free

en-adj

free (comparative freer or more free, superlative freest or most free)

freer (comparative)
more free (comparative)
freest (superlative)
most free (superlative)

From Middle English free, fre, freo, from Old English frēo (“free”), from Proto-West Germanic *frī, from Proto-Germanic *frijaz (“beloved, not in bondage”), from Proto-Indo-European *priHós (“pleased, loved”), from *preyH- (“to please, love”). Related to friend.
cognates, etc
Germanic cognates include West Frisian frij (“free”), Dutch vrij (“free”), Low German free (“free”), German frei (“free”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian fri (“free”).
Other cognates include Sanskrit प्रिय (priyá-, “beloved”).
Germanic and Celtic are the only Indo-European language branches in which the PIE word with the meaning of "dear, beloved" acquired the additional meaning of "free" in the sense of "not in bondage". This was an extension of the idea of "characteristic of those who are dear and beloved", in other words friends and tribe members (in contrast to unfree inhabitants from other tribes and prisoners of war, many of which were among the slaves – compare the Latin use of liberi to mean both "free persons" and "children of a family").

inh

there ain't no such thing as a free lunch

why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

en:unconstrained, physically or mechanically

(military) Of a rocket or missile: not under the control of a guidance system after being launched.


book

en-verb

book (third-person singular simple present books, present participle booking, simple past and past participle booked)

books (present singular third-person)
booking (participle present)
booked (participle past)
booked (past)

From Middle English booken, boken, from Old English bōcian, ġebōcian, from the noun (see above).

some speakers from Northern England and Ireland

buck (without the foot-strut split, when pronounced /bʊk/)

The police booked him for driving too fast.

(law enforcement, transitive) To record the name and other details of a suspected offender and the offence for later judicial action.


A

* (highest rank, grade, music): From the initial position of the letter A in the English alphabet.
* (blood type): From A antigen

A-bomb


crow

From Middle English crowe, from Old English crāwe, from Proto-West Germanic *krāā, from Proto-Germanic *krēǭ (compare West Frisian krie, Dutch kraai, German Krähe), from *krēaną (“to crow”). See below.

A young petty officer that must have just received his “crow” (a single chevron, with an eagle over it) was showing off to several seamen.

2002, Ed Goodrich, Riggers that Dive, page 46:

The young man had been threatened with loss of his third class rank, his “crow,” the eagle in a petty officer's sleeve insignia.

2003, Jonathan T. Malay, Seraphim Sky, page 106:

(military, slang) The emblem of an eagle, a sign of military rank.


hour

hours (plural)
hower (alternative obsolete)
houre (alternative obsolete)
howre (alternative obsolete)

Bislama: aua

Tok Pisin: aua

→ Hausa: awa

From Middle English houre, hour, oure, from Anglo-Norman houre, from Old French houre, (h)ore, from Latin hōra (“hour”), from Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra, “any time or period, whether of the year, month, or day”), from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, season”). Akin to Old English ġēar (“year”). Doublet of hora and year.
Partly displaced native Old English tīd (“time, hour”), whence Modern English tide.

der

the darkest hour is always just before the dawn

the darkest hour is just before the dawn

By 1300 hours the position was fairly clear.

2000, T. C. G. James, edited by Sebastian Cox, The Battle of Britain, →ISBN:

(military, in the plural) Used after a two-digit hour and a two-digit minute to indicate time.


substantive

en-adj

substantive (comparative more substantive, superlative most substantive)

more substantive (comparative)
most substantive (superlative)

From Middle English substantif, from Old French substantif.

съществен

of the essence or essential element of a thing

(military, of a rank or appointment) Actually and legally held, as distinct from an acting, temporary or honorary rank or appointment


patronage

en-noun

patronage (countable and uncountable, plural patronages)

/ˈpeɪtɹənɪd͡ʒ/

/ˈpætɹənɪd͡ʒ/

From Middle English patronage, from Old French patronage (modern French patronage). Equivalent to patron + -age.

Patronage, nepotism, cronyism, abuse of power, and criminal activity flourish, sometimes for decades, in numerous town halls, police stations, and special-purpose government agencies in the suburbs.

2015, Thomas J. Gradel, Dick Simpson, Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 117:

(politics) Granting favours or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support.

клиентелизъм

granting favours or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support


name

en-verb

name (third-person singular simple present names, present participle naming, simple past and past participle named)

names (present singular third-person)
naming (participle present)
named (participle past)
named (past)

From Middle English namen, from Old English namian (“to name, mention”) and ġenamian (“to name, call, appoint”), from Proto-West Germanic *namōn (“to name”). Compare also Old English nemnan, nemnian (“to name, give a name to a person or thing”).

my very easy method just speeds up naming planets

I must warn the Right Honourable gentleman, that if he persists in his refusal to comply with my order to withdraw [the words "deliberately deceptive"], I shall be compelled to name him.

2013 July 10, John (Speaker of the House of Commons) Bercow, (Please provide the book title or journal name), to MP Nigel Dodds:

(transitive, Westminster system politics) To initiate a process to temporarily remove a member of parliament who is breaking the rules of conduct.


Fabian

en-adj

Fabian (comparative more Fabian, superlative most Fabian)

more Fabian (comparative)
most Fabian (superlative)
fabian (alternative)

From Latin Fabiānus (“belonging to Fabius”), derived from Fabius + -ānus.

Hood complained behind his commander's back to Richmond of Johnston's Fabian strategy.

1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2004, page 745:

(military) Pertaining to or reminiscent of Roman general Fabius Maximus, whose tactics against Hannibal during the Second Punic War famously consisted of delaying or avoiding combat, focusing instead on weakening the enemy by cutting off supply lines.

(politics) Advocating that social reforms be reached through a series of gradual and moderate stages rather than sudden revolution; specifically, relating to the Fabian Society, a British socialist society advocating reformist socialism.


Fabian

(politics) A Fabian socialist, a gradualist socialist; a member of the Fabian Society.


abased

abased (comparative more abased, superlative most abased)

more abased (comparative)
most abased (superlative)

The blazon will be - A fess abased potentée of Champagne towards the point. The peculiar potent of Champagne may be seen in Bouton, Nouveau Traité de Blason, p. 199 (Paris, 1863.)

(G) Azure 3 bells in fess, abased.

1913, Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, Transactions and Journal of Proceedings, page 107:

Per fess abased nebuly celeste and gules fimbriated argent throughout a pile azure between two rays in point argent bearing a sword in pale point to base of the like, grip gules, […]

1984, Charles A. Ravenstein, Air Force Combat Wings: Lineage and Honors Histories, 1947-1977, page 113:


abatement

en-noun

abatement (countable and uncountable, plural abatements)

From Middle English abatement, from Anglo-Norman abatre (“to abate”) (from Old French abatre), + -ment; equivalent to abate + -ment.

(heraldry) A mark of dishonor on an escutcheon; any figure added to the coat of arms tending to lower the dignity or station of the bearer.


able

From the first letter of the word. Suggested in the 1916 United States Army Signal Book to distinguish the letter when communicating via telephone, and later adopted in other radio and telephone signal standards.

(military) The letter "A" in Navy Phonetic Alphabet.


ablution

ablution (countable and uncountable, plural ablutions)

From Middle English ablucioun (“cleansing of impurities”), from Old French ablution, and its source, Late Latin ablūtiō (“a washing away”), from abluō (“wash away”), from ab- (“away”) + lavō (“wash”).

inh

(plural only, UK, military) The location or building where the showers and basins are located.


abort

→ Polish: abort

→ Portuguese: abort

From Middle English, from Latin abortus, perfect active participle of aborior (“miscarry”), formed from ab + orior (“come into being”). Doublet of abortus.

We've had aborts on three of our last seven launches.

(military, aeronautics) An early termination of a mission, action, or procedure in relation to missiles or spacecraft; the craft making such a mission.


abort

en-verb

abort (third-person singular simple present aborts, present participle aborting, simple past and past participle aborted)

aborts (present singular third-person)
aborting (participle present)
aborted (participle past)
aborted (past)

From Latin abortare, from abortus, from aboriri (“miscarry”), from ab- (“not”) + oriri (“come into being, arise, appear”).

First he aborts the take-off and now we have a runway incursion!

2022, Michael & Stefan Strasser, Chicken Wings (comic):

(intransitive, military) To abandon a mission at any point after the beginning of the mission and prior to its completion.


acceptability

en-noun

acceptability (countable and uncountable, plural acceptabilities)

From Latin acceptābilitās. By surface analysis, accept + -ability.

(military) Operation plan review criterion. The determination as to whether the contemplated course of action is worth the cost in manpower, materiel, and time involved; is consistent with the law of war; and is militarily and politically supportable. (JP 1-02 Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms)


acceptance

acceptance (countable and uncountable, plural acceptances)

acceptances (plural)
acceptaunce (alternative)

* First attested in 1574. From Middle French acceptance, from Old French accepter (“accept”). Equivalent to accept + -ance.

(government, US) The act of an authorized representative of the government by which the government assents to ownership of existing and identified supplies, or approves specific services rendered, as partial or complete performance of a contract.


acclamation

acclamation (countable and uncountable, plural acclamations)

* First attested in 1541.
* Borrowed from Latin acclāmātiō, acclāmātiōnis (“calling, exclamation, shout of approval”), from acclamo (“shout approval or disapproval of, shout out at”), from ad (“toward”) + clamo (“cry out”)
* Compare French acclamation.

bor

(politics) An oral vote taken without formal ballot and with much fanfare; typically an overwhelmingly affirmative vote.


spring

en-verb

spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past sprang or sprung, past participle sprung)

springs (present singular third-person)
springing (participle present)
sprang (past)
sprung (past)
sprung (participle past)
spring (infinitive)
spring (first-person present singular)
sprang (first-person past singular)
sprung (first-person nonstandard past singular)
spring (present second-person singular)
sprang (past second-person singular)
sprung (nonstandard past second-person singular)
springs (present singular third-person)
sprang (past singular third-person)
sprung (nonstandard past singular third-person)
spring (plural present)
sprang (past plural)
sprung (nonstandard past plural)
spring (present subjunctive)
sprang (past subjunctive)
sprung (nonstandard past subjunctive)
spring (imperative present)
springing (participle present)
sprung (participle past)
sprang (nonstandard participle past)

From Middle English springen, from Old English springan (“to spring, leap, bounce, sprout forth, emerge, spread out”), from Proto-West Germanic *springan, from Proto-Germanic *springaną (“to burst forth”), from Proto-Indo-European *spre(n)ǵʰ- (“to move, race, spring”), from *sper- (“to jerk, twitch, snap, shove”).
Cognates
* Saterland Frisian springe
* West Frisian springe
* Dutch springen
* German Low German springen
* German springen
* Danish springe
* Swedish springa
* Norwegian springe
* Faroese springa
* Icelandic springa (“to burst, explode”).
Other possible cognates include Lithuanian spreñgti (“to push (in)”), Old Church Slavonic прѧсти (pręsti, “to spin, to stretch”), Latin spargere (“to sprinkle, to scatter”), Ancient Greek σπέρχω (spérkhō, “to hasten”), Sanskrit स्पृहयति (spṛháyati, “to be eager”). Some newer senses derived from the noun.

cog

The whole contraption appears liable to spring apart at any moment.

2012 April 21, Sydney Morning Herald, page 5:


spring

en-noun

spring (countable and uncountable, plural springs)

Arlington Springs Man
Beijing Spring
Berber Spring
Croatian Spring
Damascus Spring
Operation Spring Awakening
Operation Spring Cleanup
Operation Spring of Youth
Prague Spring
Spring Palace
Spring of Nations
Springbal
Springfest
The Spring Offensive
spring

From Middle English spryng (“a wellspring, tide, branch, sunrise, kind of dance or blow, ulcer, snare, flock”); partly from Old English spring (“wellspring, ulcer”), from Proto-West Germanic *spring, from Proto-Germanic *springaz (“a wellspring, fount”); and partly from Old English spryng (“a jump”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprungi, from Proto-Germanic *sprungiz (“a jump”). Further senses derived from the verb and from clippings of day-spring, springtime, spring tide, etc. Its sense as the season, first attested in a work predating 1325, gradually replaced Middle English lente, lentin, from Old English lencten (“spring, Lent”) as that word became more specifically liturgical. Compare fall.

ааԥын

season between winter and summer in temperate climates

Arab Spring

Prague Spring

(uncountable, figurative) The time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.

(figurative, politics) a period of political liberalization and democratization


color

colors (plural)
colour (alternative Commonwealth Ireland)
usage notes (alternative)

From Middle English colour, color, borrowed from Anglo-Norman colur, from Old French colour, color, from Latin color. Doublet of couleur.
Displaced English blee, Middle English blee (“color”), from Old English blēo. Also partially replaced Old English hīew (“color”) and its descendants (English hue), which is less often used in this sense.
The spelling color was popularized in modern American English by Noah Webster, to match the spelling of the word's Latin etymon, and make all American spellings of the derivatives consistent (colorimeter, coloration, colorize, colorless, etc).

колори́т

interest, especially in a selective area

(heraldry) Any of the standard dark tinctures used in a coat of arms, including azure, gules, sable, and vert.

kleur

any of the standard dark tinctures used in a coat of arms

(military, in the plural) The morning ceremony of raising the flag.

The local hero is getting color in tonight's spectacle.

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(professional wrestling slang) To bleed, either through injury or blading. Usally prefaced with "get".


orange

en-noun

orange (countable and uncountable, plural oranges)

→ Esperanto: oranĝo

→ Hawaiian: ʻalani

→ Japanese: オレンジ (orenji)

desc

→ Kashubian: orendż (Canada, United States)

→ Korean: 오렌지 (orenji)

→ Makah: ʔo·linčas

→ Malay: oren, oyen

→ Marshallese: oran

→ Tamil: ஆரஞ்சு (ārañcu)

Etymology tree
Doric Greek μῆλον (mêlon)bor.?
Latin mālum
Italian mela
Proto-Mon-Khmer *lŋaamder.?
Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga)bor.
Classical Persian نَارَنْگ (nārang)bor.
Italian arancio
Italian arancia
Old Italian melaranciacalq.
Old French Orengeinflu.
Classical Persian نَارَنْگ (nārang)bor.
Arabic نَارَنْج (nāranj)bor.
Old Occitan auranjainflu.
Old French pomme d'orenge
Old French orenge
Middle French orangebor.
Middle English orenge
English orange
Inherited from Middle English orenge, orange, from Old French pome orenge (“fruit orange”), influenced by the place name Orange (which is from Gaulish and unrelated to the word for the fruit and color) and by Old Occitan auranja and calqued from Old Italian melarancio, melarancia, compound of mela (“apple”) and un'arancia (“an orange”), from Arabic نَارَنْج (nāranj), from Early Classical Persian نَارَنْگْ (nārang), from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga, “orange tree”), ultimately from Dravidian. Compare Tamil நாரங்காய் (nāraṅkāy), compound of நாரம் (nāram, “water”) and காய் (kāy, “fruit”); also Telugu నారంగము, నారింజ (nāraṅgamu, nāriñja), Malayalam നാരങ്ങ (nāraṅṅa), Kannada ನಾರಂಗಿ (nāraṅgi)).
Originally borrowed as the surname (derived from the place name) in the 13th century, before the sense of the fruit was imported in the late 14th century and the color in 1510. In the color sense, largely displaced ġeolurēad, whence yellow-red.

cog

Tamil நாரங்காய் (nāraṅkāy)

నారంగము, నారింజ

橘子

technically "tangerine", but often used as "orange"

there's more than one way to peel an orange

For quotations using this term, see Citations:orange.


zero

en-noun

zero (countable and uncountable, plural zeros or zeroes)

pole

antonym(s) of “value of a function's variables at zero”

From Spanish zero (now cero), Middle French zero (modern French zéro), and their etymon Italian zero, from Medieval Latin zephirum, from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “nothing, cipher”), itself calqued from (semantic loan) Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “void, nothingness”). Doublet of cipher and chiffre.

der

The visit to Townsville was filled with nostalgia for me. I remembered very well staying there on June 8, 1942. I shared a room with a brave and friendly officer, Colonel Francis Stevens. Early the next morning we flew to Port Moresby in New Guinea, and from there we took off in separate planes. Colonel Stevens never returned from that flight; his plane was shot down by a Japanese Zero.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, “The New Age of Regionalism”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 361:

(military, usually capitalized) A Mitsubishi A6M Zero, a long range fighter aircraft operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945.


LDP

Japan's keiretsu—or families of firms in large scratch-each-other's back networks—supported this or that faction in the LDP, producing a highly successful, structurally corrupt model of economic development that showed remarkable resilience through Japan's high growth economic period.

2011 August 1, Steve Clemons, “China's Internal Pluralism Is Nothing to Cheer About”, in The Atlantic:

Liberal Democratic Party
w:Liberal Democratic Party

(politics) Initialism of Liberal Democratic Party.


alphabet

From Middle English alphabete, borrowed from Classical Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos), from ἄλφα (álpha) and βῆτα (bêta), the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, Α (A) and Β (B), lowercase forms α and β. The Greek names derived from aleph, the name of the Phoenician letter 𐤀 (ʾ, “ox”) and beth, the name of the letter 𐤁 (b, “house”), so called because they were pictograms of those objects, having developed from the Egyptian hieroglyphs F1 (𓃾) and pr (𓉐).
 Doublet of alfabeto.

(Internet slang, politics) An agent of the FBI, the CIA, or another such government agency.


achievement

en-noun

achievement (countable and uncountable, plural achievements)

achievements (plural)
acheivement (alternative misspelling)

[əˈt͡ʃʰiːv.mɪ̈nt̚]

From Middle French achevement (compare Modern French achèvement), from Old French achevement, from the verb achever, achiever (“to finish”); equivalent to achieve + -ment. The heraldic sense may be influenced by hatchment.

Meronyms: shield, supporter, crest, motto

The narrow Gothic windows were filled, not with glass that admitted the light, but with glass painted with the achievements of the family […].

1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview, published 2004, page 488:

(heraldry) An escutcheon or ensign armorial; a full display or depiction of all the heraldic components to which the bearer of a coat of arms is entitled; (now especially) a funeral shield: the hatchment.


quarter

quarter (countable and uncountable, plural quarters)

From Middle English quarter, from Anglo-Norman quarter, from Latin quartarius, from quartus. Compare Spanish cuarto (“room, quarters; quarter”). Doublet of quartier.

cog

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

(heraldry) A fourth part of a coat of arms, or the charge on it, larger than a canton and normally on the upper dexter side, formed by a perpendicular line from the top meeting a horizontal line from the side.

Tietjens said: ‘Send the Canadian sergeant-major to me at the double….’ to the quarter.

1925, Ford Madox Ford, “Parade's End”, in No More Parades, Penguin, published 2012, page 360:

(military slang, now rare) A quartermaster; a quartermaster sergeant.

quartermaster sergeant
quartermaster sergeant


quarter

en-verb

quarter (third-person singular simple present quarters, present participle quartering, simple past and past participle quartered)

quarters (present singular third-person)
quartering (participle present)
quartered (participle past)
quartered (past)

It [the Central London Railway] assumed a modest and entirely heraldic device, quartering the arms of the City of London, the parishes of St. George's, Holborn (St. George and the dragon) and St. Marylebone (the Virgin and Child between two lilies […]), and the county of Middlesex, surmounted by the dragon's wing from the City's crest.

1950 June, Michael Robbins, “Heraldry of London Underground Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 382:

(heraldry) To display different coats of arms in the quarters of a shield.


OBE

(US politics, historical) Initialism of Office of Business Economics, now BEA.


CIA

/ˌsiːˌaɪˈeɪ/

(military) Initialism of captured-in-action.


AD

en-noun

AD (countable and uncountable, plural ADs)

ADs (plural)
A.D. (alternative)
A. D. (alternative)

(military) Initialism of air defence or air defense.


FBI

→ Arabic: إِف بِي أَي (ʔif bī ʔay)

→ Bulgarian: ФБР (FBR)

→ Dutch: FBI

→ French: FBI

→ Galician: FBI

desc

→ Hindi: एफ़ बी आई (ef bī āī)

→ Hindi: एफ़ बी आई (ef bī āī)

→ Indonesian: FBI

→ Japanese: エフ・ビー・アイ

→ Japanese: エフ・ビー・アイ

→ Marathi: एफ्.बी.आय्. (eph.bī.āy.)

→ Persian: افبیآی

→ Portuguese: FBI

→ Romanian: FBI

→ Russian: ФБР (FBR)

→ Thai: เอฟบีไอ

→ Thai: เอฟบีไอ

The FBI began publishing national quarterly crime reports last year, but has not done so for the first two quarters of 2021, stating that they require at least 60% of agencies to submit NIBRS data in order to publish quarterly data.

2021 September 27, Priya Krishnakumar, “Murders rose sharply in 2020 but data is lacking across much of the country”, in CNN:

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation#English

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(Australia, weather, firefighting) fire behaviour index


OCR

“As a result, OCR found that the district’s pattern of inconsistent responses to reports it received of sexual harassment – infrequently responding under Title IX or not responding at all – rose to the level that the district’s response to some families’ sexual harassment reports was deliberately indifferent to students’ civil rights,” a news release from DOE reads.

2024 November 14, Lauren del Valle, “After suicide of nonbinary teen, DOE finds multiple Title IX violations at Oklahoma school district”, in CNN:

(politics, US) Initialism of Office for Civil Rights.


FAC

Forward Air Control
w:Forward Air Control

(military, aviation) Initialism of Forward Air Control.


BC

en-noun

BC (countable and uncountable, plural BCs)

BCs (plural)
B.C. (alternative)
b.c. (alternative)
bc (alternative)


point

point (countable and uncountable, plural points)

→ Cantonese: point

→ Indonesian: poin

→ Japanese: ポイント (pointo)

→ Korean: 포인트 (pointeu)

→ Malay: poin

From Middle English poynt, from Old French point m (“dot; minute amount”), from Latin pūnctum (“a hole punched in; a point, puncture”), substantive use of pūnctus m, perfect passive participle of pungō (“I prick, punch”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“prick, punch”)); alternatively, from Old French pointe f (“sharp tip”), from Latin pūncta f (past participle). Mostly displaced native Middle English ord (“point”), from Old English ord (“point”). Doublet of pointe, ponto, puncto, punctum, punt, and punto.

kärki

position at the front or vanguard of an advancing force

decimal point

not used when reading decimal fractions aloud

(heraldry) One of the "corners" of the escutcheon: the base (bottom center) unless a qualifier is added (point dexter, point dexter base, point sinister, point sinister base), generally when separately tinctured. (Compare terrace, point champaine, enté en point.)

The point, according to Edmondson, (meaning the point pointed,) is an ordinary somewhat resembling the pile, issuing from the base, as in Plate VII. fig. 24, and is sometimes termed a base point pointed, but the word base is superfluous, as that is the proper place of the point;[…]

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

(heraldry, by extension) An ordinary similar to a pile (but sometimes shorter), extending upward from the base. (Often termed a point pointed.)

tierce point

(fencing) A movement executed with the sabre or foil.


man

men (plural)
mang (alternative)
mane (alternative)
mans (alternative)
mon (alternative)
mxn (alternative)
mans (alternative)
mens (alternative)
mandem (alternative)
mens (alternative)
mxn (alternative)
myn (alternative)

Tok Pisin: man

→ Cantonese: man

→ Chinook Jargon: man

→ Korean: 맨 (maen)

→ Mandarin: man (mān)

→ Spanish: man

→ Thai: แมน (mɛɛn)

→ Volapük: man

From Middle English man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- m, from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of Manu.
See also Saterland Frisian Mon, West Frisian man, Dutch man, Low German Mann, German Mann, Swedish man, Norwegian Nynorsk mann, Danish mand.

inh

чолові́к m (čolovík) (now usually means "man", "male human")

a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle

a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle

behind every great man there stands a woman

behind every successful man there stands a woman

every man is the architect of his own fortune

give a man a fish and you feed him for a day

teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime

it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God

the best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray

the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry

non-commissioned officer
non-commissioned officer

(military slang) A soldier below the rank of a non-commissioned officer.


port

en-verb

port (third-person singular simple present ports, present participle porting, simple past and past participle ported)

ports (present singular third-person)
porting (participle present)
ported (participle past)
ported (past)

From Old French porter, from Latin portāre (“carry”). Akin to transport, portable.

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

Port arms!

[…] the angelic squadron...began to hem him round with ported spears.

1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, book IV:

(transitive, military) To hold or carry (a weapon) with both hands so that it lies diagonally across the front of the body, with the barrel or similar part near the left shoulder and the right hand grasping the small of the stock; or, to throw (the weapon) into this position on command.

(US, government and law) To transfer a voucher or subsidy from one jurisdiction to another.

siirtää

to transfer a voucher or subsidy from one jurisdiction to another


port

(military) The position of a weapon when ported; a rifle position executed by throwing the weapon diagonally across the front of the body, with the right hand grasping the small of the stock and the barrel sloping upward and crossing the point of the left shoulder.


six

PIE word
 *swéḱs
From Middle English six, from Old English six, from Proto-West Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs. Compare West Frisian seis, Dutch zes, Low German söss, sess, German sechs, Norwegian and Danish seks, also Latin sex, Ancient Greek ἕξ (héx), Sanskrit षष् (ṣaṣ). Doublet of sice. Toilet sense predates military usage.

Table of cardinal numbers 0 to 9 in various languages

cover my six

Just as having an enemy on your “six” is the hardest situation to escape, being on an enemy at six o'clock is the surest kill. Fighter pilots are always practicing maneuvers to get out from having another aircraft on their six.

2009, Bill Yenne, Aces High: The Heroic Saga of the Two Top-scoring American Aces of World War II, Penguin, →ISBN, page 98:

(military slang, by ellipsis of six o'clock) Rear, behind (rear side of something).


flute

→ Irish: fliúit

→ Welsh: ffliwt

From Middle English fleute, floute, flote, from Old French flaute, fleüte, from Old Provençal flaüt, of uncertain origin. Perhaps ultimately from three possibilities:
* Blend of Provencal flaujol (“flageolet”) + laüt (“lute”)
* From Latin flātus (“blowing”), from flāre (“to blow”)
* Imitative.
Doublet of flauta and fluyt.

(architecture, firearms) A semicylindrical vertical groove, as in a pillar, in plaited cloth, or in a rifle barrel to cut down the weight.

hulli

architecture: vertical groove in a pillar


nine

en:High availability#"Nines"
en:Nines (notation)
nine

PIE word
 *h₁néwn̥
From Middle English nyne, nine, from Old English nigon (“nine”), from Proto-West Germanic *neun, from Proto-Germanic *newun (“nine”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥ (“nine”). Cognate with Scots neen, nine (“nine”), Saterland Frisian njúgen (“nine”), West Frisian njoggen (“nine”), Dutch negen (“nine”), German Low German negen (“nine”), German neun (“nine”), Danish ni (“nine”), Swedish nio (“nine”), Icelandic níu (“nine”), Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌿𐌽 (niun, “nine”), Latin novem (“nine”), Ancient Greek ἐννέα (ennéa, “nine”), Sanskrit नवन् (navan, “nine”).

my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas

my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins

my very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas

(weaponry) A nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol.


stock

en-noun

stock (countable and uncountable, plural stocks or (obsolete) stocken)

stocks (plural)
stocken (obsolete plural)

→ Dutch: stock

desctree

→ French: stock
→ Romanian: stoc
→ Turkish: stok

→ Italian: stock

→ Portuguese: estoque

→ Spanish: stock

From Middle English stok, from Old English stocc, from Proto-West Germanic *stokk, from Proto-Germanic *stukkaz (“tree-trunk”), with modern senses mostly referring either to the trunk from which the tree grows (figuratively, its origin and/or support/foundation), or to a piece of wood, stick, or rod. The senses of "supply" and "raw material" arose from a probable conflation with steck (“an item of goods, merchandise”) or the use of split tally sticks consisting of foil or counterfoil and stock to capture paid taxes, debts or exchanges. Doublet of chock.

stark (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)

The most underrated component in building a custom gun is the metalsmithing. Stock work immediately attracts attention. Fancy checkering patterns, meticulously executed, are sure to elicit oohs and ahhs.

2013, Tom Turpin, Modern Custom Guns: Walnut, Steel, and Uncommon Artistry, 2nd edition, Iola, Wis.: Gun Digest Books, →ISBN, page 47:

en:handle or stem of tool or weapon
en:shoulder rest for firearm

A handle or stem to which the working part of an implement or weapon is attached.

(firearms) The part of a rifle or shotgun that rests against the shooter's shoulder.


RAM

(military) Acronym of radar-absorbent material, a material which absorbs radar.


music

en-noun

music (usually uncountable, plural musics)

musics (plural)
musick (alternative)
musicke (alternative)
musique (alternative)
musike (alternative)

Jamaican Creole: myuuzik

Pitcairn-Norfolk: myuusik

Tok Pisin: musik

→ Dhivehi: މިއުޒިކް (miuzik̊)

→ Japanese: ミュージック (myūjikku)

→ Malay: muzik

→ Swahili: muziki

→ Welsh: miwsig

From Middle English musik, musike, borrowed from Anglo-Norman musik, musike, Old French musique, and their source Latin mūsica, from Ancient Greek μουσική (mousikḗ), from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”), an Ancient Greek deity of the arts. By surface analysis, muse + -ic (“pertaining to”). In this sense, displaced native Old English drēam (“music”), whence Modern English dream.

surf

(military, slang) Electronic signal jamming.


DOD

(US, military) Initialism of United States Department of Defense.


BM

en-noun

BM (countable and uncountable, plural BMs)

ballistic missile
ballistic missile#English

(military, astronautics) Initialism of ballistic missile.


DOS

(military) Initialism of date of service.

(military) Initialism of date of separation.


DOS

Department of State
w:United States Department of State

(US politics) Initialism of Department of State.


EU

France and Belgium led the drive for British chocolate to be renamed 'vegelate' before it could be sold abroad, but they lost that battle. Now an updated EU chocolate directive obliges all EU countries to accept all chocolate[…]

2005, John MacDonald, Andrew Bowden, Dare We Trust Them?: A New Vision for Europe, page 151:

The sprinkles had the red food coloring E127, or erythrosine. E127 is only permitted for use in cocktail cherries and candied cherries in the UK and the EU, according to a statement from West Yorkshire Trading Standards sent to CNN Thursday.

2021 October 14, Jack Guy, “UK bakery banned from using sprinkles which are legal in the US”, in CNN:

(politics, economics) Initialism of European Union.

European Union — see also European Union, EUSSR


scarp

Aphetic form of escarp. Doublet of sharp.

[...] as in the seventh, which is Argent a Scarp Azure.

1673, Matthew Carter, Honor Redivivus: Or, The Analysis of Honor and Armory, page 211:

He beareth Argent, a Scarp, Azure.

1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry, page 38:

(heraldry) Obsolete spelling of scarpe, scrape.


AM

AM (countable and uncountable, plural AMs)

AMs (plural)
A.M. (alternative)
A. M. (alternative)
A M (alternative)

(UK politics, historical) Initialism of Assembly Member, a title similar to MP, placed after the name of a Member of the Welsh National Assembly.


AA

AA (countable and uncountable, plural AAs)

They're setting up an AA battery. That thing'll tear the Dawn apart... We'll wait for you to take the shot.

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: The Ark:

avenue of approach
avenue of approach#English

(military) Initialism of avenue of approach.

(healthcare) Initialism of anesthesiologist assistant.

But Wilson's loyal administrative assistant, Charlie Simpson, felt that he couldn't put up with it anymore. […] “I have to learn how to be a congressman and you need to learn how to be an AA [administrative assistant],” Wilson had told Simpson. “And this is the first thing we have to do.” […] The experience left the AA believing that perhaps the two of them shared a special destiny.

2003, George Crile, Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times, New York: Grove Press, →ISBN, page 186:

administrative assistant
administrative assistant#English

(chiefly US, politics) Initialism of administrative assistant.

Following the AA's enactment in June 2004, some institutional reform took place with the aim of enhancing the competitiveness of Egyptian products. […] The AA reflected a long-term and a rather broadly defined consideration of economic and social development and the process of market transformation in Egypt.

2013, Amr Adly, “External factors and state reform”, in State Reform and Development in the Middle East: Turkey and Egypt in the Post-Liberalization Era, Routledge, →ISBN, page 200:

In addition, bilateral relations with the diverse countries of the South, which were “divided in their unity,” were also given a boost, as negotiations on new EU Association Agreements (AAs) got underway, as AAs were signed with all EMP countries except Syria by the early 2000’s.

2018 November 14, James Moran, “What Future for the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood Policy?”, in The Cairo Review of Global Affairs:

Association Agreement
w:Association Agreement

(politics) Initialism of Association Agreement: a treaty between the European Union, its member states and a non-EU country that creates a framework for cooperation between them.


AA

en:Alcoholics Anonymous
en:Anna's Archive
en:The AA

• APO/FPO AE ZIPs 094-098 — Space Available Mail, Nov. 26; Parcel Airlift Mail, Dec. 3; Priority Mail, Dec. 10; First Class Mail Letters and Cards, Dec.10 and Express Mail Military Service, Dec. 18.
• APO/FPO AA ZIP 340 — Space Available Mail, Nov. 26; Parcel Airlift Mail, Dec. 3; Priority Mail, Dec. 10; First Class Mail Letters and Cards, Dec. 10 and Express Mail Military Service, Dec. 18.
• APO/FPO AP ZIPs 962-966 — Space Available Mail, Nov. 26; Parcel Airlift Mail, Dec. 3; Priority Mail, Dec. 10; First Class Mail Letters and Cards, Dec. 10 and Express Mail Military Service, Dec. 18.

2010 October 29, Bill Shrum, “Shipping to soldiers for the holidays”, in Stuttgart (Arkansas) Daily Leader:

(US, military) USPS military code of Armed Forces – Americas.


AA

(military, aviation) Initialism of anti-aircraft or anti-air.

(military, aviation) Initialism of air-to-air.


investment

investment (countable and uncountable, plural investments)

the investment of the fort

1875, John Howard Hinton, History of the United States of America, from the First Settlement:

In 1858, the Governor of Kuangsi applied for his services, but the Viceroy Tsêng Kuo-fan, under whom he had served for a number of years and who recognised his value, declined to part with him. In 1860 he assisted in the defeat of the rebel reinforcements at the Hsiao-ch‘ih post station and took part in the capture of Taihu, investment of An-ch‘ing and destruction of the rebel camp at Linghu. For his services in the capture of Anch‘ing he was rewarded with the title of Baturu and placed on the list of Brigade Generals. He was next sent to Chihchow in Anhui to make reconnaissances of the country and occupy the commanding situations.

1890 May 16 [1890 April 17], “Honours to a Deceased Military Officer.”, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, volume XLIV, number 1189, Shanghai, →OCLC, page 594, column 3:

(military) The act of surrounding, blocking up, or besieging by an armed force, or the state of being so surrounded.


company

company (countable and uncountable, plural companies)

companies (plural)
companie (alternative obsolete)

→ Hindi: कंपनी (kampnī)

desc

→ Hokkien: 公班衙 (kong-pan-gêe / kong-pan-gê)

→ Malay: kompeni

→ Scottish Gaelic: companaidh

→ Swahili: kampuni

From Middle English companye (“a team; companionship”), from Old French compaignie (“companionship”) (Modern French: compagnie), possibly from Late Latin *compania, but this word is not attested. Old French compaignie is equivalent to Old French compaignon (Modern French: compagnon) + -ie. More at companion.
Displaced native Old English werod, gefer, getæl, and hired.

inh

who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl

you don't dip your pen in company ink

don't fish off the company dock, you don't dip your pen in the company inkwell, you don't fish off the company pier

the boys in Company C

It was by his order the shattered leading company flung itself into the houses when the Sin Verguenza were met by an enfilading volley as they reeled into the calle.

1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 30, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

A team; a group of people who work together professionally.

(military) A unit of approximately sixty to one hundred and twenty soldiers, typically consisting of two or three platoons and forming part of a battalion.

As he had worked for the CIA for over 30 years, he would soon take retirement from the company.

(espionage, informal) An intelligence service.


SMS

S.M.S. (alternative)
S. M. S. (alternative)

/ˌɛs ɛm ˈɛs/

Seiner Majestät Schiff
Seiner Majestät Schiff

(military, nautical, initialism) SMS — Seiner Majestät Schiff – literally, "His Majesty's Ship" in German;

A ship prefix for a ship in the navy of the Empire of Germany (usually for the period leading to WWI and WWI)


work

en-noun

work (countable and uncountable, plural works)

works (plural)
werke (alternative)
worke (alternative)
wuk (alternative)
werk (alternative)
werq (alternative)

Pijin: waka

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-om
Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom
Proto-Germanic *werką
Proto-West Germanic *werk
Old English weorc
Middle English werk
English work
From Middle English work, werk, from Old English weorc, from Proto-West Germanic *werk, from Proto-Germanic *werką, from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom.
Akin to Scots wark, Saterland Frisian Wierk, West Frisian wurk, Dutch werk, German Werk, German Low German Wark, Danish værk, Norwegian Bokmål verk, Norwegian Nynorsk verk, Swedish verk, yrke and orka, Icelandic verk, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌺𐌹 (gawaurki), Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”) (from ϝέργον (wérgon)), Avestan 𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰 (vər^əz, “to work, to perform”), Armenian գործ (gorc, “work”), Albanian argëtoj (“entertain, reward, please”), Russian варганить (varganitʹ, “"to whip up, to cook something quickly, to throw together"”). English cognates include bulwark, boulevard, energy, erg, georgic, liturgy, metallurgy, organ, surgeon, wright. Doublet of erg and ergon.

աշխատանք

thermodynamics: energy in transit between one form or repository and another

all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

(uncountable, slang, professional wrestling) The staging of events to appear as real.


UPC

Uganda People's Congress
w:Uganda People's Congress

(Uganda, politics) Initialism of Uganda People's Congress.


ROI

(military, espionage) Initialism of region of interest.


shadowing

en-noun

shadowing (countable and uncountable, plural shadowings)

(espionage) Secretly or discreetly tracking or following someone, keeping under surveillance.


PCS

(military) Initialism of permanent change of station.


Cameroon

Alteration of Cameron, influenced by -oon.

He fears that in downplaying traditional Conservative causes, in changing the party to be more in tune with modern Britain, the Cameroons have in effect accepted that they won't change the country much in office.

2007 March 21, Andy Beckett, “The Cameroons”, in The Guardian:

Today, I spy a coalition outrider: Nick Boles, MP for Grantham, founder of Policy Exchange and the archetypal Cameroon ultra-modernizer. I don’t think Boles even owned a tie until he was elected to the House of Commons. That’s how much of a Cameroon the man is.

2010 September 13, Iain Martin, “Nick Boles: The Coalition’s Cameroon Outrider”, in Wall Street Journal:

Maude was a moderniser before modernity dawned in the Tory ranks, a Cameroon before David Cameron.

2012 March 30, James Chapman, “Gorgeous George and why Ed Miliband must now pray Ken Livingstone wins London”, in Daily Mail:

Mr Cameron won significantly smaller vote shares than either Theresa May or Boris Johnson. There are not many Cameroons in Britain. Outside some newspaper op-ed pages, there never were.

2023 November 13, Bagehot, “What David Cameron's return says about British politics”, in Economist:

(UK politics) A Conservative Party member with green or social liberal leanings, supporting the policies of David Cameron.


new

new (countable and uncountable, plural news)

From Middle English newe, from Old English nīewe, from Proto-West Germanic *niwi, from Proto-Germanic *niwjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *néwyos (“new”), from *néwos.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots new (“new”), West Frisian nij (“new”), Dutch nieuw (“new”), Low German nee (“new”), German neu (“new”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish ny (“new”), Icelandic nýr (“new”), Faroese nýggjur (“new”), Latin novus (“new”), Ancient Greek νέος (néos, “new”), Welsh newydd (“new”), Russian но́вый (nóvyj, “new”), Armenian նոր (nor, “new”), Persian نو (now, “new”),Northern Kurdish nû (“new”), Hindi नया (nayā, “new”), Tocharian B ñuwe (“new”).
Compare also Old English nū (“now”). More at now. Doublet of nuevo and novuss.

In the Britannia "news" were worms, to be trodden on […]

1956, Naval Review (London), volume 44, page 286:

(UK, naval slang, countable) A naval cadet who has just embarked on training.


gas

gas (countable and uncountable, plural gases or gasses)

Borrowed from Dutch gas, coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont in Ortus Medicinae. Derived from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void, empty space”); perhaps also inspired by geest (“breath, vapour, spirit”). Doublet of chaos. First attested in 1648.

der

New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

gas

(uncountable, chemistry) state of matter

بخار خفی (buxār xafî, literally “hidden steam”)

The artillery fired gas shells into the enemy trenches.

(uncountable, physical chemistry) Matter in an intermediate state between liquid and plasma that can be contained only if it is fully surrounded by a solid (or in a bubble of liquid, or held together by gravitational pull); it can condense into a liquid, or can (rarely) become a solid directly by deposition.


proprietary

/pɹəˈpɹaɪ.əˌtɛɹ.i/

/pɹəˈpɹɑɪ.ə.tə.ɹi/

/pɹəˈpɹɑɪ.ə.tɹi/

From French propriétaire, from Latin proprietārius. By surface analysis, propriety + -ary. Compare with the Latin proprietas (“property”) and proprius (“ownership”).

For all practical purposes, the proprietaries conduct their own financial affairs with a minimum of oversight from CIA headquarters.

1975, Victor Marchetti, John D. Marks, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, page 159:

The “operating proprietaries” actually do business as private firms. They are incorporated where they are officed, they file the applicable state and federal tax returns, and they obtain the licenses necessary to a legitimate business operation.

2013, Joseph Goulden, The Dictionary of Espionage: Spyspeak into English, page 175:

(espionage) A company doing legitimate business while also serving as a front for espionage.


mortar

en-noun

mortar (countable and uncountable, plural mortars)

mortars (plural)
morter (alternative archaic)

→ Indonesian: mortar

From Middle English morter, from Old French mortier, from Latin mortārium. Doublet of mortarium.

(countable, military, historical) A short, heavy, large-bore cannon designed for indirect fire at very steep trajectories.

(countable, military) A relatively lightweight, often portable indirect fire weapon which transmits recoil to a base plate and is designed to lob explosive shells at very steep trajectories.

هَاوُن

lightweight indirect fire weapon which transmits recoil to a base plate


software

software (usually uncountable, plural (nonstandard) softwares)

→ Amharic: ሶፍትዌር (softəwer)

desc

→ Persian: نرمافزار (narm-afzâr) (calque)

From soft + -ware, by contrast with hardware (“the computer itself”). Coined by John Tukey in 1958.

The Americans have devoted their attention to the hardware of disarmament: Europeans can make a special contribution to the 'software' or human content of detente.

1989, Christopher Layton, A Step Beyond Fear: Building a European Security Community:

[…] preview of horrific images to come, as the hardware stage of the war yields to the software — or human — stage.

1991, New York Magazine, volume 24, number 5, page 33:

(military) The human beings involved in warfare, as opposed to hardware such as weapons and vehicles.


absence

en-noun

absence (usually uncountable, plural absences)

existence

antonym(s) of “lack, deficiency, nonexistence”

From Middle English absence, from Old French absence, ausence, from Latin absentia, from absēns (“absent”), present active participle of absum (“I am away or absent”), from ab (“from, away from”) + sum (“I am”).

(fencing) Lack of contact between blades.


abyss

abysses (plural)
abysm (alternative archaic)
abyssus (alternative archaic)
abime (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English abissus, from Late Latin abyssus (“a bottomless gulf”), from Ancient Greek ἄβυσσος (ábussos, “bottomless”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + βυσσός (bussós, “deep place”), from βυθός (buthós, “deep place”). Displaced native Old English neowolnes.

der

(heraldry) The center of an escutcheon; fess point.


acclaim

en-verb

acclaim (third-person singular simple present acclaims, present participle acclaiming, simple past and past participle acclaimed)

acclaims (present singular third-person)
acclaiming (participle present)
acclaimed (participle past)
acclaimed (past)

* First attested in the early 14th century.
* (to applaud): First attested in the 1630s.
* Borrowed from Latin acclāmō (“raise a cry at; applaud”), formed from ad- + clāmō (“cry out, shout”).

bor

(Canada, politics) To elect (a politician, etc.) to an office automatically because no other candidates run; elect by acclamation.


accountability

en-noun

accountability (usually uncountable, plural accountabilities)

(military) The obligation imposed by law or regulation on an officer or other person for keeping an accurate record of property, documents, or funds.


general

general (countable and uncountable, plural generals)

generals (plural)
General (alternative)
gen. (alternative)
gen (alternative)
Gen. (alternative)
Gen (alternative)
genl (alternative)
gen'l (alternative)
Genl (alternative)
Gen'l (alternative)
generall (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English general, in turn from Anglo-Norman general, generall, Middle French general, and their source, Latin generālis, from genus (“class, kind”) + -ālis (“-al”); thus morphologically parallel with, and a doublet of, generic.

general of the air force
general of the air force

(military) The holder of a senior military title, originally designating the commander of an army and now a specific rank falling under field marshal (in the British army) and below general of the army or general of the air force in the US army and air forces.


Afghan

/ˈæf(ˌ)ɡɑːn/

Borrowed from Classical Persian افغان (afġān, “Afghan”), from Bactrian αβαγανο (abagano), first attested in the fourth century CE, most likely a compound of *apāka- (“distant, faraway”), from Proto-Iranian *Hápa, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hápa (“away”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó + *-āna (“ethnic group”), from Proto-Indo-European *-nós, thus: "people from a distant land". Various scholars have proposed Sanskrit etymologies since the nineteenth century (especially prior to the 2007 publication of earlier Bactrian attestations for the word), but linguist Johnny Cheung notes that these are "extremely difficult to reconcile" with recent evidence pointing to a Bactrian source.

bor+

He will be in Afghan for another six months.

(UK, military slang) Clipping of Afghanistan.


storm

en-verb

storm (third-person singular simple present storms, present participle storming, simple past and past participle stormed)

storms (present singular third-person)
storming (participle present)
stormed (participle past)
stormed (past)
storm (infinitive)
storm (first-person present singular)
stormed (first-person past singular)
storm (present second-person singular)
stormest (archaic present second-person singular)
stormed (past second-person singular)
stormedst (archaic past second-person singular)
storms (present singular third-person)
stormeth (archaic present singular third-person)
stormed (past singular third-person)
storm (plural present)
stormed (past plural)
storm (present subjunctive)
stormed (past subjunctive)
storm (imperative present)
storming (participle present)
stormed (participle past)

The verb is derived from Middle English stormen (“of the wind: to blow violently; to cause to roll or toss”), from storm (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs).
Compare Middle English sturmen (“to attack (someone) with great force”), from Old English styrman (“to rage, storm; to make a great noise, cry aloud, shout, storm”), from Proto-West Germanic *sturmijan (“to storm”), from Proto-Germanic *sturmijaną (“to storm”), from *sturmaz (“a storm”) (see etymology 1) + *-janą (suffix forming causatives from strong verbs, with a sense of ‘to cause to do [the action of the verb]’). The Middle English word did not survive into modern English.
The noun is derived from verb sense 2.3 (“to violently assault (a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc.) with the aim of gaining control of it”).
Cognates
* Dutch stormen (“to bluster, storm”)
* German stürmen (“to rage, storm; to assault, attack”)
* Icelandic storma (“to storm”)
* Low German stormen (“to storm”)
* Swedish storma (“to bluster, storm”)

ŝtormi

to have strong winds and usually lightning and thunder, and/or hail, rain, or snow

щурмува́м

the storming of the Bastille

Troops stormed the complex.

All night beneath hard heavy arms to vvatch; / All day to mount the trench, to ſtorm the breach; […]

1692 (date written), Matthew Prior, “Ode; in Imitation of Horace, 3 Od. ii.”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior […], volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan, […], published 1779, →OCLC, stanza II, page 112:

The assailants were repulsed in their first attack, and several of their bravest officers were shot down in the act of storming the fortress, sword in hand.

1820 July, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Philip of Pokanoket. An Indian Memoir.”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., 1st UK edition, volume II, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 259–260:

The crowd was patient and never dreamed of storming Chungnanhai (which could scarcely have resisted a mass assault) and the most battle-tested groups made no attempt to send their commandos to kidnap the “highest leader.” Calm—if one may use the word—prevailed, and the group leaders were content to lead their followers in chanting slogans against Liu [Shaoqi] and quotations from Mao [Zedong]. The Chairman, like Vice-Chairman Lin Piao, had been away on a tour of inspection in the provinces since early July; at the time of the siege of Chungnanhai, he was in Wuhan.

1974, K. S. Karol, “The August of the Ultra-Left”, in Mervyn Jones, transl., The Second Chinese Revolution […], New York, N.Y.: Hill and Wang, →OCLC, page 278:

(chiefly military) To violently assault (a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc.) with the aim of gaining control of it.

No Engines can a Tyrant find, / to ſtorm the Truth-ſupported Mind, […]

1750 March 27 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Thomas Morell (lyrics), George Frideric Handel (music), Theodora: An Oratorio […], London: […] I. Walsh […], published [1751], →OCLC, page 17:

(figurative, often poetic) To assault or gain control or power over (someone's heart, mind, etc.).

vallata

to assault or gain control or power over (someone’s heart, mind, etc.)

(by extension, chiefly military) To move quickly in the course of an assault on a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc.

rynnätä

to move quickly in the course of an assault on a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc.


storm

(military) A violent assault on a fortified position or stronghold.


cow

en-noun

cow (countable and uncountable, plural cows or cattle or (archaic or dialectal) kine)

cows (plural)
cattle (plural)
kine (archaic dialectal plural)

bull

antonym(s) of “female domesticated ox or other bovine”

Sranan Tongo: kaw

Tok Pisin: kau

q

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">cows</i>

→ Abenaki: kaoz (from cows)

→ Maori: kau

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws
Proto-Germanic *kōz
Proto-West Germanic *kō
Old English cū
Middle English cou
English cow
Inherited from Middle English cou, cu, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (“cow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).
Cognate with Sanskrit गो (go), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina, “beef”), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian ku (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”) (whence English beef), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef.
The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cūna (“cows', of cows”), genitive plural of cū (“cow”).

etymon

the cow knows not the worth of its tail till it loses it

why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

Colonel Red Reeder, West Point Second Classman
An assistant manager, wearing the stripes of a cadet corporal, walked up to Coach Smith. Clint knew him, a Cow from B-l. What had he done to become so outstanding that the Tacs made him a corporal?

When I was a cow (junior) at West Point, I dated a plebe (freshman), which is considered fraternization in the cadet realm.

2023, James E Parco, David A Levy, Daphne DePorres, Attitudes Aren't Free: A Call to Action, page 242:

(US, military, slang) A third-year cadet at West Point.


Jupiter

From Latin Iūpiter (“father Jove”), from Proto-Italic *djous patēr (literally “sky father”) (cognate with Ancient Greek Ζεῦ πάτερ (Zeû páter, “father Zeus”)), from *djous (“day, sky”) + *patēr (“father”), from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws (literally “the bright one”), from *dyew- (“to be bright, day sky”), and *ph₂tḗr (“father”). Doublet of Dyaus Pita.

der

Mercury · Venus · Earth · Mars · Jupiter · Saturn · Uranus · Neptune [edit]

5. Jupiter, a Mace of Majestry in Bend Sol.

1693, Richard Blome, The Art of Heraldry, in two parts ... second edition ..., pages 76-77:

George [...] 2d. Jupiter, three Fleurs de Lis Sol, for the Arms of France. 3d. Jupiter, an Irish Harp Sol, stringed Luna, for Ireland.

1718, Samuel Kent, The Grammar of Heraldry … Second Edition:

8. Tierce in Mantle, first Mars, two Lions passant-guardant in pale, Sol, for Brunswick; 2d Sol, Semi of Hearts proper, a Lion rampant Jupiter, for Lunenburgh; 3d, ente en Point, Mars, an Horse currant Luna, for Saxony. Note, these Ensigns (which are the paternal Coat of his Majesty King George) I have added as an Example, to shew the Form of what foreign Heralds term Tierce in Mantle, ente en Pointe, &c. […]

1735, Francis Nichols, The Irish Compendium … vol. III of the British Compendium, second edition, page 80:

ARMS. QUARTERLY, in the first grand Quarter Mars, three Lions passant-guardant in Pale, Sol; the Imperial Ensigns of England, impaled with the Royal Arms of Scotland, which are Sol, a Lion rampant within a double Tressure flower'd and counterflower'd with Fleurs-de-lis, Mars. The second Quarter is the Royal Arms of France, viz. Jupiter, three Fleurs-de-lis, Sol. The third, the Ensign of Ireland, which is, Jupiter, an Harp Sol, stringed Luna.

1737, Benjamin Martin, Bibliotheca Technologica: Or, a Philological Library, page 631:

(heraldry, rare) Azure (blue), in the postmedieval practice of blazoning the tinctures of certain sovereigns' (especially British monarchs') coats as planets.


skirmish

skirmishes (plural)
scirmish (alternative)

From Middle English skirmish (as a verb), from Old French escarmouche (“skirmish”), from Italian scaramuccia, earlier schermugio. Doublet of escarmouche, Scaramouche, and Scaramucci.

doublet

On 2 March, Chinese border guards with the help of regular PLA forces skillfully ambushed Strelnikov's unit on the ice near Chen Pao, killing him and 30 Soviets in the subsequent skirmish.

1970 April 28, “Chen Pao Battle and Subsequent Threat Campaign”, in The Evolution of Soviet Policy in the Sino-Soviet Border Dispute, Directorate of Intelligence, published 2007, →OCLC, page 34:

The walls are slitted with embrasures through which bowmen could fire, indicating that the belfry also served as a stronghold during border skirmishes.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 311, about the church at Pembridge:

(military) A brief battle between small groups, usually part of a longer or larger battle or war.


stand

→ Catalan: estand

→ Danish: stand (semantic loan)

→ Dutch: stand

desctree

→ French: stand
→ Khmer: ស្តង់ (stɑng)
→ Romanian: stand

→ Italian: stand

→ Japanese: スタンド (sutando)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: stand

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: stand

→ Portuguese: estande, stand

→ Russian: стенд (stend)
→ Armenian: ստենդ (stend), սթենդ (stʻend)

→ Southern Ndebele: isitandi

→ Spanish: estand, stand

→ Swahili: stendi

From Middle English stonden, standen (verb) and stand, stond (noun, from the verb), from Old English standan (“to stand, occupy a place”), from Proto-West Germanic *standan, from Proto-Germanic *standaną (“to stand”), from Pre-Germanic *sth₂-n-t-´, an innovative extended n-infixed form of Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots stand (“to stand”), Saterland Frisian stounde (“to stand”), West Frisian stean (“to stand”), dialectal German standen (“to stand”), Danish stande (“to stand”), Swedish stånda (“to stand”), Norwegian standa (“to stand”), Faroese standa (“to stand”), Icelandic standa (“to stand”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽 (standan), Russian стоя́ть (stojátʹ, “to stand”). Also from *steh₂-: Irish seas, Latin stare, Lithuanian stóti, Old Church Slavonic стояти (stojati), Albanian shtoj (“to increase”), Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to put”), Avestan 𐬵𐬌𐬱𐬙𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (hištaⁱti), Sanskrit तिष्ठति (tiṣṭhati). From the related Proto-Germanic *stāną (“to stand”): West Frisian stean, Dutch staan, German stehen, Danish stå.

スタンド

supernatural ability from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

The police and troops captured eleven thousand stand of arms, including muskets and pistols, together with several thousand bludgeons and other weapons.

1927, Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld, Paragon House, published 1990, →ISBN, page 170:

(military, plural often stand) A single set, as of arms.


bunk

Sense of sleeping berth possibly from Scottish English bunker (“seat, bench”), origin is uncertain but possibly Scandinavian.
Compare Old Swedish bunke (“boards used to protect the cargo of a ship”).
See also boarding, flooring and compare bunch.


DDT

Various theories; see DDT (professional wrestling).

(professional wrestling) a move where a wrestler puts another wrestler into a standing front face lock and then falls backwards, driving the recipient's head into the floor.


EOF

Elswick Ordnance Factory
w:Elswick Ordnance Company

(military, historical) Initialism of Elswick Ordnance Factory.


IOC

en-noun

IOC (countable and uncountable, plural IOCs)

(military) Initialism of initial operating capability.


fuck

en-verb

fuck (third-person singular simple present fucks, present participle fucking, simple past and past participle fucked)

fucks (present singular third-person)
fucking (participle present)
fucked (participle past)
fucked (past)
fuck (infinitive)
fuck (first-person present singular)
fucked (first-person past singular)
fuck (present second-person singular)
fuckest (archaic present second-person singular)
fucked (past second-person singular)
fuckedst (archaic past second-person singular)
fucks (present singular third-person)
fucketh (archaic present singular third-person)
fucked (past singular third-person)
fuck (plural present)
fucked (past plural)
fuck (present subjunctive)
fucked (past subjunctive)
fuck (imperative present)
fucking (participle present)
fucked (participle past)
f##k (alternative)
f#$k (alternative)
f#%k (alternative)
f#*k (alternative)
f*** (alternative)
f**k (alternative)
f*ck (alternative)
f--k (alternative)
fck (alternative)
fk (alternative)
fsck (alternative)
fu#k (alternative)
fu$k (alternative)
fu*k (alternative)
fu-k (alternative)
fu...k (alternative)
fu©k (alternative)
fvck (alternative)
f—k (alternative)
f&!k (alternative)
f...k (alternative)
f…k (alternative)
fu…k (alternative)
fuxk (alternative)
F-bomb (alternative euphemistic)
F-word (alternative euphemistic)
fuk (alternative)
fuq (alternative)
phuck (alternative)
uckfay (alternative)

Flen flyys
Slate.com
University of Minnesota Press

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ-
Proto-Germanic *fukkōną
Old English *fuccian
Middle English *fukken
English fuck
From Middle English *fukken, probably of Germanic origin: either from Old English *fuccian or Old Norse *fukka, both from Proto-Germanic *fukkōną, from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to strike, punch, stab”). Compare windfucker and its debated etymology.
Possibly attested in a 772 C.E. charter that mentions a place called Fuccerham, which may mean "ham (“home”) of the fucker" or "hamm (“pasture”) of the fucker"; a John le Fucker in a record from 1278 may just be a variant of Fulcher; compare Fucher, Foker, etc. The earliest unambiguous use of the word in a clearly sexual context, in any stage of English, appears to be in court documents from Cheshire, England, which mention a man called Roger Fuckebythenavele (possibly tongue-in-cheek or directly suggestive of a depraved sexual act) on 8 December 1310. It was first listed in a dictionary in 1598. Scots fuk or fuck is attested slightly earlier, probably reinforcing the Northern Germanic/Scandinavian origin theory. From 1500 onward, the word has been in continual use, superseding jape and sard and largely displacing swive. See windfucker and fuckwind for more information.
A range of folk-etymological backronyms, such as "fornication under consent of the king" and "for unlawful carnal knowledge", are all demonstrably false.
Sense 10 from related sense feck.

der

The sergeant fucked me upside down.

(transitive, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, military slang) To scold.


DNA

An initialism of the various terms listed below. The verb sense is derived from noun sense 7.

(US, military, historical) Defense Nuclear Agency, an agency of the United States Department of Defense which existed from 1971 to 1996 and has since been reorganized as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.


DNA

(US, military) Do not arm (that is, do not provide with a firearm).


DNA

en-verb

DNA (third-person singular simple present DNAs, present participle DNAing, simple past and past participle DNAed)

DNAs (present singular third-person)
DNAing (participle present)
DNAed (participle past)
DNAed (past)

She had her weapons back. She wasn't DNA'd anymore. But she didn't use a weapon. That's not how she did it.

2018, Jeanne Marie Laskas, To Obama, with Love, Joy, Hate and Despair, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 239:

(US, military) To place (someone) under a DNA (do not arm) order because of mental illness.

kieltää aseenkanto

to place (someone) under a DNA (do not arm) order because of mental illness


close

en-adj

close (comparative closer, superlative closest)

closer (comparative)
closest (superlative)

open

antonym(s) of “articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate”

Borrowed from French clos, from Latin clausum, participle of claudō.

close only counts in horseshoes and darts

close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

Crest, a cockatrice, wings close, vert, combed and wattled gu.

1780, Joseph Edmondson, A Complete Body of Heraldry:

Sable, an eagle close or - ROPER, Derby. / Sable, a chevron ermine between three eagles close argent - GAMES, Leicester, granted 1614. / Sable a chevron between three eagles close argent - JERVOISE.

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 215:

Arms : Azure, a chevron ermine between three cross - crosslets fitchy argent. Crest : An eagle close argent, ducally gorged.

1902, Lincoln's Inn (London, England), The Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, page 458:

(heraldry, of a bird) With its wings at its side, closed, held near to its body (typically also statant); (of wings) in this posture.


Kropotkinist

(anarchism, communism) An adherent of Peter Kropotkin's anarchist-communism; an anarcho-communist.


kill

From Middle English killen, kyllen, cüllen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots kele, keil (“to kill”).
* Perhaps from unattested Old English *cyllan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwulljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwuljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to throw, hit, hurt by throwing”).
* Or, possibly a variant of Old English cwellan (“to kill, murder, execute”) (see quell).
* Or, from Old Norse kolla (“to hit on the head, harm”), related to Norwegian kylla (“to poll”), Middle Dutch kollen (“to knock down”), Icelandic kollur (“top, head”); see also coll, cole).
Compare also Saterland Frisian källe (“to hurt”), Middle Dutch kellen (“to kill, hurt”), Middle Low German kellen, killen (“to ache strongly, cause one great pain”) (whence German Low German kellen, killen (“to hurt, injure, torment, vex”)), Middle High German kellen (“to torment; torture”).

cog

l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand

confirmed kills

A flying ace is usually one with five or more confirmed kills.

The result of killing; that which has been killed.

(military, gaming, countable) An instance of killing; a score on the tally of enemy personnel or vehicles killed or destroyed.


tiger

tigers (plural)
tigre (alternative obsolete)
tyger (alternative dated)
tygre (alternative dated)

→ Fijian: taika

→ Maori: taika

→ Rarotongan: taika

→ Volapük: tigrid

→ Welsh: teigr

Inland Northern American, New England, some speakers

From Middle English tygre, in part from Old English tigras (pl.), in part from Anglo-Norman tigre, both from Latin tigris, from Ancient Greek τίγρις (tígris), from Iranian (compare Avestan 𐬙𐬌𐬔𐬭𐬌 (tigri, “arrow”), 𐬙𐬌𐬖𐬭𐬀 (tiγra, “pointed”)). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). Compare English stick.

der

The heraldic tiger is a mythical beast, quite unlike a real tiger which is described in heraldry as a Bengal tiger. The ordinary tiger has no stripes, has a horn protruding from its nose, has tusks like a boar and a tufted mane, and has a lion's tail instead of a tiger's.

1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, page 69:

(heraldry) A representation of a large mythological cat, used on a coat of arms.


twelve

twelves (plural)
XII (alternative)
twelue (alternative obsolete)

Southern US, African-American Vernacular, dated

From Middle English twelve, from Old English twelf (“twelve”), from Proto-Germanic *twalif, an old compound of *twa- (“two”) and *-lif (“left over”) (i.e., two left over after having already counted to ten), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“leave, remain”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian tweelf, tweelif, tweelich (“twelve”), West Frisian tolve (“twelve”), Dutch twaalf (“twelve”), German Low German twalf, twalv (“twelve”), German zwölf (“twelve”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian tolv (“twelve”), Icelandic tólf (“twelve”).

watch your twelve

For quotations using this term, see Citations:twelve.

(military slang, by ellipsis of twelve o'clock) Front (front side of something, position in front of something).


bomb

From French bombe, from Italian bomba, from Latin bombus (“a booming sound”), from Ancient Greek βόμβος (bómbos, “booming, humming, buzzing”), imitative of the sound itself. Doublet of bombe. Compare boom.

onomatopoeic

imitative

(professional wrestling) A professional wrestling throw in which an opponent is lifted and then slammed back-first down to the mat.


pulpit

From Middle English pulpit, from Old French pulpite and Latin pulpitum (“platform”). Doublet of pulpitum.

In the slang of the Royal Air Force man, the cockpit of his plane is the ‘pulpit’ or ‘office’, the glass covering over it the ‘greenhouse’.

(UK military slang, dated) A plane's cockpit.


bench

benches (plural)
benk (alternative dialectal)
bink (alternative dialectal)

→ Hindi: बेंच (beñc)

→ Japanese: ベンチ (benchi)

→ Korean: 벤치 (benchi)

→ Swahili: benchi

→ Urdu: بِنْچ (binc)

From Middle English bench, benk, bynk, from Old English benċ (“bench”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-.
Cognate with Scots benk, bink (“bench”), West Frisian bank (“bench”), Dutch bank (“bench”), German Bank (“bench”), Danish bænk (“bench”), Swedish bänk (“bench”), Icelandic bekkur (“bench”). Doublet of banc, banco, and bank.

эскәмйә

sports: where players sit when not playing

the government front bench

On the opposition benches at Holyrood, Scottish Labour's transport spokesman Neil Bibby favours a more formal approach of involving passenger and worker representatives in the management of ScotRail.

2022 April 6, Conrad Landin, “ScotRail in the public eye...”, in RAIL, number 954, page 40:

A seat where people sit together in an official capacity.

(government) A long seat for politicians in a parliamentary chamber.

Injuries have shortened the bench.

(sports) The place where players (substitutes) and coaches sit when not playing.

(sports, politics, figuratively) The number of players on a team able to participate, often expressed in terms of length.

vaihtomiehistö

sports: number of players on a team able to participate


black

en-adj

black (comparative blacker or more black, superlative blackest or most black)

blacker (comparative)
more black (comparative)
blackest (superlative)
most black (superlative)
blacke (alternative obsolete)
Black (alternative)
blk (alternative)
blak (alternative)

Bislama: blak

Sranan Tongo: blaka

Aukan: baaka

→ Caribbean Hindustani: blaaka

Tok Pisin: blak

Torres Strait Creole: blaik

→ Dutch: black

→ French: black

→ Greek: μπλάκης (blákis)

From Middle English blak, black, blake, from Old English blæc (“black, dark", also "ink”), from Proto-West Germanic *blak, from Proto-Germanic *blakaz (“burnt”) (compare Dutch blaken (“to burn”), Low German blak, black (“blackness, black paint, (black) ink”), Old High German blah (“black”)), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- (“to burn, shine”) (compare Latin flagrāre (“to burn”), Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”), Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga, “radiance”)).
Sense 20 is a semantic loan from Cantonese 黑面 (hak1 min6, “to pull a long face, to scowl”).

sort

of coffee or tea, without milk or other whitener

(politics) Of or pertaining to anarchism; anarchist.

After the election, the parties united in a black-yellow alliance.

(German politics) Related to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.

زِنْجِيّ

relating to people with dark skin — see also dark-skinned
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musta

politics: related to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany


blue

en-adj

blue (comparative bluer or more blue, superlative bluest or most blue)

bluer (comparative)
more blue (comparative)
bluest (superlative)
most blue (superlative)
blew (alternative obsolete)
blewe (alternative obsolete)

conservative

antonym(s) of “pertaining to the US Democratic Party”

red

antonym(s) of “dominated by higher-frequency electromagnetic radiation”

antiblue

antonym(s) of “having blue as its colour charge”

Tok Pisin: blu

→ Fiji Hindi: bulu

→ Shona: bhuluu

→ Somali: buluug

→ Swahili: bluu, buluu

→ Tooro: bururu

From Middle English blewe, from Anglo-Norman blew (“blue”), from Middle French bleu, from Old French blöe, bleve, blef (“blue”), from Frankish *blāu (“blue”) (perhaps through a Late Latin blāvus, blāvius (“blue”) attested from Isidore of Seville), from Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, dark blue”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlēw- (“yellow, blond, grey”).
Cognate with dialectal English blow (“blue”), Scots blue, blew (“blue”), North Frisian bla, blö (“blue”), Saterland Frisian blau (“blue”), Dutch blauw (“blue”), German blau (“blue”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish blå (“blue”), Icelandic blár (“blue”), Latin flāvus (“yellow”), French bleu (“blue”), Middle Irish blá (“yellow”). Doublet of blow.
Possibly related also to English blee (“colour”), from Old English blēo (“colour”); but direct derivatives of Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, dark blue”) in Old English include: Old English blāw and blēo (“blue”), Old English blǣwen (“bluish, light-blue”), blǣhǣwen (“blue-coloured, bluish, violet or purple colour”, literally “blue-hued”). There seems to be a parallel connection in Germanic between words for blue and colour, dually exemplified by Proto-West Germanic *blīu (“colour, blee”) and *blāu (“blue”); and Proto-Germanic *hiwją (“colour, hue”) and *hēwijaz (“blue, purple”).
The sense "obscene, pornographic" is apparently from the colour; various theories exist as to how it arose, including that it is from the colour of the envelopes used to contain missives of the censors and managers to vaudevillian performers on objectionable material from their acts that needed to be excised.

belau

blue-coloured — see also dark blue, light blue

I live in a blue constituency.  Congress turned blue in the mid-term elections.

(politics) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by a political party represented by the colour blue.

(US politics) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by the Democratic Party.

Illawarra turns blue in Liberal washout

(Australian politics) Supportive of or related to the Liberal Party.

(UK politics) Supportive of or related to the Conservative Party.


blue

en-noun

blue (countable and uncountable, plural blues)

blues (plural)
blew (alternative obsolete)
blewe (alternative obsolete)

He is a true blue.

(UK politics) A member or supporter of the Conservative Party.


green

en-adj

green (comparative greener, superlative greenest)

greener (comparative)
greenest (superlative)

Bislama: grin

→ Marshallese: kūriin

Tok Pisin: grin

Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *grōniz
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂
Proto-Germanic *-į̄
Proto-West Germanic *-ī
Proto-West Germanic *grōnī
Old English grēne
Middle English grene
English green
From Middle English grene, from Old English grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī, from Proto-Germanic *grōniz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”). More at grow. Doublet of Gruen.
See also North Frisian green, West Frisian grien, Dutch groen, Low German grön, green, greun, German grün, Danish and Norwegian Nynorsk grøn, Swedish grön, Norwegian Bokmål grønn, Icelandic grænn.
The sense of obscene, pornographic, or sexual in the Philippines is from a calque of Spanish verde.

der

the grass is always greener on the other side of the road

In its most extreme formulation, this vision has devolved into a caricature of Islam as the "Green Peril" (green is the colour of Islam) advancing across the world stage, an image that echoes both the "Red Menace" of Cold War discourse and anti-Asian polemics about the "Yellow Peril".

1999, Roxanne L. Euben, Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism, page 6:

Some politicians tried to encourage this replacement of the red with a green menace.

2006, Benjamin Soares, Muslim-Christian encounters in Africa, page 11:

While Bill Clinton struggled during the 1990s to bring order to a chaotic world increasingly wracked by ethnic and religious conflict, critics detected signs that a new "green" threat - radical Islam - was supplanting the earlier "red threat" - international communism - that had kept every president from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan awake at night.

2009, Douglas Little, American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945, page 317:

(politics, sometimes capitalized) Islamist.

en:of a green party, environmentalism-oriented

(politics, sometimes capitalized) Of a green party, environmentalism-oriented.


green

en-noun

green (countable and uncountable, plural greens)

→⇒ Chinese: 果嶺 /果岭 (guǒlǐng)

→ Czech: green

→ Danish: green

→ Dutch: green

→ Finnish: griini

→ German: Green

→ Marshallese: kūriin

How have greens sought to map an ecologically and socially sustainable future for society?

2013, Joe Smith, What Do Greens Believe?, →ISBN, page 62:

en:member of a green party, environmentalist

(politics, sometimes capitalized) A member of a green party; an environmentalist.


purple

en-adj

purple (comparative purpler or more purple, superlative purplest or most purple)

purpler (comparative)
more purple (comparative)
purplest (superlative)
most purple (superlative)

nonpurple

antonym(s) of “having purple as its colour”

From Middle English purple, purpel, from Old English purpul (“purple”, adjective), taken from Old English purpure (“purple colour”, noun), from Latin purpura (“purple dye, shellfish”), from Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple-fish”), perhaps of Semitic origin. Doublet of purpura and purpure.
The sense of "imperial power" is from the wearing of the color purple by emperors and kings.

der

purple state

purple city

In the end, Nevada remained the quintessential purple state. On the maps that television used to illustrate political trends, Republican states were red and Democratic blue. Nevada blended the colors. It had a bright blue core in the heart of Las Vegas, surrounded by a purple suburban belt. Most of the rest of the state was bright red, especially in the rural counties.

2010, Hal K. Rothman, The Making of Modern Nevada, University of Nevada Press, →ISBN, page 162:

As Mr. Friedlander conceived it, Reason was neither strictly right-wing libertarian nor strictly left — in modern parlance, neither red nor blue but a purple amalgam of the two.

2011 May 7, Margalit Fox, “Lanny Friedlander, Founder of Reason Magazine, Dies at 63”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Political colorists can be promiscuous in calling states purple, but my state is true to that hue. I speak of North Carolina, and I have receipts: While our junior senator, Ted Budd, is a Republican who won election to a first term in 2022 by about three percentage points, our governor, Roy Cooper, is a Democrat who won election to a second term in 2020 by more than four.

2023 May 4, Frank Bruni, “Republicans Are Running Wild in My State”, in The New York Times:

(US politics) Not predominantly red or blue, but having a mixture of Democrat and Republican support.


red

en-adj

red (comparative redder or more red, superlative reddest or most red)

redder (comparative)
more red (comparative)
reddest (superlative)
most red (superlative)

nonred

antonym(s) of “having red as its colour”

antired

antonym(s) of “having red as its colour charge”

From Middle English red, from Old English rēad, from Proto-West Germanic *raud, from Proto-Germanic *raudaz from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rowdʰós, from the root *h₁rewdʰ-.
Cognates
See also West Frisian read, Low German root, rood, rot, rod, Dutch rood, German rot, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål rød, Norwegian Nynorsk raud; also Welsh rhudd, Latin ruber, rufus, Tocharian A rtär, Tocharian B ratre, Ancient Greek ἐρυθρός (eruthrós), Albanian pruth (“redhead”), Russian ру́дый (rúdyj) ("red", "redhaired"). Czech rudý, Lithuanian raúdas, Finnish rauta, Estonian raud, Serbo-Croatian riđ ("reddish", "red"), Avestan 𐬭𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬛𐬌𐬙𐬀 (raoidita), Sanskrit रुधिर (rudhirá, “red, bloody”).

"Only Nixon could go to China" was the refrain of conventional wisdom during Richard Nixon’s 1972 official visit to Mao Tse-tung’s regime. Nixon’s anti-communist credentials, however dubious, provided useful camouflage as he opened diplomatic relations with Red China and made breathtaking concessions that an undisguised liberal couldn’t get away with. https://web.archive.org/web/20061114093022/http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1998/vo14no16/vo14no16_dragon.htm

the red-black grand coalition in Germany

(politics, often capitalized) Supportive of, related to, or dominated by a political party or movement represented by the color red:

Left-wing parties and movements, chiefly socialist or communist, including the U.K. Labour party and the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

a red state

a red Congress

(US politics) The U.S. Republican Party.


white

white (comparative whiter or more white, superlative whitest or most white)

whiter (comparative)
more white (comparative)
whitest (superlative)
most white (superlative)
whight (alternative obsolete)
whyte (alternative obsolete)
whyght (alternative obsolete)
White (alternative)

Bislama: waet

Sranan Tongo: weti

Aukan: weti

Saramaccan: wéti

Tok Pisin: wait

→ Japanese: ホワイト (howaito)

white fella

⇒ Nyunga: wadjela

white gin

⇒ Gamilaraay: waatyin

⇒ Ngiyambaa: wadjiin

⇒ Wiradjuri: waajin

Inherited from Middle English whit, hwit, from Old English hwīt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweydós, a byform of *ḱweytós (“bright; shine”).
Cognates
* West Frisian wyt
*Dutch wit
* German weiß
* German weiss
* Norwegian Bokmål hvit
* Norwegian Nynorsk kvit
* Lithuanian šviẽsti (“to gleam”), šviesa (“light”)
* Old Church Slavonic свѣтъ (světŭ, “light”), свѣтьлъ (světĭlŭ, “clear, bright”)
* Persian سفید (sefid, “white”), Persian سپید (sepid, “white”)
* Avestan 𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬉𐬙𐬀 (spaēta, “white”)
* Sanskrit श्वेत (śvetá, “white, bright”).

cog

Aimée de Coigny had always adopted with enthusiasm the political views of her ruling lover and she had thus already held nearly every shade of opinion from red republicanism to white reaction.

1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 163:

(politics) Pertaining to constitutional or anti-revolutionary political parties or movements.


white

en-noun

white (countable and uncountable, plural whites)

whites (plural)
whight (alternative obsolete)
whyte (alternative obsolete)
whyght (alternative obsolete)
White (alternative)

bělásek

common name for butterflies in the subfamily Pierinae

'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

(archery) The central part of the butt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of a mark at which a missile is shot.


yellow

en-adj

yellow (comparative yellower, superlative yellowest)

yellower (comparative)
yellowest (superlative)
yeallow (alternative)
yeller (alternative)

From Middle English yelwe, yelou, from Old English ġeolwe, oblique form of Old English ġeolu, from Proto-West Germanic *gelu, from Proto-Germanic *gelwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃wos, from *ǵʰelh₃- (“gleam, yellow”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian jel, jeel (“yellow”), West Frisian giel (“yellow”), Dutch geel (“yellow”), German Low German geel (“yellow”), German gelb (“yellow”), Swedish gul (“yellow”), Icelandic gulur (“yellow”). Compare also Welsh gell (“bay, tawny”), Latin helvus (“dull yellow”), Irish geal (“white, bright”), Italian giallo (“yellow”) Lithuanian žalias (“green”), Ancient Greek χλωρός (khlōrós, “light green”), Persian زرد (zard, “yellow”), Sanskrit हरि (hari, “greenish-yellow”), Russian жёлтый (žóltyj, “yellow”), Russian зелёный (zeljónyj, “green”).
The verb is from Middle English yelwen, ȝalowen, ȝolewen, from Old English ġeolwian, from the adjective.

cog

yellow constituencies

2012 March 2, Andrew Grice, “Yellow rebels take on Clegg over NHS 'betrayal'”, in The Independent:

(UK politics) Related to the Liberal Democrats.

the black–yellow coalition

(politics) Related to the Free Democratic Party; a political party in Germany.


SARS

Special Anti-Robbery Squad
w:Special Anti-Robbery Squad

(Nigeria, law enforcement) Initialism of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a Nigerian police unit known for police brutality and corruption.


football

en-noun

football (countable and uncountable, plural footballs)

footballs (plural)
foot-ball (alternative dated)
foot ball (alternative dated)

⇒ Azerbaijani: futbol

desc

→ Bengali: ফুটবল (phuṭbol) (transliteration)

→ Bulgarian: фу́тбол (fútbol)

→ Czech: fotbal

desctree

→ Dutch: voetbal (calque)
→ Caribbean Hindustani: futbál khele

→ French: football

desc

→ Georgian: ფეხბურთი (pexburti) (calque)

→ German: Football

desctree

→ German: Fußball, Fussball (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, sometimes Luxembourg, South Tyrol) (calque)
→ English: foosball
⇒? Luxembourgish: Foussball

desc

→ Greek: ποδόσφαιρο (podósfairo) (calque)

→ Hebrew: כדורגל (calque)

→ Hindustani:

Hindi: फ़ुटबॉल (fuṭbŏl)

→ Hungarian: futball

→ Japanese: フットボール (futtobōru)

→ Korean: 풋볼 (putbol)

→ Latvian: futbols

→ Latvian: kājbumba (calque)

→ Lithuanian: fùtbolas

→ Macedonian: фу́дбал (fúdbal)

→ Maori: whutupōro

→ Maltese: futbol

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: fotball (calque)

desctree

→ Ottoman Turkish: فوتبول
Turkish: futbol

→ Polish: futbol

→ Polish: piłka nożna (calque)

→ Portuguese: futebol

→ Romanian: fotbal

→ Russian: футбо́л (futból)
→ Armenian: ֆուտբոլ (futbol)
→ Kazakh: футбол (futbol)

⇒ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: фу̏дба̄л

Latin script: fȕdbāl

→ Spanish: balompié (calque)

→ Spanish: fútbol, futbol (Mexico), fúbol
→ Guaraní: húvol
→? Tagalog: putbol

→ Swedish: fotboll (calque)
⇒ Finnish: futis

→ Thai: ฟุตบอล (fút-bɔn)

⇒ Tok Pisin: soka

⇒ Ukrainian: футбо́л (futból)

[ˈfʊʔt̚bɔːl]

[ˈfʊʔtʰbɔːl]

[ˈfʷʊʔt̚bɑɫ]

From Middle English fotbal, footbal, equivalent to foot + ball, which may refer to the act of kicking a ball with the feet or to the fact the game was played on foot (as opposed to on horseback or with players in fixed positions). The name for the briefcase is a play on “dropkick”, the code name of an early version of the nuclear war plan.

ավստրալական ֆուտբոլ

game in Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

ball

in all varieties of English and in all games called "football"

The aide rides, along with the president's physician, in the “control car,” third in line in the motorcade. He is responsible for the football (or “black box” or “black bag”), a briefcase containing the codes and targeting information the president would require to order or authorize a nuclear attack.

1994, Herbert L. Abrams, The President Has Been Shot: Confusion, Disability, and the 25th Amendment, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 126:

After the lunch broke, we walked to the Trump-Putin press conference, which started about 6 p.m. As Kelly observed to me at some point, there were now two military aides in the room, each carrying his country's nuclear football.

2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 155:

(US military slang, countable) The leather briefcase containing classified nuclear war plans which is always near the US President.


zipper

→ Cebuano: siper

→ Esperanto: zipo

→ French: zipper

→ Japanese: ジッパー (jippā)

→ Korean: 지퍼 (jipeo)

→ Portuguese: zíper

→ Spanish: zíper

→ Tagalog: siper

1925, zip + -er. The trade name was registered in 1925 by B.F. Goodrich for “boots made of rubber and fabric,” claiming use of the name since June 1923. No longer a registered trademark.

[…] the usual gap between the time the last strike of the day departed and the first night hecklers arrived was closed with "zippers" — night fighters who, using day fighter tactics, proceeded to the target in daylight in time to relieve the last day blanket patrol.

They would handle all the night combat air patrols, the night hecklers who would go over the enemy airfields, and we formed a new little gimmick called "zippers" to help close that gap between the time the daylight strikes left the target and darkness.

1993, E. T. Wooldridge, Carrier Warfare in the Pacific: An Oral History Collection, page 268:

(US, military, slang, dated) An air patrol carried out at dawn or dusk.


sausage

en-noun

sausage (countable and uncountable, plural sausages)

From late Middle English sawsiche, from Anglo-Norman sausiche (compare Norman saûciche), from Late Latin salsīcia (compare Sicilian sausizza, Spanish salchicha, Italian salsiccia), feminine of salsīcius (“seasoned with salt”), derivative of Latin salsus (“salted”), from sal (“salt”). More at salt. Doublet of saucisse. See also Sicilian sausizza. Displaced native Old English mearh.


cast

New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *kas-
Proto-Germanic *kastōną
Old Norse kastabor.
Middle English casten
English cast
From Middle English casten, from Old Norse kasta (“to throw, cast, overturn”), from Proto-Germanic *kastōną (“to throw, cast”), of unknown origin.
Cognate with Scots cast (“to cast, throw”), Danish kaste (“to throw”), Swedish kasta (“to throw, cast, fling, toss, discard”), Icelandic kasta (“to pitch, toss”). In the sense of "flinging", displaced native warp.
The senses relating to broadcasting are based on that same term; compare -cast.

cog

Cast is the measurement of the central line of the gun and the stock’s butt. If the butt is tilted slightly to the left of the central line, it’s called “cast on.” If the butt is tilted slightly to the right of the central line, it’s called “cast off.”

Savage Arms, "THE PERFECT SHOTGUN FIT," 2021

(firearms) The measurement of the angle of a shotgun stock from a top-view center line, used to align the shotgun to the shooter's eye.


mouse

en-noun

mouse (plural mice or (computing) mouses)

mice (plural)
mouses (plural)
mowse (alternative obsolete)

→ Bengali: মাউস (maus)

→ Brazilian Portuguese: mouse

→ French: souris (semantic loan)

→ Georgian: მაუსი (mausi)

→ Italian: mouse

→ Japanese: マウス (mausu)

→ Korean: 마우스 (mauseu)

→ Romanian: mouse

→ Spanish: mouse

desc

→ Thai: เมาส์ (máo), เม้าส์ (máo)

→ Thai: เมาส์ (máo), เม้าส์ (máo)

→ Vietnamese: chuột (semantic loan)

From Middle English mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs.
Cognates
Germanic cognates include Old Frisian mūs, Old Saxon mūs (German Low German Muus), Dutch muis, Old High German mūs (German Maus), Old Norse mús (Swedish mus, Danish mus, Norwegian mus, Icelandic mús, Faroese mús).
Indo-European cognates include Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs), Latin mūs, Spanish mur, Armenian մուկ (muk), Old Church Slavonic мꙑшь (myšĭ) (Russian мышь (myšʹ)), Albanian mi, Persian موش (muš), Northern Kurdish mişk, Sanskrit मूष् (mūṣ).
The computing sense was coined by American engineer Bill English in 1965 and first used publicly in a publication titled "Computer-Aided Display Control", in reference to the similarity with the animal.

coin

(boxing) A facial hematoma or black eye.


dual

duals (plural)
du. (alternative abbreviation)

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
Borrowed from Latin dualis (“two”), from duo (“two”) + adjective suffix -alis.

Wrestling duals and meets take place at the Wisconsin Field House. There are no advance single event ticket sales.

2010 August 3, Kevin Revolinski, Insiders' Guide® to Madison, WI, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 137:

But Dave agreed to participate in the Bulgarian dual, and that trapped me into having to wrestle, too.

2014 November 18, Mark Schultz, David Thomas, Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother's Murder, John du Pont's Madness, and the Quest for Olympic Gold, Penguin, →ISBN:

Early in 2021, she became the first female to compete and win a match at the Ter-Hark Cup wrestling dual, helping her squad to victory.

2023 October 19, Jason Norman, American Women in Amateur Wrestling, 2000-2022, McFarland, →ISBN, page 203:

(wrestling) A head-to-head match or meet between two teams, such as two high schools or colleges.


pip

Origin uncertain; perhaps related to Etymology 2, above.

(military, public service) One of the stylised version of the Bath star worn on the shoulder of a uniform to denote rank, e.g. of a soldier or a fireman.


pit

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

he who digs a pit for others falls in himself

Many Bacardi & Cokes later I climbed up into my pit and fell into a deep sleep, and woke up at one thirty in the morning and threw up my tea.

2009, Julian Beirne, Diary of a Sapper, page 55:

(Antarctica and UK, military, slang) A bed.


pit

From Dutch pit (“kernel, core”), from Middle Dutch pitte, from Proto-Germanic *pittan (compare dialectal German Pfitze (“pimple”)), oblique of Proto-Germanic *piþō. Compare pith.

[...] weapons "pits" (the plutonium components of nuclear weapons, named by analogy with the pit of a fruit such as a peach), [...].

1996, “2 Background”, in :w:National Research Council (United States), editor, An Evaluation of the Electrometallurgical Approach for Treatment of Excess Weapons Plutonium, Washington DC, USA: National Academies Press, →DOI, page 15:

The Nagasaki-type [bomb] [...] had a wider range of yield potential depending on the kind of fissile core and tamper assembly, or "pit," used in it.

1999, Anne C Fitzpatrick, Igniting the Light Elements: The Los Alamos Thermonuclear Weapon Project, 1942-1952, Los Alamos, NM (United States): Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), →DOI, Thesis LA-13577-T, page 248:

(military) The core of an implosion nuclear weapon, consisting of the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it.


nature

en-noun

nature (countable and uncountable, plural natures)

natures (plural)
natuer (alternative obsolete)

/ˈneɪ̯.t͡ʃəɹ/

From Middle English nature, natur, from Old French nature, from Latin nātūra (“birth, origin, natural constitution or quality”), future participle from perfect passive participle (g)natus (“born”), from deponent verb (g)nasci (“to be born, originate”) + future participle suffix -urus.
Displaced native Middle English erd (“character, nature, disposition”) from Old English eard (compare German Art (“nature, character, kind, type”)); and Middle English kinde, ikinde (“character, disposition, nature”) from Old English ġecynd. More at kind.

ncog

the wolf may lose his teeth but never his nature

...One Hundred of each Nature of Case-Shot...

1828, James Morton Spearman, The British Gunner, page 130:

B.L. cartridges have lubricators choked inside the cartridges of 40-pr. and lower natures.

1879, War Office, Manual of Siege and Garrison Artillery Exercises, page 37:

The particular way someone or something is, especially

(UK military, obsolete) Synonym of caliber: the class of a gun.