wagging the dog (participle present)
wagged the dog (participle past)
wagged the dog (past)

From tail wagging the dog, first used in the 1858 play, Our American Cousin. The shortened form with the political sense was popularized by the film Wag the Dog (1997).

(idiomatic, politics) To divert negative political attention by use of a military operation.


Lexiteer

/ˈlɛksɪtɪəɹ/

A counterweight to the anti-immigrant fear mongering of the former leader of the right-wing U.K. Independence Party, Nigel Farage, Lexiteers argued a left-wing, democratic and internationalist case for Brexit.

2017 March 28, Alan Johnson, “Why Brexit Is Best for Britain: The Left-Wing Case”, in New York Times:

(UK politics) A leftist supporter of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union; a left-wing Brexiteer.


overhang seat

(politics) A legislative seat distribution, used to guarantee that a party gets their fair share of seats, when a party is entitled to fewer seats as a result of party votes than it has won constituencies. Additional seats granted to that party would be overhang seats.

overhangmandaat

Legislative seat distribution principle in certain countries


leveling seat

(politics) Seats of additional members elected to supplement the members directly elected by each constituency, for ensuring that each party's share of the total seats is roughly proportional to the parties' overall shares of votes at the national level.

tillægsmandat

seats that ensure a representation proportional to votes at the national level


PMC

(military) Initialism of private military company or corporation.

That the PMCs working in Iraq operate in a legal black hole is, in my mind, a huge problem but also an eminently solvable one.

2007 September 29, Matthew Yglesias, “The Case for PMCs?”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 2025-06-04:

The first time he ever shot somebody, and knew about it, “was as a PMC. The firefights were a lot closer, a lot more personal.”

2016 February 6, Emine Saner, quoting Stephen Friday, “The return of the dogs of war: what's it like to be a soldier for hire?”, in The Guardian:

(military) Initialism of private military contractor.


PMC

People's Mobilization Committee
w:Popular Mobilization Forces

(military) Initialism of People's Mobilization Committee.

(military) Initialism of President of the Mess Committee.

Philippine Marine Corps
w:Philippine Marine Corps

(Philippines, military) Initialism of Philippine Marine Corps.

Stephanie Foster, the PMC deputy secretary of governance, told the finance and public administration estimates hearing that Morrison convenes meetings attended by others.

2020 March 2, Paul Karp, “Scott Morrison’s one-man cabinet committee an ‘abuse of process’, Labor says”, in The Guardian:

(Australian politics) Initialism of prime minister and cabinet.


all-ports warning

en-noun

all-ports warning (plural all-ports warnings)

(UK, law enforcement) A form of all-points bulletin circulated to international ports so that a fleeing suspect can be identified and apprehended.


DExEU

Asked to respond to reports of ministers now being forced to consider a trade-off, the DExEU spokesman said they “did not recognise the language”.

(UK politics) The Department for Exiting the European Union.


WRA

(military) Initialism of weapons release authorization.


KAR

King's African Rifles
w:King's African Rifles

(military, historical) Initialism of King's African Rifles.


NRB

(UK, taxation and law) Initialism of nil-rate band.


mediamacro

Coined in 2014 by Simon Wren-Lewis. Compound of media + macro (“macroeconomics”).

Politicians who appeared to deviate from the new ‘mediamacro consensus’ of deficit fetishism suffered as a consequence.

2014 November 24, Simon Wren-Lewis, “Why We Need Our Fiscal Policy Instrument Back”, in Social Europe:

Mediamacro has a number of general features. It puts much more emphasis than conventional macroeconomics does on the financial markets, and on the views of participants in those markets. It prefers simple stories to more complex analysis. As part of this, it is fond of analogies between governments and individuals, even when those analogies are generally seen to be false by macroeconomists.

2015 February 19, Simon Wren-Lewis, “The Austerity Con”, in London Review of Books:

Simon Wren-Lewis has been on a lonely crusade against “mediamacro”, a narrative about the British economy that is untrue — or at the very least easily challenged and at odds with textbook economics — yet is stated in the news media not as a hypothesis but as a fact.

2015 May 4, Paul Krugman, “Mediamacro Crosses the Atlantic”, in New York Times:

2016, Felix R. FitzRoy, Elissaios Papyrakis, An Introduction to Climate Change Economics and Policy, Routledge (2nd revised ed., 1st ed. from 2009), →ISBN.
This has been particularly striking since 2010, when most left-of-centre parties such as Labour in the UK and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Germany have embraced the conservative-populist arguments for deficit reduction and austerity of the mainstream media, or ‘mediamacro’, which are rejected by almost all academic macroeconomists (at least in the UK and US, though not in Germany).

A key element of mediamacro is the naive assumption that higher government borrowing is inherently dangerous and that lower borrowing is always praiseworthy.

2018 November 4, Ben Chu, “We need to learn that the real economic gamble is sometimes too little government borrowing – not too much”, in The Independent:

(politics, economics, media) A narrative or set of beliefs promulgated as factual by news media that distorts macroeconomic consensus, e.g. often presenting the (total) government deficit as a prime economic indicator and invoking analogies between governments and households on debt.


Russiagate

Her [Fiona Hill's] time as special assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian Affairs, a role that put her at the center of domestic and geopolitical intrigue, follows the arc of the Russiagate scandal that dogged Trump’s presidency almost from its inception.

2019 September 30, Natasha Bertrand, “The Russia Hawk in the White House”, in POLITICO Magazine:

(US politics, informal) The controversy and Russia investigation that ensued after the US presidential election in 2016 regarding the discovery of myriad secretive links between Trump associates and Russian officials.


scrub gun

(Australia, firearms, informal) a short firearm, designed for use in dense foliage.


ethnomasochistic

en-adj

ethnomasochistic (comparative more ethnomasochistic, superlative most ethnomasochistic)

more ethnomasochistic (comparative)
most ethnomasochistic (superlative)

Our decadent, ethnomasochistic society cannot, however, avoid forging pseudo-heroes or sub-heroes: football players, soap opera stars, humanitarian doctors, […]

2011, Guillaume Faye, Why We Fight: Manifesto of the European Resistance, page 156:

How, then, are ethnomasochistic WASPs to be “saved,” above all from themselves?

2011, Andrew Fraser, The WASP Question, page 326:

This is nothing less than the inversion of meaning through the perversion of perception. It is the sacrificing of Shakespeare on the altar of the ethnomasochistic angst that is the bane of postmodernism.

2016, Joseph Pearce, Through Shakespeare's Eyes:

(politics, derogatory) self-loathing on the grounds of one's own race


go equipped

en-verb

go equipped (third-person singular simple present goes equipped, present participle going equipped, simple past went equipped, past participle gone equipped)

goes equipped (present singular third-person)
going equipped (participle present)
went equipped (past)
gone equipped (participle past)

From the heading of section 25 of the Theft Act 1968: "Going equipped for stealing, etc."

Would I go equipped? You can get a stiff sentence for that! I've got a couple of skeleton keys, I don't deny, but I hope we won't need them. There are other ways.

1997, Claire Rayner, Fifth Member (George Barnabas; 4):

They were allegedly carrying cable cutters and a hammer when they were arrested and could face up to 10 years in prison if deemed to have "gone equipped" to commit an offence at the base.

2006 June 1, “Base trespass suspects rearrested”, in BBC News:

A Scotland Yard spokesman said three arrests were for public order offences, one was for possession of an offensive weapon, three were for going equipped and 12 breaches of the peace.

2011 November 9, “Thousands march in student fees protest”, in The Independent:

All had admitted conspiracy to burgle and Talbot also admitted going equipped to burgle and Eldred a breach of a conditional discharge.

2017 February 8, Ian Proctor, “JAILED: Burglars who went equipped with tools, disguises and homemade swag bags”, in The Lancashire Telegraph:

(UK, law and law enforcement, intransitive) To carry tools, weapons or other articles with the intent of using them to commit a crime.


jineology

Anglicized from Northern Kurdish jineolojî, from jin (“woman”).

(feminism, politics) A school of feminist thought espoused by various leftist groups in Kurdistan.


far-leftist

en-adj

far-leftist (comparative more far-leftist, superlative most far-leftist)

more far-leftist (comparative)
most far-leftist (superlative)
far leftist (alternative)


green army

'We'll get the green army to keep an eye on the place, make sure there's not too much activity while our backs are turned,' said the ops officer.

1998, Catherine Jones, Sisters In Arms, →ISBN:

Roger that. Feds and green army are blue lighting to you.

2014, James Rennie, The Operators, Pen and Sword, →ISBN:

Frodsham and his guard fell in alongside Tiger and Mack, Mack flicked the safety off his L85; an unreliable piece of crap that the green army troopers hated, and the SAS had replaced with M16's and then C8 SFW carbines.

2014, Josef Black, SAS Special Operations Force (The Blades; 1), NYXZU Digital Press, →ISBN:

(UK, military slang) The regular army, not including any special forces.


Iskander

Borrowed from Russian Искандер (Iskander), ultimately from the Arabic name in etymology 1 above.

bor+

(military) 9K720 Iskander (Russian ballistic missile)


regular order

A call for the regular order asks the chair to restore proper procedure.

(US, politics) The customary formal procedures of a legislative or similar body.


Lord President of the Council

(politics, UK) The fourth of the Great Officers of State of England.


IMT

(law, military) Initialism of International Military Tribunal.


TRADOC

w:United States Army Training and Doctrine Command

(US, military) Abbreviation of United States Army Training and Doctrine Command.


listening watch

en-noun

listening watch (plural listening watches)

1950, Neville Shute, The Legacy (UK title: A Town Like Alice), New York: William Morrow & Co., Chapter 10, p. 278,
“ […] It’s okay here if you want to close down your listening watch for tonight, Jackie. I’d like to have a listening watch in daylight hours tomorrow, from seven o’clock on. Is this Roger? Over.”

(military, aviation) Continuous monitoring for incoming communications.


CFA

Cooperative Framework Agreement
w:Nile Basin Initiative

(diplomacy) Initialism of Cooperative Framework Agreement.

(US, military) Initialism of candidate fitness assessment.


Foggy Bottom

Perhaps in reference to the smoke from industrial facilities.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked boldly about smart power projection, but by the time she left Foggy Bottom, she was still stuck deploying the same meager, smart power tools that she inherited.

2019 October 7, Chris Murphy, “How to Make a Progressive Foreign Policy Actually Work”, in The Atlantic:

(US politics, metonymic) The United States Department of State, whose headquarters are nearby.


wombyn

Form "My journey as a wombyn child emerging from a wombyn, my mother, and my own growth thru all the passages and consecutive emergences to the present is both similar to the experiences of generations of wombyn gone before me and uniquely my own.

1983, Lynda Ross Ford, Bleeding, page 147:

I come from a generation of wombyn that struggled and strived alone.

2014, Diata, Wombanystic Thoughts, →ISBN, page 108:

These spritely guides are merely an inspiration for you to begin or deepen your journey depending on where you are in your development. I invite you to take time to see what your personal guidance says about your wombyn's rhythms.

2016, Zsuzsi Hussla, Unraveling Her, →ISBN:


Dexit

From German Dexit, from the blend of Deutschland (“Germany”) + Exit (“exit”), modeled on Brexit, from English Brexit.

blend

The AfD had planned to put a call for “Dexit” at the heart of its manifesto for May’s European parliament elections, with a pledge to leave the EU by 2024 unless the bloc is radically reformed. […] Originally founded to oppose the single currency, the AfD has previously shied away from calling for Dexit in a country where 75 per cent of people believe EU membership is beneficial, according to a poll last year.

2019 January 14, Justin Huggler, “Germany's AfD backs away from Dexit call as France's Le Pen pledges to reform EU from within”, in The Daily Telegraph:

(politics) The hypothetical withdrawal of Germany from the European Union.


Dexit

Blend of Denmark + exit, modeled on Brexit.

Support for 'Dexit' falls sharply since Brexit […] Euroscepticism has fast lost support in Denmark as the consequences of Britain’s vote for Brexit become clearer, new polling suggest.

2018 April 3, Jon Stone, “Euroscepticism plummets in Denmark as consequences of Brexit become clear”, in The Independent:

Many had seen Denmark as a possible candidate to follow the UK out of the EU, but even the Danish People’s party has backed away from Dexit, while the government has turned from London to Berlin on a number of policies.

2022 June 1, Richard Milne, “Denmark votes to end EU defence opt-out in historic referendum”, in Financial Times:

(politics) The hypothetical withdrawal of Denmark from the European Union.


superplex

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(professional wrestling) A suplex performed by an attacker standing on the second or third rope against an opponent sitting on the top rope or top turnbuckle.


superplex

en-verb

superplex (third-person singular simple present superplexes, present participle superplexing, simple past and past participle superplexed)

superplexes (present singular third-person)
superplexing (participle present)
superplexed (participle past)
superplexed (past)

(professional wrestling) To attack with a superplex.


anarcho-kulak

(history, derogatory, rare, politics) Paradoxically holding both anarchist and bourgeois sympathies (particularly in regards to Free Territory).