institutional

/ˌɪnstɪˈtʃuːʃənəl/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Usmaan (Middle river exports)-institutional.wav

The institutionals include four former senior military commanders, one from each of the four branches of the armed forces, selected by the National security Council (Cosena); two former Supreme Court judges and one former comptroller-general, selected by the Supreme Court; and one former interior minister and a former university rector, selected by the president.

The time series is very short for the post-1998 transition in the Senate, but if the few votes are indicative, they show that at least a few of the institutionals are much more willing to join legislative majorities than before.

2003, Scott Morgenstern, Patterns of Legislative Politics, page 166:

While the "institutionals" certainly have not voted as a bloc with the Right in all situations, in general terms they have been a reliable ally for this sector.

2010, Peter M. Siavelis, President and Congress in Postauthoritarian Chile, page 40:

(politics) A Chilean senator who is appointed by the president for a term of eight years.


chevrette

From French chevrette, diminutive of chèvre (“goat”). Compare chevron.

(military, historical) A machine for raising guns or mortar into their carriages.


tango uniform

From the NATO phonetic alphabet for the letters T and U, from tits up.

I can never fly my fighter again. It is tango uniform.

(military, slang) Broken and unable to be fixed; dead.


parados

Borrowed from French parados; in turn the French derived from Italian para, defence, cognate with English parry, plus French dos cognate with Latin dorsum: the back, i.e. the dorsal aspect. Parados is unrelated to parodos either in etymology or in meaning.

...an elevation of earth which is effected behind fortified places, to secure them from any attack that may be made in reverse. Parapet and parados come from terms signifying in the front or in the rear of anything.

1810, Charles James, A New and Enlarged Military Dictionary, T. Egerton, pages 87–:

Although a parados takes up so much room, yet it may be turned to good account in the formation of blindages.

1853, anonymous author, Aide-mémoire to the Military Sciences: Framed from Contributions of Officers of the Different Services:

In an enclosed work the interior can seldom be sufficiently covered from the enemy’s fire by the parapet, and it becomes necessary to build traverses or parados or both. The parados is only a large traverse built inside the work to cover the defenders who stand on the faces or flanks furthest removed from the enemy’s fire

1888, Charles Booth Brackenbury, Field Works: Their Technical Construction and Tactical Application:

He stood up on the step; and then they both swerved, ducking quickly as something ripped up the air between them, flicked a stone from the parados, and sang, like the vibration of a tense wire, into the air behind them.

1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, →ISBN:

The 1940 manual viewed the foxhole too as a hasty position, a simple one-man hole about 3 feet in diameter at the top and 2 feet at the bottom dug suitably deep for crouching, kneeling, or standing. Earth was thrown to the front (parapet) and rear (parados) in crescents. (The term "parados" fell from use in World War II being replaced by "rear parapet".)

2005, Gordon L. Rottman, US World War II and Korean War Field Fortifications 1941–53, →ISBN:

(military) Generally a screen or embankment to protect the rear of a position from enemy attack, from bomb splinters from behind, from enemy fire from a commanding height, or fire from flanking positions. In common English usage since World War II, the term "parados", particularly in trench warfare, has largely been discarded in favour of "rear parapet", which, etymologically speaking, is a contradiction in terms. In some contexts the term "rear traverse" is preferred, but no usage is exclusive.

Generally a screen or embankment to protect the rear of a position from enemy attack, from bomb splinters from behind, from enemy fire from a commanding height, or fire from flanking positions. In common English usage since World War II, the term "parados", particularly in trench warfare, has largely been discarded in favour of "rear parapet", which, etymologically speaking, is a contradiction in terms. In some contexts the term "rear traverse" is preferred, but no usage is exclusive.
In fortifications that were enfiladed by enemy in positions commanding the fort, an internal parados could defilade the enemy, serving as physical protection and blindage. Usages of the term have varied inconsistently according to times and sources. Some sources use parados as a synonym for a traverse; some other sources represent parados as a special class of traverse and not necessarily at the back of any particular position.
In trench warfare parados referred to a bank of earth or similar material behind the rear of the trench, opposite the parapet, affording protection from explosions and fragments when shells or bombs overshot the trench.


épéeist

(fencing) A fencer who competes with an épée sword.


longe

From French allonger (“to lengthen”), or Latin longa (“long”), i.e. the long rope.

LONGE.—The training ground for the instruction of a young horse, to render him quiet, tractable, and supple; to give him free and proper use of his limbs, to form his paces, and to prepare him in all respects for the cavalry service.

1885, Edward S. Farrow, Farrow’s Military Encyclopedia, volume 2, New York, page 230:

(military) The training ground for a horse.


inroad

The noun is derived from in + road (“(obsolete) act of riding on horseback; hostile ride against a particular area, raid”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

compound

[…] That ſince that time he [Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus] was become the ſubject of King Henry [VIII] of England, his Majeſty's [James V of Scotland's] greateſt enemy; and was now the cauſe of all the Inroads made by the English into Scotland: […]

1537, David Scott, “Papers Illustrative of the Trial of Jonet Lady Glammys. I. Narrative Taken from the History of Scotland, by David Scott of the Inner Temple.”, in [Robert Pitcairn, compiler], Criminal Trials and Other Proceedings before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland, part IX (Trials during the Reigns of King James the Fourth and Fifth), [Edinburgh]: Printed at the Bannatyne Club Press by Ballantyne and Co., published 1831, →OCLC, page 192:

[A] child knowing the heate of fire, will as readely iudge of the perrill, as the wiſeſt Senatour, of the inroad of a borderer, or the politick captaine, of the vnequall encoũter with his enimy, […]

1586, T[imothie] Bright, “The Particular Aunswere to the Obiections Made in the II Chapter”, in A Treatise of Melancholie. […], London: […] Thomas Vautrollier, […], →OCLC, page 75:

Whence is it that ſo many corrupt Opinions have made ſuch an Inroad on Proteſtant Religion, and the Profeſſion of it? Is it not from hence, that many have loſt an Experience of the power and efficacy of the Truth, and ſo have parted with it?

1683, Samuel Annesley, “The Chamber of Imagery in the Church of Rome Laid Open; or An Antidote against Popery. […] Sermon X.”, in A Continuation of Morning-Exercise Questions and Cases of Conscience, Practically Resolved by Sundry Ministers, in October, 1682, London: […] J. A. for John Dunton […], →OCLC, page 221:

[T]he Britains, left to ſhift for themſelves, and daily haraſſed by cruel Inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their Defence; […]

1712 March 4 (date written; Gregorian calendar), J[onathan] Swift, A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue; […], 2nd edition, London: […] Benj[amin] Tooke, […], published 1712, →OCLC, page 9:

The brave and active Conſtantius delivered Gaul from a very furious inroad of the Alemanni; and his victories of Langres and Vindoniſſa appear to have been actions of conſiderable danger and merit.

1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter XIII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 368:

While from their lovely climate, the poets native to their sweet south, the old ruins hallowed with the memories of other days, the lovely paintings, the still diviner statues, which had been their constant companions—the character had imperceptibly caught a tone of romance, calculated long to resist the inroads of worldliness and deceit.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 181:

[A] certain English colonel passed though the former's country with a body of men-at-arms, on the very day when the O'Mahonys had made an inroad upon our territories, and carried off a frightful plunder of our flocks and herds.

1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “My Pedigree and Family.—Undergo the Influence of the Tender Passion”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1856, →OCLC, page 2:

And everywhere the people, or the populace, take their own government upon themselves; and open 'kinglessness,' what we call anarchy, […] is everywhere the order of the day. Such was the history, from Baltic to Mediterranean, in Italy, France, Prussia, Austria, from end to end of Europe, in those March days of 1848. Since the destruction of the old Roman Empire by inroad of the Northern Barbarians, I have known nothing similar.

1850 February 1, Thomas Carlyle, “No. I. The Present Time.”, in Latter-Day Pamphlets, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 5–6:

If clerks do not try to shirk their work, our whole great commercial system breaks down. It is breaking down, under the inroad of women who are adopting the unprecedented and impossible course of taking the system seriously and doing it well.

1910, Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “The Modern Slave”, in What’s Wrong with the World, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, […], →OCLC, part III (Feminism: Or the Mistake about Woman), page 177:

On the Great North of Scotland section, always a stronghold of four-coupled engines, a great number of small 4-4-0s, some over fifty years old, were still going strong in 1945, but serious inroads are being made into their numbers now.

1954 May, John W. Grant, “A Railway Requiem”, in Railway Magazine, page 351:

[T]he discourse of ornament was energetically appropriated by those anxious to defend masculinity and protect feminine virtue against the inroads of luxury and its ill effects on morality.

2009, Marcia Pointon, “Fault Lines and Points of Light”, in Brilliant Effects: A Cultural History of Gem Stones and Jewellery, New Haven, Conn., London: […] [F]or the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Stories Touching Stones), page 19, column 1:

[I]n many European states, the whole notion of retirement at pensionable age and consequential entitlement to a pension seems to fall within the domain of social security law rather than forming part of the contract-based system of regulation of termination of employment. There may therefore be significant inroads into the notion of a unified or integrated contract-based system of regulation of termination of employment. However, in most European legal systems it would seem that these inroads do not encroach upon the essential integrity or unity of the contract-based system of regulation of termination of employment.

2011, Mark Freedland, Nicola Kountouris, “The Termination and Transformation of Employment Contracts”, in The Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 224:

(military, also figuratively) An advance into enemy territory, an attempted invasion; an encroachment, an incursion.

מעלתא

advance into enemy territory — see also incursion


Pinkerton syndrome

In reference to the character Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton in the opera Madama Butterfly (first performed in 1904) by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924).

When I’m with my white partner, I am a proponent of the ‘Pinkerton Syndrome’, a caricature not unlike the Other Asia’s mail order bride.

1996, Westerly, volume 41, Crawley, Perth, W.A.: Western Australia Westerly Centre, the University of Western Australia, →ISSN, page 70:

Like vampires, the ang moh crowd comes out at night, dressed in their best shirts and armed with plenty of tax-free Singapore dollars to woo those local darlings tragically struck down by the Pinkerton syndrome. Like the character in Madame Butterfly, they are somehow lured by the attraction of drunken voices and the possibility of a fat wallet.

2001, Neil Humphreys, Notes from an Even Smaller Island, Singapore: Times Books International, →ISBN, page 213:

The Pinkerton Syndrome, then, seems to me non-operative in American cultural masculinity at the moment. […] Pinkerton's casual imperialist hubris, an expression of first-generation Manifest Destiny complete with brass-buttoned naval uniform, has an official status that lone action heroes as implicitly populist individuals must stay well clear of. No, the condition is really much more suited to Europeans.

2006, William Beard, “M. Butterfly (1993)”, in The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg, rev. and exp. edition, Toronto, Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 346:

The home-wrecking bimbo who had succumbed to the Pinkerton Syndrome had been transformed into a 'bad girl' – a phenomenon not unfamiliar to Asian societies – and recovered for herself an empowered cultural agency.

2015, Chris Hudson, “Dangerous Sexuality in Singapore: The Sarong Party Girl”, in Adeline Koh, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, editors, Women and the Politics of Representation in Southeast Asia: Engendering Discourse in Singapore and Malaysia (Routledge Research on Gender in Asia Series; 8), Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN:

(chiefly Singapore, derogatory, politics, ethnic slur) The tendency of some Asians to regard Caucasians as superior or more desirable, especially where marriage or relationships are concerned.


rapporteur

/ˌɹæ.pɔːˈtɜː/

/ˌɹæ.pɔɹˈtɜɹ/

(law, politics) A person appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue or a situation, and report back to that body.

raportööri

a person appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue or a situation, and report back to that body


Rewson

(US, military) Acronym of Reconnaissance, Electronic Warfare, Special Operations, Navy.


sausage factory

en-noun

sausage factory (plural sausage factories)

In the sense of a gathering without women, sausage is a euphemism for penis. In other figurative senses, it is an example of a food that may be made from distasteful ingredients.

(politics) Dealings and compromises that take place behind the scenes to enact legislation.


koka

koka (countable and uncountable, plural kokas)

The referee shall announce "koka" (almost yuko) when in his opinion the technique applied by the contestant merits the score of koka (almost yuko). Should either contestant score two or further kokas, then the referee shall announce them as they are scored but shall not stop the contest for that reason.

1978, AAU Official Rules, Judo, Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, page 15:

As with yukos, kokas are not accumulative, so no amount of kokas are deemed equal to or greater than a yuko.

2008, Roy Inman, The Judo Handbook, page 25:

(judo) The smallest technical score that can be awarded in a judo competition.


internationalism

internationalism (usually uncountable, plural internationalisms)

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

Once again the opposite poles of isolationism and Wilsonian internationalism appeared as alternatives that split the liberal and conservative camps

1995, Time’s Cycle and National Military Strategy:

One day in the not too distant future, we may look back on Donald Trump’s return to power as the death knell of “liberal internationalism.”

2025 January 23, Ned Temko, “Is the West’s liberal template broken?”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

(politics) Political, economic and cultural cooperation between nations.


WARNO

Information not available for inclusion in the initial WARNO can be included in subsequent warning

2006. Mir Bahmanyar, Shadow Warriors: A History of the US Army, Page 216 http://books.google.com/books?id=SXv32iVfb1kC&pg=PA216&dq=warno&ei=U49LR-HuOqDktQOGgI3wBg&sig=aZzxJSAvgCueY0iyJiVls7f4hZ8

Only address if essential to the WARNO.

2007, U. S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army Ranger Handbook, page 16:

(US, military) Abbreviation of warning order.


billhook

billhooks (plural)
bill-hook (alternative)
bill hook (alternative)

→ Irish: bileog

→ Welsh: bilwg

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

Earliest use in weapon (and later, agricultural) sense, bill (“a bladed pike (obsolete)”) + hook; other senses formed anew from various meanings of bill.

compound

(weaponry) A medieval polearm, fitted to a long handle, sometimes with an L-shaped tine or a spike protruding from the side or the end of the blade for tackling the opponent; a bill.


stalking horse

stalking horses (plural)
stalking-horse (alternative)

The Ministry had their candidate, a stalking-horse, useful only to receive the purely Ministerial votes. The votes, thus divided, gave no result.

1842, Honoré de Balzac, chapter 8, in Ellen Marriage, transl., Albert Savarus:

Any open challenge would likely come first as trial balloons from backbench "stalking horse" candidates, who could never win.

2008 May 23, James Graff, “Lost: Labour's Love for Brown”, in Time, archived from the original on 2016-03-07:

But the other narrative goes after Biden as though the Democrats had actually nominated Bernie Sanders, insisting that his advancing age makes him a decrepit vessel for the radical left, a stalking horse not just for Kamala Harris but also for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and antifa.

2020 October 20, Ross Douthat, “Trump Is Giving Up”, in New York Times:

(idiomatic, politics) A candidate put forward to serve a hidden, ulterior purpose in a political campaign, such as testing the field for another potential candidate by gauging voter sentiment or covertly helping another candidate by attracting voters away from a third candidate.


far-right

en-adj

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

more far-right (comparative)
most far-right (superlative)

Other far-right sites would gravitate to Epik. Among the first to announce its migration in early 2019 was BitChute, a YouTube imitator that had been blocked by PayPal.

2021 December 9, Rob Kuznia, Curt Devine and Yahya Abou-Ghazala, “Epik is a refuge for the deplatformed far right. Here’s why its CEO insists on doing it”, in CNN:

(politics) Of or pertaining to the far right.


far right

/ˌfɑː ˈɹʌɪt/

/ˌfɑɹ ˈɹaɪt/

From far + right, after French extrême droite.

(politics) The most right-wing or conservative part of a political faction or grouping.


sinology

From sino- (“China”) + -logy (“study of”).

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

(Cold War, politics, espionage) The study of the internal politics of the high members of the government of the People's Republic of China.


TAF

(military, aviation) Initialism of Turkish Air Force.

Turkish Armed Forces
w:Turkish Armed Forces

(military) Initialism of Turkish Armed Forces.


speedup

en-noun

speedup (countable and uncountable, plural speedups)

speedups (plural)
speed-up (alternative)

There were, of course, those observers who argued that since in some industries 50 or 60 per cent of those employed were scientific, technical, and administrative staff, the employer would soon include them in his speedup plans.

1975 March 20, New Scientist, volume 65, number 941, page 711:

For the mass of new workers who had not come out of a syndicalist or craft tradition, incentive pay and the speedup idea carried relatively little negative meaning.

1987, Nelson Lichtenstein, Labor's War at Home: The CIO in World War II, page 145:

The strike was over a speedup of the assembly line, which in the previous week had increased from 49 to 58 cars per hour. Out of this strike emerged the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM).

1997, Vincent Harding, Robin D. G. Kelley, Earl Lewis, We Changed the World: African Americans 1945-1970, page 171:

With constant speedup of the line and with the cold temperatures of the plant, one angry worker told me, “After ten years, people walk like they're sixty or seventy."

2007, Thomas Frank, What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of, page 54:

(labour, politics) An employer's demand for more output without more pay.


MSM

Meritorious Service Medal
w:Meritorious Service Medal

(military, US) Initialism of Meritorious Service Medal.


reign of terror

reign of terror (plural reigns of terror)

From the Reign of Terror that took place during the French Revolution.

(politics) A brutal period of political violence and intimidation in the wake of a popular revolution.

恐怖时期

period of brutal intimidation by those in power


cherry blossom

cherry blossom (countable and uncountable, plural cherry blossoms)

The cherry blossom was in use in Heian times...For obvious reasons it become the mon of the Sakurai family.

1976, W. M. Hawley, Kei Kaneda Chappelear, Mon: The Japanese Family Crest, page 27:

(heraldry) A stylized depiction of the blossom of the cherry tree, as used in Japanese mon.


blading

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(professional wrestling) The act of cutting oneself open, usually on the forehead, to draw blood and make the fight more spectacular.


beatdown

beatdown (countable and uncountable, plural beatdowns)

Deverbal from beat down; influenced by earlier throwdown.

(professional wrestling, slang) A prescribed situation, usually to advance an angle or establish character, where two or more wrestlers severely beat up another wrestler or performer.


gaffle

From Middle English gaffolle, a borrowing from Middle Dutch gaffel, gafel (“fork”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *gabulu (“fork”), related to Old English gafol, ġeafel (“fork”).

(historical, weaponry) A portable fork of iron or wood in which the heavy musket formerly in use was rested that it might be accurately aimed and fired.


groundling

From ground + -ling. Compare Old English grundling (“a groundling fish, grundel”).

cog

The poor plodding groundling, helpless and impotent, is swooped upon at will, day and night, completely wiped out at the whim of the low- flying plane, which soars off leaving complete and utter destruction behind it!

1937, Field Artillery Association (U.S.), The Field Artillery Journal - Volume 27, page 342:

He then enlisted in the air force and served as a groundling in North Africa, Sicily, and England.

2010, Erin Bried, How to Build a Fire: And Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew, →ISBN:

Present at the Battle of Jutland, he had been recalled for the duration of this war and, being in the area, he had come to see how his little lad was faring in the sky. I was given permission to fall out and join him, gladly setting aside my groundling's bayonet.

2012, Pat Cunningham, The Fear in the Sky: Vivid Memories of Bomber Aircrew in World War Two, →ISBN:

One who is confined to the ground, especially:

(military, slang) A soldier who fights on the ground or serves as ground crew, as opposed to a seaman, pilot, etc.


blackwash

en-noun

blackwash (countable and uncountable, plural blackwashes)

From black + -wash or black + wash (depending on sense).

(chiefly politics) A villainization campaign.


Internal Revenue Service

the Internal Revenue Service (canonical)

(US, finance, taxation) The United States government agency that collects taxes and enforces the internal revenue laws.


ASROC

(US, military, nautical) Abbreviation of Anti-Submarine Rocket, an antisubmarine missile system.


OP

OP (countable and uncountable, plural OPs)

(military, law enforcement) Initialism of observation post.


OP

(Philippines, some other countries, politics) Initialism of Office of the President.


BLA

(Pakistan, politics) Initialism of Baloch(istan) Liberation Army.


midnight chow

1917, in United States Marine Corps, The Marines Magazine, C. A. Ketcham (1917), page 27,
After the ball was over and the taxi-cab was underway some one suggested midnight chow, permitted by the censor.

1957, Walter Sullivan, Quest for a Continent, McGraw-Hill, page 217,
Chief Petty Officer Paul Saylor, an electronics technician, and one of his men set out from the Operations Hut for their midnight chow. It was broad daylight, even at that hour, but visibility was literally zero.

2007, Michael C. Hodges, A Doctor Looks at War: My Year in Iraq, Tate Publishing, →ISBN, page 188,
After quick greetings to those who were still awake, some of our group went to eat at the midnight chow, some went to use the phones, some went to shower, and others, like me, just went to sleep.

(US, military, informal) A meal served in the mess hall around midnight or later.


black belt

(martial arts) The highest belt colour in various martial arts.

حِزَام أَسْوَد

highest belt color in various martial arts

Raymond is a black belt in karate.

(martial arts) Someone who has attained the black belt in martial arts.

not used in Finnish (instead say jollakulla on musta vyö "someone has a black belt")


tactical air commander

tactical air commander (plural tactical air commanders)

(military) The shore-based officer (aviator) responsible to the landing force commander for control and coordination of air operations within the landing force commander's area of operations when control of these operations is passed ashore.

(military, countable) One of these officers.


tactical air control center

tactical air control center (plural tactical air control centers)

tactical air operations
tactical air operations

(military) The principal air operations installation (ship-based) from which all aircraft and air warning functions of tactical air operations are controlled. Also called Navy TACC.


murrey

murrey (countable and uncountable, plural murreys)

From Middle English murrey, murreye, from Middle French moré, morée, from Latin moratum, morata, from neuter and feminine respectively of moratus (“mulberry-colored”), from morum (“mulberry”) + -atus (“-ate”).

murrey:

(heraldry) A tincture, the colour of mulberries, between gules (red) and purpure (purple).


thermal energy

thermal energy (plural thermal energies)

(military) The energy released by an explosion


ATA

American Taekwondo Association
w:American Taekwondo Association

(martial arts) Initialism of American Taekwondo Association.


cross-bench

cross-benches (plural)
crossbench (alternative)

(UK politics) A bench placed perpendicular to others, especially certain such benches in the House of Lords on which independent or neutral members traditionally sit.


cross-bench

en-adj

cross-bench (comparative more cross-bench, superlative most cross-bench)

more cross-bench (comparative)
most cross-bench (superlative)
crossbench (alternative)

(UK politics) Of or pertaining to the cross-benches in the UK houses of parliament.


cross-bencher

cross-benchers (plural)
crossbencher (alternative)

/ˌkɹɒsˈbɛnt͡ʃə/

Putting the hereditary nobility to one side, the life peers, and especially the cross-benchers, carry on an older, less narrowly professional tradition of distinguished service: rule by the ‘great and the good’, if not necessarily the best and brightest.

2007, Bruce Ackerman, “Meritocracy v. Democracy”, in London Review of Books, volume 29, number 5, page 9:

(politics) A member of the British House of Lords or the Senate of Canada or Australia who sits on a cross-bench, or who proclaims independence or political neutrality.


boogaloo

en-noun

boogaloo (countable and uncountable, plural boogaloos)

/ˈbuːɡəˌluː/

/ˌbuːɡəˈluː/

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

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

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

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

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

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


potato masher

potato mashers (plural)
potato-masher (alternative)

‘A hand-grenade. One of those potato-mashers. It just blew the whole side of my foot off.’

1929 May–October, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, 1st British edition, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1929, →OCLC, book II, page 131:

(military slang) A type of stick hand grenade resembling such a utensil.


skivvy

(military slang, Vietnam War) A prostitute.


colonelcy

[U]nless Lieut Colonel Tyler [John Tyler Sr.] was provided for, The Major, Prentice [Samuel Prentiss II] advanced to a Lieut:Colonelcy in some other Regiment, and his eldest Captain ([James] Chapman) not deprived of his expectation of the Majority; his coming in there would give uneasiness, but nevertheless if it was the pleasure of Congress to make the appointment, he would do every thing in his power to make it palatible.

1776 July 29, George Washington, “To the Board of War and Ordnance”, in John C[lement] Fitzpatrick, editor, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745–1799: […], volumes 5 (May, 1776 – August, 1776), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, published April 1932, →OCLC, page 350:

In the campaign of 1760, the general [De Soltikow], who had juſt obtained the colonelcy of the regiment of Wolfenbuttle, aſſembled a body of troops near Konimſthau; as the enemy did not enter Bohemia, as was expected, he repaired to the frontiers of Sileſia, failed in an attempt to ſurpriſe Neuſtadt, but actually cut off the Pruſſian regiment of Mantpeefel.

1800, “Field-Marshall Baron de Loudon, Grand Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, Aulic Counsellor of War, &c”, in The Annual Necrology, for 1797–8; […], volume I, London: Printed for R[ichard] Phillips, […] by T[homas] Bensley, […], →OCLC, page 70:

At the close of this year (1776) he [John Chester] was recommended for a colonelcy in the new Continental Army, but on account of the condition of his personal affairs he declined the appointment and retired to private life, to the great regret, particularly, of General [George] Washington.

1903, Franklin Bowditch Dexter, “Sketches, Class of 1766”, in Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, volumes III (May, 1763 – July, 1778), New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 178:

Did I tell you I've been given a colonelcy in the North Riding Volunteers?

2011, Julian Fellowes, 26:03 from the start, in Downton Abbey, season 2, episode 1:

Meanwhile, he witnessed the mad log-rolling for colonelcies. "I was perfectly sickened at the political wire pulling for all these commissions," he [Ulysses S. Grant] told Jesse [Root Grant]. Of the first six colonels [Governor of Illinois, Richard] Yates appointed, not one had any experience, and only one was a West Pointer.

2014, William C[harles] Davis, “‘What has Become of Gen. Lee?’—‘Who is General Grant?’”, in Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee: The War They Fought, the Peace They Forged, Boston, Mass.: Da Capo Press, →ISBN, page 128:

(military) The rank or office of a colonel.


direct action

direct action (usually uncountable, plural direct actions)

(military) Small-scale raids, ambushes, sabotage, etc. carried out by the military.


carding

carding (countable and uncountable, plural cardings)

(Canada, law enforcement) A police practice where an officer stops, questions, and documents information from a person to gather intelligence, when no crime or suspicion of crime has been committed.


call the ball

en-verb

call the ball (third-person singular simple present calls the ball, present participle calling the ball, simple past and past participle called the ball)

calls the ball (present singular third-person)
calling the ball (participle present)
called the ball (participle past)
called the ball (past)

- Maverick, call the ball.

(US naval aviation) When landing on a US aircraft carrier: to sight the lights from the multi-colored optical landing system that shows a pilot to be on the correct approach path or how to correct the approach path.


backwoodsman

→ German: Hinterwäldler (calque)

(informal, UK politics) A Peer who is seldom present in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom Parliament, who may be encouraged to attend when a very important vote is expected.


flattop

flattops (plural)
flat top (alternative)
flat-top (alternative)

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

From flat + top. Sense of “aircraft carrier” attributed to the message, “Scratch one flattop,” radioed during the Battle of the Coral Sea by LCDR Robert E. Dixon to the USS Lexington, whose commanding officer credited the pilot with coining the standard USN slang.

(US, navy, informal) An aircraft carrier.


pursuivant

pursuivants (plural)
poursuivant (alternative)
pursevant (alternative)

From Middle English pursevant et al., from Old French pursuivant, present participle of pursuivre (“to follow”). Doublet of pursuant.

How oft do they [the blessed Angels] with golden pineons, cleaue / The flitting skyes, like flying Purſuiuant, / Againſt fowle feendes to ayd vs millitant: […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 291:

The herald Hope, forerunning Fear, / And Fear, the pursuivant of Hope.

1845, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, To A Child:

(heraldry) A functionary of lower rank than a herald, but discharging similar duties; an attendant of the heralds, e.g. in the College of Arms.

(law enforcement, by extension) A warrant officer.


Shahab

From Persian شهاب (šahâb, literally “meteor”), from Arabic شِهَاب (šihāb).


irradiated

en-adj

irradiated (comparative more irradiated, superlative most irradiated)

more irradiated (comparative)
most irradiated (superlative)

Per Fess, Or, and Argent, a Rose irradiated Gules, therefrom issuant two Griphons' heads addorsed Sable. William Barlow.

1829, Stephen Hyde Cassan, Lives of the bishops of Bath and Wells, page 65:

A Lion of England imperially crowned, between three roses gules in chief, and as many argent in base, barbed, seeded, and irradiated or […]

1893, John Edwin Cussans, Handbook of Heraldry, page 277:

[...] a naked child seized by a bear passant sable semee d'estoiles or, on a chief argent three roses gules irradiated.

1897, William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford, The Blazon of Episcopacy … of England and Wales, page 187:

Azure, on a cross quarterly pierced or, four chevrons gules, with an honourable augmentation, a chief argent, thereon a rose gules, irradiated gold, within a wreath of oak proper.

1899, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families, page 878:

Quarterly : 1st and 4th, Sable, a fesse wavy between two estoiles irradiated argent, Drake; 2nd, Gules, on a bend or, a baton azure, on a chief the arms of[…]

1902, Joseph Jackson Howard, Visitation of England and Wales, page 1:

[...] in her dexter hand a pair of scales or, and in her sinister a touchstone sable, her head irradiated.

1915, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Book of Public Arms, London : T.C. & E.C. Jack, page 326:

Crest — Rising from the top of a lighthouse argent irradiated or a martlet azure.

2020 April 20, Susan Morris, Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2019, eBook Partnership, →ISBN, page 2780:


Bremelo

Bremelos (plural)
Bremerlo (alternative)

Blend of Bremerton + buffalo. The word has been in use since the 1960s in Kitsap County.

(slang, US, derogatory, military) A young overweight woman in the area around Puget Sound Naval Station Bremerton, Washington, a major naval base, particularly one who seeks to partner with Navy personnel.


brigadiership

en-noun

brigadiership (countable and uncountable, plural brigadierships)

(military) The role or position of a brigadier.


contractual

Morphologically contract + -ual, from Latin contractus + -al.

If the Declaration continues to be deferred for the contractuals, it is bound to seem old and stale and insufficient when it finally comes, while if it were issued now, particularly if issued freely, it might have some significance as a concession, or gesture, made by the Three Powers to meet the wishes of Berliners.

1956, United States. Dept. of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, page 1341:

It may be doubtful although not impossible that Congress willing ratify cultural convention pending or preceding ratification contractuals.

1986, United States. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, page 404:

The U.S. Senate on 1 July approved the German contractuals and the NATO protocol and ratification followed.

1988, Doris M.. Condit, The Test of War: 1950-1953, page 392:

(government) A contract specifying details of the relationship with another country or body


redistrict

en-verb

redistrict (third-person singular simple present redistricts, present participle redistricting, simple past and past participle redistricted)

redistricts (present singular third-person)
redistricting (participle present)
redistricted (participle past)
redistricted (past)

(US, politics) To redraw the borders of the districts represented by legislators or other elected officeholders in accord with changes in population as shown in the decennial census.


sumptuary tax

The author seems favourable to a tax on dress, when, exceeding the limits of necessity and decency, it luxuriates in finery and ornament. A tax which should fall only on the superfluous embellishments, and costliness, of apparel would be a sumptuary tax, and might form a new source of supply to the necessities of the state, if an easy, simple, and economical mode of raising it could be devised. We have taxes on hats, and on hair-powder; and might not a salutary tax be levied on jewels and lace, and various other exterior decorations

1810, “[review of] What is the Influence of the different Species of Taxation on the Morality, the Activity, and the Industry of Nations? By M. de Monthion, formerly Counsellor of State. Paris”, in The Critical Review:

Although the influence of a very patriotic sumptuary tax has diminished the number of dogs, we have still “ thousands too many.”

1812, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, page 125:

I do not consider that the Carriage Tax is a tax intended to pay for the upkeep of the roads at all; I do not think that ever entered into the idea of it. I think it was a purely sumptuary tax intended to hit a luxury. / 14905. Like the Window Tax, which was also aimed at a supposed luxury ? / —Yes.

1906, “[testimony of] Sir Henry William Primrose, 8 Feb. 1906”, in Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons and Command:

A sumptuary tax is a tax whose effects are desired on moral or ethical grounds. It is levied on certain products or services the consumption of which is discouraged. Example of sumptuary taxes are those imposed on the production, sale, or consumption of tobacco products, alcoholic drinks, playing cards, billiard tables, cabaret admissions, and many others. A tax for regulatory purposes should be distinguished from sumptuary tax.

1982, Florentino G. Ayson, C. O. Resurreccion, The fundamentals of agrarian reform, page 173:

(economics, taxation) A government levy on goods considered to be socially undesirable goods or nonessential luxuries, most commonly alcohol and tobacco.


fizzer

The soldier was put on a fizzer for being improperly dressed.

(British Army military slang) A disciplinary charge.


flag officer

(military, nautical) A naval officer with the rank of rear admiral or above. Such officers are entitled to fly a personal flag, especially on the flagship.

(US military, informal) In addition to naval officers of Navy and the Coast Guard, a general officer in the Army, Marines, or Air Force with the rank of brigadier general or higher.


Bolshevism

en-noun

Bolshevism (countable and uncountable, plural Bolshevisms)

Bolshevisms (plural)
bolshevism (alternative)

/ˈbɑlʃəˌvɪzəm/

Borrowed from Russian большеви́зм (bolʹševízm, “Bolshevism”), from большинство (bolʹšinstvo, “majority, most”) (referring to the fact that the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party won on the majority of the important issues at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903) + -и́зм (-ízm, “-ism”, suffix forming the names of systems, schools of thought or theories based on the names of their subjects or objects). большинство is derived from большо́й (bolʹšój, “great, large”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bel-) + -ство (-stvo, suffix forming a neuter noun, usually an abstract noun denoting a relation, social status, scientific discipline, quality or state) (from Proto-Slavic *-ьstvo (suffix forming nouns denoting a condition or state)).

der

The split between the two trends of Bolshevism issued from questions of a very practical nature. [Alexander] Bogdanov and his group condemned participation in parliamentary, "bourgeois" politics. [Vladimir] Lenin, on the other hand, set the struggle for political power as the main task of the party. He was not occupied with creating and implanting an idea of the future of socialism; he thought of this more as a development to be expected from the period following the revolution. Instead he was preparing the organizational and political-intellectual grounds for a revolution that would be capable of overthrowing tsarism.

2015, Tamás Krausz, “Organization and Revolution”, in Bálint Bethlenfalvy, Mario Fenyo, transl., Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography, New York, N.Y.: Monthly Review Press, →ISBN, page 127:

The strategy used by the Bolsheviks in attempting to gain power in Russia.

We of this generation owe it to the countless dead, to the peoples now living, to our children and children's children not to let the present situation go by without attempting in good faith to establish among those nations that will tolerate neither Kaiserism nor Bolshevism such a form of international court and police power as will have for its purpose the ringing out of an age of war and the ringing in of an age of peace.

1919, J[oseph] A[lfred] A[rner] Burnquist, Inaugural Message of Gov. J. A. A. Burnquist to the Legislature of Minnesota, [Minn.]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 4:

Let me ask you then, first, to consider what Bolshevism really is. Well, politically it is the usurpation of power over the whole by a small section of the community. […] The fundamental idea or principle of Bolshevism is that the proletariat, that is to say the lowest stratum of society, the most ignorant, the least educated, should be the basis of the State, should in fact absolutely control the State. Instead of the principle announced in the Declaration of Independence—that all men are created free and equal, Bolshevism proceeds upon the principle that only the proletariat has any rights or should enjoy any freedom; all other classes of the community are anathema.

1919 April 6, Randolph H. McKim, The Peril of Bolshevism and the Duty of America: A Sermon Delivered in the Church of the Epiphany, Washington, D.C., on Sunday, April 6, 1919 by the Rector, Washington, D.C.: Vestry of the Church of the Epiphany, →OCLC, page 4:

You can never tell to what length of devilry men will go when, setting out to see justice done, they give rein to the spirit of vindictiveness and are bent only on revenge and reprisals. The results may be terrible when the Simeons and Levis of society take law and justice into their own hands. Often it has worked out into grossest inhumanity and vilest bolshevism.

[1923], Thomas Tully, “Simeon and Levi—Evil Confederates”, in The Sons of Jacob and Their Tribal Blessings: Character Studies: A Series of Sunday Afternoon Addresses, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 32:

The task of educating the workers and all toilers in the spirit of proletarian internationalism is one of the fundamental tasks of every Communist Party. But whoever thinks that this permits him, or even compels him, to sneer at all the national sentiments of the broad toiling masses is far from genuine Bolshevism, and has understood nothing of the teaching of [Vladimir] Lenin and [Joseph] Stalin on the national question.

1935 September, Georgi Dimitroff (reporter), “United Front of the Working Class against Fascism”, in Working Class Unity—Bulwark against Fascism: The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International in the Fight for the Unity of the Working Class against Fascism: Seventh World Congress of the Communist International: Report, New York, N.Y.: Workers Library Publishers, →OCLC, pages 79–80:

Important for our purposes is the recognition that the proletariat could be seduced from its historic mission, at least for significant periods of time, by controlled propaganda and capitalist blandishments. The conviction, conjoined with Lenin's elitism, produced a fateful compound: Bolshevism.

1974, A[nthony] James Gregor, “The Twentieth Century and the Crisis of Classical Marxism”, in The Fascist Persuasion in Radical Politics, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 127:

[…] Stalin was never able to monopolise Marxism, and the same deficiencies in theory which facilitate the claim of Stalinism to be a Marxism, allowed alternatives – even other Bolshevisms – to become subversive doctrines in relation to the reality of Stalinist power.

1992, M[ichael] C[harles] Howard, J[ohn] E[dward] King, “The Political Economy of Stalin”, in A History of Marxian Economics, volumes II (1929–1990), Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 40:

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

The Communist political ideology adopted by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; Marxism-Leninism.


pressure point

For this strike, if your thumb is tucked correctly, you should hit the pressure point where their arm meets their shoulder.

(martial arts) A specific small area of the body targeted, due to a cluster of nerves being close to the skin, usually not protected by bone.


bicameralism

en-noun

bicameralism (usually uncountable, plural bicameralisms)

desc

бикамерали́зм

Russian: бикамерали́зм m (bikameralízm)

(government) The practice of dividing legislative bodies into two chambers with complementary powers and limitations designed to provide checks and balances against one another.

兩院制 /两院制

principle of dividing legislative body into two groups


FSB

From Russian ФСБ (FSB), initialism of Федеральная Служба Безопасности (Federalʹnaja Služba Bezopasnosti, “Federal Security Service”).

Possible victims included Roman Tsepov, Putin’s bodyguard in 1990s St Petersburg, who died after drinking tea in 2004 at a local FSB office.

2020 August 20, Luke Harding, “Alexei Navalny and the long history of poisoned Kremlin critics”, in The Guardian:

(initialism, Russia, politics, espionage, law enforcement) The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.


lodgment

en-noun

lodgment (countable and uncountable, plural lodgments)

lodgments (plural)
lodgement (alternative)

From Middle French logement, from loger (“to lodge”) + -ment.

(military, historical) The occupation of a position by a besieging party, and the works thrown up to maintain it.


muhtar

From Turkish muhtar and Ottoman Turkish مختار (muhtar, “village headman”), from North Levantine Arabic مختار (“village headman”), from substantive application of Arabic مُخْتَار (muḵtār, “chosen”).

der

(politics, historical) Alternative form of mukhtar: an appointed village headman, particularly in Ottoman contexts.

mukhtar

(politics) An elected village or neighborhood official in modern Turkey.


tabun

(organic chemistry, military) An extremely toxic nerve gas; a clear, tasteless liquid, molecular formula C₅H₁₁N₂O₂P.


pincer attack

(military) An attack in which two or more forces attack from multiple sides at once.

A set of simultaneous attacks against the flanks of an enemy salient in order to cut off and trap the enemy in an encirclement.


PLP

Parliamentary Labour Party
w:Parliamentary Labour Party

(UK politics) Initialism of Parliamentary Labour Party


marshalling

en-noun

marshalling (countable and uncountable, plural marshallings)

marshallings (plural)
marshaling (alternative)

(heraldry) The arrangement of an escutcheon to exhibit the alliances of the owner.


couched

Holmes gives us the Arms of the Name of TOURNEY, Or, a Cheveron couched Gules, Fig. 15. IF it be turned to the other Side, says he, it is termed couched sinister;[…]

1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 160:

Argent, on a fesse sable, three chevronels couched sinister of the field. - TRENOWITH, Corn.

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 111:

(heraldry) Of a chevron, issuing from the side rather than from the bottom or top of the shield; couché.


Air Force

(military) The military air force of a particular armed forces.

United States Air Force
w:United States Air Force

(US, military, politics) Ellipsis of United States Air Force.


back slap

back slaps (plural)
back-slap (alternative)

(martial arts) A controlled landing, slapping to the mat with one's back.


LH

LH (countable and uncountable, plural LHs)

(US, army, aviation) Initialism of light helicopter.

(military) Initialism of light horse (typically preceded by the regiment number).


relais

Borrowed from French relais. See relay (noun).

if the ground is level, the same person may transport the two cube toises to the distance of 15 toises, which in that case is the length of the relais, which makes him go over 10 leagues per day .

1803, Essays on the Theory and Practice of the Art of War:

(military, historical) A narrow space between the foot of the rampart and the scarp of the ditch, serving to catch any earth that may crumble off or be washed down, and prevent its falling into the ditch.


affronted

en-adj

affronted (comparative more affronted, superlative most affronted)

more affronted (comparative)
most affronted (superlative)

PROVENANCE The arms on f.25 are argent a lion rampant affronted azure, with claws and tongue gules; these are perhaps the arms of Acciajaoli, of Florence (cf. the sale in these rooms, 7 December 1992, lot 74), or Nini, of Siena[…]

1994 06, Sotheby's (Firm), Western Manuscripts and Miniatures:


boll weevil

As the veteran columnist John Chamberlain put it back in 1982, the ATARI Democrats ‘include many of the Southern “boll weevil” contingent that has supported Reagan on taxes, [and]^([sic]) is for using government to channel investment money to the newer “high tech” industries.

2019, Richard Carr, quoting John Chamberlain, March of the Moderates […] , Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(US politics, informal, dated) A conservative Southern Democrat.


peashooter

peashooters (plural)
pea-shooter (alternative)

Compared to my forty-five, it's a toy. Christ, Thanet, why did you buy it in the first place? I would have given you one of mine, a real weapon, one with knock down power, compared to that peashooter on your hip.

2012, Wayne Greenough, The Ferguson Murder, page 41:

(weaponry, slang) Any small or ineffective gun or weapon.


BSP

Bulgarian Socialist Party
w:Bulgarian Socialist Party

(Bulgarian politics) Initialism of Bulgarian Socialist Party, a political party.


blowtorch

blowtorches (plural)
blow torch (alternative)

/ˈbləʊˌtɔːtʃ/

When the firecan jockeys have flown their blowtorches some 100,000 miles, the doctors take over for the ground physical.

1949, Popular Science, volume 155, number 6, page 120:


Blairism

(UK politics) The political ideology attributed to the governments of British Prime Minister Tony Blair


Brownism

(UK politics) The political ideology of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.


Brownite

Brownites (plural)
Broonite (alternative humorous)

From Brown + -ite, from the surname of Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister 2007-2010.

(UK politics, informal) A supporter of Gordon Brown, or his economic or political policies


Brownite

(UK politics) Of, or relating to Brownites, or Gordon Brown's government and policies.


undercharge

en-verb

undercharge (third-person singular simple present undercharges, present participle undercharging, simple past and past participle undercharged)

undercharges (present singular third-person)
undercharging (participle present)
undercharged (participle past)
undercharged (past)

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

to undercharge a gun

(transitive, firearms) To put too small a charge into.


bootie

[…] and buried where he fell, was disinterred by a 'Bootie' who wanted to photograph him for his album.

(UK, military, slang, obsolete) A soldier.


bossism

en-noun

bossism (usually uncountable, plural bossisms)

(US, politics) The domination of a political party by a single, powerful person (the boss)


queep

Why in the hell isn’t there someone else to do all this queep?!

It isn't how well you fly, it's who you know and how well you perform your queep ground job.

1997 July 28, Kurt Bjorn, “Re: USAF Low Morale Confirmed!!!”, in alt.aviation.safety,rec.aviation.military,alt.disasters.aviation (Usenet), message-ID <01bc9b7f$570616e0$0100000a@pyroware.flash.net>:

Still, the above is a true reflection of statistical promotion rates in the context of our current queep-biased system.

2001 September 6, Zaprass, “Re: Tiny U.S. planes spy as GIs avoid danger”, in rec.aviation.military (Usenet), message-ID <3B9765DD.MD-1.4.4.Zaprass@nospam.com>:

What fighter pilots do is fly, and that they love, they have little love or tolerance for queep, a term for all paperwork and related jobs that keep a pilot out of the cockpit.

2007, Jonathan Dowty, Christian Fighter Pilot Is Not an Oxymoron, page 20:

Besides, if you're not flying, your whole world is going to consist of nothing but office queep.

2010, David Goldstein, Sharing Orion, AuthorHouse, page 87:

The stigma that surrounds a safety office and its staff is often that of naysayers or un-cool nerds. We’re the crushers of fun or sultans of queep in many squadrons, but there's no place for that kind of culture in the safety world.

2012 January 1, anonymous author, “Safety Culture”, in Wingman, page 32:

(military, slang, US) Non-flying duties, typically paperwork, that are undesirable to pilots.


Peronism

(politics) The eclectic political ideology attributed to the former Argentine leaders Juan Perón and Eva Duarte de Perón, combining populism, nationalism and state intervention, but originally chiefly centred on their personalities.


dumb insolence

(British, military) The offence of refusing to answer the questions of an officer.


quatrefoil

quatrefoils (plural)
quadrefoil (alternative)
quarterfoil (alternative archaic)
quaterfoil (alternative archaic)

/kætɹəˌfɔɪl/

From Old French quatrefoil, from quatre (“four”) + foil (“leaf”).

(heraldry) A stylized flower or leaf with four lobes.


platy

en-adj

platy (comparative platier, superlative platiest)

platier (comparative)
platiest (superlative)

Alternative form: platé

Gules, a saltire argent within a bordure sable bezantée (sic C., but Papworth cites, p. 1069, from A., per saltire gules and sable, a saltire argent, and a bordure of the 2nd platy).

1877, The Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist, page 19:

[...] fretty gules besanty / here the besants are placed at the intersection of the pieces of the fretty. A similar coat, Or, fretty gules platy, is an old coat of VERDON; and Or, fretty sable platy is the canting coat of PLATT.

1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 97:

Or, a fess dancetty of two points gules masoned argent; on a chief azure a representation of Maidenhead Bridge over water barry wavy in base. 212. Argent, a fess gules between 3 astral crowns azure. 213. Sable platy, a pile barry[…]

1965, R. H. Wilmott, Discovering Heraldry:

Sable platy, two flaunches argent - Spelman (159). Gules, five lozenges conjoined in bend argent - Raleigh (160).

1983, Charles Boutell, Boutell's Heraldry, Frederick Warne Publishers:

(heraldry) Semy of plates (roundels argent).


priming

(firearms) The powder or other combustible used to communicate fire to a charge of gunpowder, as in a firearm.


flanker

Audio (US)

From flank + -er. The verb is from the noun (sense 3).

1675, The Captivity of Mary Rowlandson, from The Portable Native American Indian Reader, New York: Penguin Books, 1977, page 312,
About two hours...they had been about the house before they prevailed to fire it (which they did with Flax and Hemp, which they brought out of the Barn, and there being no defence about the House, only two Flankers at two opposite corners and one of them not finished) they fired it once and one ventured out and quenched it, but they quickly fired it again, and that took.

[The planters’ houses] were frequently constructed with flankers and loopholes, for the purpose of firing upon the assailants when they approached so near.

1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 2, p. 27:

It was in vain they threw out flankers, and endeavored to dislodge their assailants; each pause gave time for other pursuers to come within reach, and open attacks from different quarters.

1855, Washington Irving, chapter 37, in The Life of George Washington, volume 1, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, page 278:

(military) A fortification or soldier projecting so as to defend another work or to command the flank of an assailing body.


Rexism

(politics, historical) A fascist movement active in Belgium from 1935 to 1945; the ideology of the Rexist Party


scrimshanker

“As good a boy as I want,” said Revere, the admiring skipper. “The best of the batch,” said the Adjutant to the Colonel. “Keep back that young skrimshanker Porkiss, sir, and let Revere make him sit up.”

1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 142:

(UK, military, slang) A shirker; one who scrimshanks.


scrimshank

en-verb

scrimshank (third-person singular simple present scrimshanks, present participle scrimshanking, simple past and past participle scrimshanked)

scrimshanks (present singular third-person)
scrimshanking (participle present)
scrimshanked (participle past)
scrimshanked (past)

Unclear. One hypothesis is that it derives from (the noun scrimshanker, from) scrimp + swanker (old military slang for someone who works hard).


segreant

First attested in the 1550s, initially in the spelling sergreant, of obscure origin and variable meaning: examples from the 15- and 1600s apply it not only to winged quadrupeds but also a falcon, and not exclusively to ones rampant but also some passant. The source may be French s'érigeant (“erecting itself”).

(heraldry) Rampant, with the wings elevated and addorsed (a posture of winged quadrupeds).


Yvette

Borrowed from French Yvette. The politics sense is a reference to the name of a docile young girl in a school textbook, and was popularized by separatist politician Lise Payette (1931–2018).

(Quebec, politics, derogatory, dated) A term of derision used by Quebec separatists to refer to Federalist-voting French Quebecois housewives.


Selma

Taken to use in the 19th century when similar-sounding names, Elma, Thelma, Alma, Wilma, etc. were in vogue. Perhaps a shortening of Anselma, or from the name of a place in the James Macpherson's Ossian cycle of epic poems, itself from Scottish Gaelic sealladh + math (“good vision”). In some cases perhaps borrowed from Turkish Selma, from Arabic سَلْمَى (salmā).

Eventually, our place and response may be viewed as a historic turning point, another Selma for the nation and world.

2020, Dane Smith, Star Tribune (Minneapolis), "Toward a better patriotism", 3 July 2020

Shelby County has become the new Selma.

2015, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Workers World, "Black and Brown unity in Alabama", 24 June 2015

"I don't know how many Selmas you have in your memory," she said. "I have a lot in mine."

1986, Daily Sitka Sentinel, Sitka Weekend, p.11, Friday 17 January 1986

How Many Selmas? Still another city in the south Is learning the hard way that the Negro will settle for nothing less than first class citizenship.

1965, The Fresno Bee, p.60, Wednesday 21 July 1965:

(US, politics, figuratively) A confrontation where authorities brutally repress those wanting civil rights, similar to Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama.


recrossed

M'Glashan, Sco. a long cross recrossed, gules,[…]

1817, Alexander Deuchar, British Crests: Containing the Crests and Mottos of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, page 189:

gules, a bend argent acc. by six crosses recrossed argent

1900, John William De Forest, The DeForests of Avesnes and of New Netherland: A Huguenot Thread in American Colonial History, 1494 to the Present Time, page 245:

The arms of Poix, assumed by Sir Walter Tyrrell III., at the siege of Jerusalem, were as follows: Gules, with bend argent, together with six crosses, recrossed with small crosslets and pointed in gold, posed three and three.

1909, Edwin Holland Terrell, Further Genealogical Notes on the Tyrrell-Terrell Family of Virginia and Its English and Norman-French Progenitors, page 21:

(heraldry) Having the ends crossed, like (or as) a cross crosslet.


MEB

en-noun

MEB (countable and uncountable, plural MEBs)

marine expeditionary brigade
w:marine expeditionary brigade

(military) Initialism of marine expeditionary brigade.


MR

MR (countable and uncountable, plural MRs)

memorandum for the record
memorandum for the record#English

memorandum for record
memorandum for record#English

memo for the record
memo for the record#English

(US military) Acronym of memorandum for the record, memorandum for record, memo for the record, or memo for record.


encirclement

encirclement (countable and uncountable, plural encirclements)

Not only did it give the Russians an abiding fear of encirclement, whether by nomadic hordes or by nuclear-missile sites, but it also launched them on their relentless drive eastwards and southwards into Asia, and eventually collision with the British in India.

1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 9:

(military) The isolation of a target by the formation of a blockade around it


milk run

(military, slang) An uneventful mission, especially a military sortie completed without incident

(politics, slang) A campaign for a political office whose main apparent purpose is to "milk" money from supporters in order to provide a source of income for the candidate, campaign staff, and family members.


federalist

federalists (plural)
fœderalist (alternative)

/ˈfɛdəɹəlˌɪst/

(Canada, politics) Supporter of the view that the province of Québec should remain within the Canadian federal system; an opponent of Québec‐based separatism or sovereigns.


federalist

/ˈfɛdəɹəlˌɪst/

(politics) Of or relating to federalism, or its advocates.


Supreme Leader

Supreme Leaders (plural)
supreme leader (alternative)

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that Iran’s elections are insignificant. Regardless of who wins, the argument goes, in the end, it’s the supreme leader who calls the shots.

2021 June 22, Ali Vaez, Dina Esfandiary, “The Hard-Liners Won in Iran. That’s Not All Bad News.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Islamic Republic of Iran
Islamic Republic of Iran

(politics) The head of state and commander-in-chief of the entire armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the authority to dismiss the Iranian president. The Supreme Leader is also the highest-ranking spiritual leader in Iran.

Watched by hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians packed into Kim Il-sung Square—named after the regime's first leader, who died in 1994—Kim Jong-un watched from a balcony overlooking the plaza as he was declared “supreme leader” of the ruling Workers' party, military and people.

2011 December 29, Justin McCurr, “Kim Jong-un declared ‘supreme leader’ in North Korea”, in The Guardian:

Our revolution, which has achieved victory over many decades, continuing into the new century, has welcomed the new Supreme Leader.

2014, 39:40 from the start, in Secret State of North Korea, PBS, →ISBN, →OCLC:

(politics) The highest-ranking member of a country, who has absolute power.

最高領導人 /最高领导人

highest-ranking member who has absolute power


computerism

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(politics) A political ideology which maintains that all government power should be delegated to a computer or artificial intelligence.


out-of-battery

An out-of-battery discharge can produce a catastrophic failure of the weapon.

(weaponry) In firearms and artillery, having a condition in which a live round is at least partially in the firing chamber and capable of being fired, but is not properly secured by the usual mechanism of that particular weapon.


expeditionary

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an expeditionary force

(military) Intended for military operations abroad.


hausse

(military, historical) A kind of graduated breech sight for a small arm or cannon.


globalist

"Globalists" tend to view international issues in terms of US-Soviet rivalry, while "regionalists" see them more often as manifestations of local rivalries and problems.

1986, Galia Golan, The Soviet Union and the PLO since the War in Lebanon, page 285:

The authors suggest that the globalist emphasis among policymakers has increased during the Reagan administration.

1986, Eric Stromayer, African Crisis Areas and U.S. Foreign Policy (review), page 240:

(geopolitics, dated) One who believes international events are primarily caused by conflicts between great powers.


going over

(professional wrestling slang) Of a wrestler or wrestlers: to be scheduled to win a match.


pendent

en-adj

pendent (comparative more pendent, superlative most pendent)

more pendent (comparative)
most pendent (superlative)

From Middle English pendaunt, Anglo-Norman pendaunt, pendant, respelled to reflect Latin pendēns, pendentis, present participle of pendere (“to hang, to be suspended”). Compare pendant, which retained the spelling.

Jandrell, Sa. three buckles, the tongues pendent ar. two and a one.

1780, Joseph Edmondson, A Complete Body of Heraldry:

Az. a chev. or, betw. three acorns, pendent, Kymberlee.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica, Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry: Dictionary of Heraldry, page 89:

JAUDRILL. Ermines, three round buckles ar. tongues pendent.

1844, John Burke, Bernard Burke, Encyclopædia of Heraldry, page 49:

page 207: de CAMPO REAL: chequy Sable and Argent on a chief Gules a crescent pendent of the field.

1981, Bruno Bernhard Heim, Armorial Bruno Bernard Heim, Colin Smythe:

(heraldry) Hanging or pointed downward; (of a crescent) with its horns pointing downward.


green belt

green belts (plural)
greenbelt (alternative)

From green (adjective) + belt (“band worn around the waist; thing resembling a belt, a strip or stripe”).

compound

When the club is fully developed and has a reasonable spectrum of ranks in it, the training schedule should be stable to encourage the habit of training. […] The advanced (above green belt) class meets for an additional hour, three times per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

1995, Elmar T. Schmeisser, “The University Dojo: Teaching a Traditional Martial Art in a Nontraditional Setting”, in Carol A. Wiley, editor, Martial Arts Teachers on Teaching (Io Series; 53), Berkeley, Calif.: Frog, North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 129:

He estimates it was around 1964 when the Japanese stylists of karate brought in the green belt to bridge the gap between white and brown.

2011, Yvonne Cruz, “Cruz Karate Studios”, in Grandmaster Freddie G. Cruz: Biography of a True Legend in the Martial Arts World, [S.l.]: Bookemon, →ISBN, page 217:

Any green belt martial artist could've done that. Because they were just ordinary goons, hired guns.

2014 October, Sharit Sinha, “The Revelation”, in Blood Rush, 3rd edition, [S.l.]: Sharit Sinha, published December 2017, →ISBN, page 36:

A belt which is green in colour worn by a person who has achieved a certain (usually intermediate) level of skill in a martial art, especially judo or karate; also, the level of skill represented by this belt.

vihreä vyö

belt which is green in colour worn by a person who has achieved a certain (usually intermediate) level of skill in a martial art; the level of skill represented by this belt

After a month I distinctly remember one of the ‘green belts’ giving me a thorough but gentle working over in one of the sparring sessions, I was impressed not just with his ability to defeat me, but with the ease with which he did it.

2012, Noel C., “What Karate Means to Me”, in Tom Hill, editor, Essays for Black Belt, Luton, Bedfordshire: Andrews UK, →ISBN, page 22:

Develop a career progression ladder for black belts and green belts.

[2012, T. M. Kubiak, “Mentoring Black Belts and Green Belts”, in The Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt Handbook, Milwaukee, Wis.: ASQ Quality Press, →ISBN, part V (Mentoring Responsibilities), page 306:

A person who has earned the rank of green belt in a martial art.


shirtfront

en-verb

shirtfront (third-person singular simple present shirtfronts, present participle shirtfronting, simple past and past participle shirtfronted)

shirtfronts (present singular third-person)
shirtfronting (participle present)
shirtfronted (participle past)
shirtfronted (past)

This was a case of a deputy shirtfronting her leader with an ultimatum and forcing a decision that would come close to wrecking the government's environmental credibility.

Pravda has described Tony Abbott as “a disturbed mind crying out for therapy”: after his threat to “shirtfront” the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Brisbane.

2014 October 14, “Pravda lashes Tony Abbott as 'disturbed' over threat to shirtfront Vladimir Putin”, in The Guardian:

(transitive, Australia, politics) To confront in a threatening manner.


FLC

(military) Initialism of fighting load carrier.


hot mess

en-noun

hot mess (countable and uncountable, plural hot messes)

hot (“warm”) + mess (“meal; soldiers who eat together”).

"Smallbones," said the lieutenant, after trying the hot mess before him, and finding that he was still in danger of burning his mouth, "bring me the red-herring."

1836 April 29, Frederick Marryat, “Snarleyyow, or the Dog Fiend”, in Arkansas Advocate, volume vii, number 4, Little Rock, AR, page 1:

1 lb. pemican; ¼ lb. pork; ¾ lb. biscuit; ¼ lb flour or bread dust, to mix with pemican into a hot mess;

1852 January 1, F. L. McClintock, “Lieutenant McClintock to Mr. Fegn, Secretary of the Arctic Committee”, in Morning Post, number 24355, London, page 3:

I heard several of the enlisted men make the statement that Company C had provided hot mess for fully a thousand men of other units during the second day of the recent drive in and around Cheppy and Charpentry.

1919, James Thayer Addison, The Story of the First Gas Regiment, page 150:

He provided for a hot mess and he got the men up off the floor with improvised bunks.

1974, Langdon Sully, No Tears for the General: The Life of Alfred Sully, 1821-1879, page 119:

The men there would have settled for a Coleman stove and a hot-mess line, but the greatest contribution to their spirits, plus or minus, was mail call.

1980, William Manchester, Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War, page 260:

(military) A warm meal, usually cooked in a large pot, often similar to a stew or porridge; service of such a heated meal to soldiers.


regimental

en-adj

regimental (comparative more regimental, superlative most regimental)

more regimental (comparative)
most regimental (superlative)


finisher

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A thundering right to the head bent him back over the ropes, and then, just as I was setting myself for the finisher, I felt somebody jerking my pants leg […]

1934 June, Robert E. Howard, “General Ironfist”, in Jack Dempsey's Fight Magazine:

(boxing) The blow that ends a fight; the knock-out blow.

Tie Up Fallaway Slam (Finisher)

1999, BradyGames, Secret Codes for Sega Dreamcast:

Shadow Kick (OO+O) is best used as a punishing move and a combo finisher.

2002, Ben Cureton, Paul Edwards, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance™ Official Strategy Guide:

(video games, informal, professional wrestling) A finishing move.


first-rate

(UK, military, nautical, historical) Of a Royal Navy ship of the line in the Napoleonic Era: having at least 100 guns across three gun decks, a complement of 850–875, and weighing approximately 2,500 tons burthen.


first-rate

first-rates (plural)
first rate (alternative)

(UK, military, nautical, historical) A first-rate ship of the line.


land mine

land mines (plural)
landmine (alternative)

With the cessation of hostilities, the military traffic declined considerably, although at least two years will be required to remove the many thousands of tons of explosives still stored at the depot. The supplies of mustard gas have already been despatched to Stranraer to be dumped in the sea, and the disposal of ¾-million land mines has called for the provision of 17 special trains.

1947 January and February, “Wartime Traffic at Tanfield, L.N.E.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 47:

(military) A mine that is placed on land and designed to explode when stepped upon or touched.


flatfoot

From flat + foot. Piecewise doublet of platypus.

(colloquial, archaic, derogatory, law enforcement) (plural typically flatfoots) A policeman.

(US, informal, military, slang) A sailor.


Shangri-La

/ˌʃæŋɡɹɪˈlɑː/

James Hilton
Lost Horizon
Shangri-La City

From a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton (1900–1954): see the quotation below. A Tibetan origin has been suggested, from ཞང (zhang, “name of a district of Ü-Tsang”) + རི (ri, “mountain”) + ལ (la, “pass”), therefore meaning "Mountain Pass of Zhang District".


exploder

(military, nautical) A device to trigger explosions in torpedoes.


LandWarNet

(military, US) The US Army's global computer network, separate from the Internet.


whiggish

en-adj

whiggish (comparative more whiggish, superlative most whiggish)

more whiggish (comparative)
most whiggish (superlative)
Whiggish (alternative)

(politics, historical) Characteristic of a Whig; liberal.


gonk

A proprietary name of arbitrary formation.

I'm going off to have a gonk.

(New Zealand, military, slang) A sleep; a nap.


wet job

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Like the Navy SEALs (who often work in conjunction with the Delta Force), Delta Force can go anywhere, anytime; they just leave the wet jobs to SEAL Team 6-the navy's version of Delta Force.

2003, Robert Young Pelton, Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition (Robert Young Pelton the World's Most Dangerous Places), Collins, →ISBN, page 112:

Being a shocked witness in Lisbon to the Carnivore's last bloody wet job

2004, Gayle Lynds, The Coil: A Novel, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 53:

But as soon as the janitor saw Tice, he would have known he had the wrong man and should have and should have withdrawn or attempted a live capture to find out where Theosopholis was. Instead, everything about his style announced wet job. He was assigned to liquidate Tice, and maybe only Tice.

2006, Gayle Lynds, The Last Spymaster, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 30:

(espionage, euphemistic) A covert assassination performed by government operatives.


QPP

en-noun

QPP (countable and uncountable, plural QPPs)

Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec#English

(law enforcement, Canada, uncountable) Initialism of Quebec Provincial Police (Sûreté du Québec); the police force of the Canadian province of Quebec..


RCS

Royal Corps of Signals
w:Royal Corps of Signals

(UK, military) Initialism of Royal Corps of Signals.


feebate

(economics, taxation) A tax or user charge imposed by government that charges users of socially undesirable items and applies the money to payments for users of socially desirable items.


LU

Liberty Union Party
w:Liberty Union Party

(US, politics) Initialism of Liberty Union Party.


lustration

lustration (countable and uncountable, plural lustrations)

(politics, law) The restoration of credibility to a government by the purging of perpetrators of crimes committed under an earlier regime.

люстра́цыя

restoration of credibility to a government by the purging earlier perpetrators


martlet

From Middle English martilet, probably a blend of martinet (“martin”; from Middle French martinet and Medieval Latin martineta) and Middle French merlet.

merlette

mythological bird in French heraldry depicted with no beak or feet

(heraldry) A depiction of a bird similar to a house martin or swallow with stylized feet.


concentrator

(firearms) A frame or ring of wire or hard paper fitting into the cartridge case used in some shotguns, and holding the shot together when discharged, to secure close shooting; also, a device for slightly narrowing the bore at the muzzle for the same purpose.


dual mandate

(politics) A situation in which a person has been elected to two different bodies with different competencies, for example being a member of both a national legislature, and of a local authority.

dobbeltmandat

situation where a politician has been elected to multiple bodies with different competencies


bordure

[ˈbo̞ɹ.d͡ʒɚ]

-ɔː(ɹ)dʒə(ɹ)

A collateral form of, and thus a doublet of border (from Middle English bordure).

(heraldry) A contrasting border around a shield.


freelancer

(EMS, fire service, law enforcement) One who performs duties outside of the chain of command and SOPs.


prorogate

en-verb

prorogate (third-person singular simple present prorogates, present participle prorogating, simple past and past participle prorogated)

prorogates (present singular third-person)
prorogating (participle present)
prorogated (participle past)
prorogated (past)


FOD

(military, particularly on an aircraft carrier's deck) Initialism of foreign object debris.


selfbow

selfbows (plural)
self-bow (alternative)
self bow (alternative)

From self (“having its own or a single nature or character throughout without addition or change, unmixed; (archery) of a bow: made from a single piece of wood”, adjective) + bow.

compound

With reſpect to a bow being made round, we muſt recollect, that [Roger] Aſcham ſpeaks of a ſelf'''-bow; which, it ſeems, was made round as well as the back as in the belly: but back'd-bows have almoſt always a flat back, to prevent their caſting.

1801, T[homas] Roberts, “Of the Bow”, in The English Bowman, or Tracts on Archery; […], London: […] [F]or the author, by C. Roworth, […]; [s]old by Mr. [Thomas] Edgerton, […]; [a]lso by Mr. [Thomas] Waring, […], →OCLC, section III (Of Proving the Bow), page 141:

Many Archers use a piece of waxed cloth, which is of great utility, as it not only gives the Bow a polish, but is a preventative against damps penetrating; this precaution however, is not so much required for self Bows, as backed ones. Self Bows are made of one piece of wood only, and that is generally of yew, but the long known difficulty of procuring good English yew, has compelled Bow makers of late years, to resort to various other woods, all containing great spring, but little pliability; the deficiency of the latter is amply supplied by the addition of a slip of ash, or some other tough wood glued to them; the toughness of the one combined to the elasticity of the other, both acting in conjunction, make capital Bows, and these it is that are called back'd Bows.

1820, Thomas Waring, “Attitude in Shooting”, in A Treatise on Archery; or, The Art of Shooting with the Long Bow. […], 2nd edition, London: […] A. Seale [for Thomas Waring], →OCLC, page 21:

[A] backed bow does not exceed a self bow, except that it is thought by some to be pleasanter and easier to draw, especially in the last inch, and of quicker cast.

1831, T[homas] B[urgeland] Johnson, “BOW”, in The Sportsman’s Cyclopedia; […], London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, […], →OCLC, page 78:

I once made a beautiful self-bow from a large branch of yew, which was amputated, after two valuable coach-horses had been poisoned by feeding on its leaves.

1840, George Agar Hansard, “Section VIII. Of Yew Trees, Yew Bows, &c. &c.”, in The Book of Archery, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, footnote *, page 350:

Modern bows are of two kinds, viz. self bows and backed bows. The self bow is composed of only one kind of wood; but the backed bow is composed of two kinds of wood, both the full length of the bow, carefully joined together.

1845, [Jane] Loudon, “Letter XVIII. Archery: Targets; Self Bows and Backed Bows; …”, in The Lady’s Country Companion; or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally, London: […] [Andrew Spottiswoode] for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, book V (Country Amusements), page 366:

The self-bow is the real old Engish weapon; the one with which the many mighty deeds that rendered this country renowned in times gone by were performed; […] Of the woods for self-bows, Yew beyond all question carries off the palm; other woods have been, and still are, in use, such as lance, Cocus, Washaba, Rose, Snake, and some others; but they may be summarily dismissed with the remark, that self-bows made of these woods are all, without exception radically bad, being heavy in hand, apt to jar, comparatively dull in cast, and very liable to chrysal and break, and that no archer should use them so long as a self-yew or a good backed-bow is within his reach.

1856, Horace A[lfred] Ford, “Of the Bow”, in Archery: Its Theory and Practice, London: J. Buchanan, […]; Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: H[enry] Davies, […], →OCLC, page 14:

Bows were of several types. Most common was a selfbow (a bow made of a single piece of wood with no laminating materials) of springy wood tapering toward both ends and sometimes narrowed at the grip.

1995, Harvey Markowitz, “Bows, Arrows, and Quivers”, in American Indians (A Magill Book), volumes 1 (A–Hay), Pasadena, Calif.; Hackensack, N.J.: Salem Press, →ISBN; republished in Carole A. Barrett, Harvey J. Markowitz, editors, American Indian Culture (Magill’s Choice), volumes 1 (Acorns–Headdresses), Pasadena, Calif.; Hackensack, N.J.: Salem Press, 2004, →ISBN, page 148:

If the design of the weapon is moderate enough to be successful as an all wood selfbow then the addition of sinew and horn will probably result in a net loss of arrow performance.

2001, Hari Heath, “Wood under Stress”, in David Wescott, editor, Primitive Technology II: Ancestral Skills […], Salt Lake City, Ut.: Gibbs Smith, →ISBN, section 4 (Projectiles—Bows and Arrows), page 106, column 1:

The recurved bow design originated in antiquity when the longbow, or self[-]bow, made entirely from wood, was reinforced with animal sinew to produce adequate energy in a shorter bow suitable for mounted archers.

2005, Tom Airhart, “Personal Gear”, in Elk Hunting Guide: Skills, Gear, and Insight, Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, →ISBN, page 259:

(archery) A bow made from a single piece of wood (often referred to as a bow stave).


portate

Latin portatus, past participle of portare (“to carry”).

a cross portate

Saint Anthony's cross
Saint Anthony's cross

(heraldry, of a cross) Borne diagonally athwart an escutcheon with the central column going from dexter chief to sinister base (a cross tilted the opposite way is portate reversed), especially as a T-shaped or Saint Anthony's cross.


uninominal

(politics, of a legislature, an electoral system, etc) That elects one member from each district, or (of a person) elected from a specific district rather than at large.

an electoral system; etc; an electoral system; etc


Parti Quebecois

(Canadian politics) A provincial political party in Quebec, Canada, with the central goal of some form of political independence or sovereignty for Quebec.


Bloc Québécois

the Bloc Québécois (canonical)
Bloc Quebecois (alternative)

From Canadian French Bloc québécois, from bloc (“block”) + québécois (“Quebec [adj.]”).

(Canadian politics) A Canadian federal political party, with the goal of sovereignty for Quebec.


SV

en-noun

SV (countable and uncountable, plural SVs)

SVs (plural)
S.V. (alternative)
S. V. (alternative)
S.V. (alternative)
S. V. (alternative)
S/V (alternative)
Sv (alternative)
Sv. (alternative)
SV. (alternative)

(military) Initialism of selective volunteer.


Enrolled Bill

(US politics) Legislation that has been passed by both houses of Congress, signed by their presiding officers, and sent to the President for signature.


gorged

(heraldry) With the neck collared or encircled by an object.


EAU

Eurasian Economic Union
Eurasian Economic Union#English

(politics, economics) Initialism of Eurasian Economic Union.


NDP

That day A.K. was carrying a banner in an SED demonstration, L.G. said he was sorry he had caused me to lose my temper, B.R. said that he expected to get a U. S. visa next month, and R.D. said that he was going into the U. S. Zone to work for the NDP in the forthcoming elections.

1948 August, Ernest Borneman, “Back to Berlin: The Diary of a Native’s Return”, in Harper's Magazine, volume 187, number 1179, New York: Harper & Brothers, →ISSN, page 66:

Members of the NDP have condemned the arrests as an attempt "to eliminate constitutional opposition by unconstitutional means."

1960 August 4, George Clay, “Apprehension in Rhodesia”, in The Globe and Mail (London Observer Service), Toronto, →ISSN, page 6:

One week before the Liberal leadership convention, it's NDPers who are among the most agitated. […] "What's not to like?" the NDPer asks. "He talks about the environment and social justice like he's motivated about them."

2007, Glenn Wheeler, “NDP's stealth threat”, in NOW, Toronto, vol 26 no 12, 23-29 Nov:

But those running for the NDP or trying to hold their seats definitely don't share the enthusiasm.

Langen, the NDP’s go-to guy in too-close-to-call races, managed NDP MLA Erin Selby’s successful campaign against Tory veteran Jack Reimer in the Southdale riding in 2007. He also ran NDP MP Jim Maloway’s campaign in Elmwood-Transcona in the last federal election.

2010 October 14, Mary Agnes Welch, “NDP calls in top organizer: St. Norbert ward is ‘in play’”, in Winnipeg Free Press, page B4:

National Democratic Party
w:National Democratic Party

(politics) Initialism of National Democratic Party.

Larry Daley, president of the Newfoundland Federation of Labor, said today that while labor will support and endorse the NDP, many candidates will not be associated with trade unions.

1959 August 4, “Labor Law Vital Issue Confronting Smallwood”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, →ISSN, page 15:

Newfoundland Democratic Party
w:Newfoundland Democratic Party

(Canadian politics, historical) Initialism of Newfoundland Democratic Party.

National Defense Panel
w:National Defense Panel

(US, military, historical) Initialism of National Defense Panel


NDPer

Langen, who has been volunteering on NDPer Keith Bellamy's council campaign in Daniel McIntyre, said he got a call from a local union asking for a top-tier campaign manager willing to kick May's campaign into high gear.

New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party

(Canadian politics, informal) A member or supporter of the Canadian New Democratic Party.


oakleaf

oakleaves (plural)
oak-leaf (alternative)
oak leaf (alternative)

(military) A device, badge or emblem shaped like the leaf of an oak, and indicating an award. (see Oak leaves)


smoke wagon

smoke wagons (plural)
smoke-wagon (alternative)

From smoke + wagon, probably a humorous reference to a conveyance or implement which “carries” or generates smoke.

[…] Bourcey, the blacksmith, who was fitting on a mule's shoe, returned with the shoe at the end of the tongs, and, thrusting it into the fire, began blowing the bellows. It was laughable to see the stampede among the redskins when they saw this ominous maneuver—they thought he was going to fire the "smoke wagon."

1858 (date written), William P. Seville, “[June 27, 1858]”, in John W. N. Schulz, editor, Narrative of the March of Co. A, Engineers from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Fort Bridger, Utah, and Return: May 6 to October 3, 1858 […] (Occasional Papers, Engineer School, United States Army; number 48), Washington Barracks, D.C.: Press of the Engineer School, published 1912, →OCLC, page 18:

The boss of construction across the river is a little sawed off individual named Nelson, and to see him standing like Napoleon, on the huge fill which issues above the river, with a great big smoke wagon, pointed forward, strapped to his leg and pulling him over sideways from its weight; is a picture which would surely make angels weep.

1909 January 17 (date written), Galbraith, “An Irishman’s View of Mexico”, in W. B. Marquis [et al.], editors, The Stentor, volume XXIII, number 17, Lake Forest, Ill.: The Lake Forester Press [for Lake Forest College], published 18 February 1909, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 199, column 1:

But come morning, we agreed to forgive and forget. Bain he says he was sure glad to hear that, but he'd take our guns away with him any how. Bain says we could have our smoke wagons after a week, by which time he figured we got this worm out of our brains.

1911 February, Herbert Corey, “Lonesomeness”, in Pearson’s Magazine, American edition, volume 25, number 2, New York, N.Y.: The Pearson Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 182, column 2:

[page 650] The following list of hobo words, presented in glossary form, was collected by me during twenty years of experience with hobo cases in my profession of attorney-at-law. I have consulted no books or records in compiling it but made it directly from experience. […] [page 653] Smoke wagon—pistol.

[1926 September, Nicholas Klein, “Hobo Lingo”, in American Speech, volume I, number 12, Baltimore, Md.: The Williams & Wilkins Company, →DOI, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 653, column 1:

Go ahead. Skin it. Skin that smoke wagon and see what happens. […] I'm getting tired of your gas. Jerk that pistol and go to work.

1993 December 25, Kevin Jarre, Tombstone, spoken by Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), Burbank, Calif.: Hollywood Pictures, →OCLC:

I soon heard two smoke-wagons [pistols] banging. […] There they lay both shot and dying.

1997, Mike Cox, quoting John P. “Slim” Jones, “The Battle of Borger”, in Texas Ranger Tales: Stories that Need Telling, Lanham, Md.: Republic of Texas Press, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 201:

Culhane turned up his palms in a vague gesture of surrender that brought both hands an inch closer to the smoke wagons slung in his holsters.

2018 August, Eric Red, chapter 37, in Noose (A Joe Noose Western), New York, N.Y.: Pinnacle Books, Kensington Publishing Corp., →ISBN, pages 236–237:

(weaponry) A handgun, especially a revolver.


stripper clip

(military) A pressed metal (or plastic) clip, holding a set number of cartridges for a firearm, and used for rapid reloading of the weapon or its magazine, and which is then removed or ejected from the weapon or magazine before firing.


nebule

Barry nebule of ſix Pieces, Argent and Gules; pertained to Sir Richard Damery, a Baron in the Days of King Ed. 3.

1755, John Guillim, The British Banner Display'd, page 234:

His arms are broken off, but may be conjectured to be a crosse nebule.·

1791, Sir Egerton Brydges, The Topographer:

Barry nebule of six, or and sable, is borne by the ancient and noble family of Blount; Barry nebule of six, or and gules, by the name of Lovell; Barry nebule of six, azure and argent, by the name of Dolesby; Barry nebule of ten, argent and azure, by the name of Straiton. Paley nebule, chevronny nebule, and bendy nebule sometimes occur, but they are mostly in foreign shields of arms, and are but seldom seen.

1846, William Newton, A Display of Heraldry, page 65:

(heraldry) Alternative form of nebulé, nebuly.


afuera

From Spanish afuera, the English definition originates from a video where Javier Milei removes the names of government agencies off a board.

South Africa needs a milei!
Socialist ANC? Afuera!
Communist EFF? AFUERA!
LONG LIVE FUCKING FREEDOM!

Javier Milei has been officially inaugurated as president of Argentina.
Our plan is to apply his plan for Argentina in this video to US agencies.
IRS, Fed, NSA, DHS, FBI, CIA, DOE, CDC, FDA, FEC...AFUERA!

(politics, chiefly used by libertarians) used aggressively towards leftist and statist views as a form of get out!


cunette

From French cunette (possibly also lacunette), from Italian cunetta (“cunette”), said to be from lacunetta, diminutive of lacuna (“ditch; lagoon; gap”), from Latin lacūna (“hole, pit; cavity, cleft, hollow, opening; gap, void”), from lacus (“lake”), from Proto-Italic *lakus, from Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“lake, pool”).

der

Ford's Ravelin.—Completed in its ditch, ſluices, cunette, aqueducts, ſcarp, and counterſcarp walls; […]

1773, “Progress and State of the Works beyond the Great Ditch”, in Further Report (being the Eighth) from the Committee of Secrecy Appointed by the House of Commons, Assembled in Westminster in the Sixth Session of the Thirteenth Parliament of Great Britain, to Enquire into the State of the East India Company, London: Sold by T[homas] Evans, at No. 54, in Pater-noster Row; and W. Davis, the corner of Sackville-Street, Piccadilly, →OCLC, page 234:

Nor was anything done at San Pablo except the cutting of two cunettes necessary for working with heavy machinery, and the projection of a plane for a passage under the Panama Railway, by which the excavations made at K. 35.700 could be carried to the banks of the Chagres.

1889, Charles Rogers, Intelligence Report of the Panama Canal (50th Congress, 1st session, 1887–1888; House; Miscellaneous Document), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 11:

In principle, cunettes are carried out with a view to substituting poor load bearing and highly compressible strata with sand with a view to a) reducing residual settlements and b) improving stability.

1996, Centre for Civil Engineering Research and Codes, “Construction Methods”, in Building on Soft Soils: Design and Construction of Earthstructures both on and into Highly Compressible Subsoils of Low Bearing Capacity, Rotterdam, Brookfield, Vt.: A[ugust] A[imé] Balkema, →ISBN, page 164:

(military) A trench dug in a moat to allow for drainage, or as an extra obstacle for attackers.


speed loader

speed loaders (plural)
speedloader (alternative)

With a speed loader, a practiced user can dump and reload their revolver's cylinder surprisingly fast — even, in some cases, no slower than someone can swap magazines in a semiauto.

(firearms) A pressed metal (or plastic) clip, holding a set number of cartridges for a firearm, and used for rapid reloading of the weapon or its magazine.


raita

From the Hindi idiom रायता फैलाना (rāytā phailānā), which means to "spill the raita" or "make a mess".

(India, derogatory, politics, online slang) A Hindu who does not support Hindutva, a liberal Hindu, especially (highly derogatory) as considered a traitor to India or race traitor towards Indians.


OM

(politics) Initialism of Occupy movement.


kingmaker

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

/ˈkɪŋˌmeɪkɚ/

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
Tewkesbury Abbey
Wars of the Roses

From king + maker, originally used in the 16th century in “Warwick the Kingmaker”, an epithet of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428–1471), a key figure in the Wars of the Roses whose actions led to King Henry VI being deposed in 1461 and Edward IV appointed in his place, then Edward IV being replaced by Henry VI again in 1470.

Alain, who is proud of choosing the extreme right but still didn't want his real name printed, is one of the 6.4 million [Marine] Le Pen voters who are now the kingmakers in deciding who becomes the next president of France. If the Socialist François Hollande topped the poll, beating the rightwing president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and gaining momentum for returning the left to the presidency for the first time in a generation, it is Le Pen whose high showing and third place now holds the election in the balance.

2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “French election: Marine Le Pen voters grapple with their role as kingmakers”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-01-26:

However, a National-Act coalition would only have a slim majority, meaning Mr Luxon may need to secure the support of NZ First, whose leader Winston Peters has been kingmaker in previous Labour and National-led coalitions.

2023 October 14, Antoinette Radford & Graeme Baker, “New Zealand election: National party's Chris Luxon claims victory”, in BBC, archived from the original on 2023-10-21:

(politics) Someone who has strong influence over the choice of a leader.

faedor de reis

someone who has strong influence over the choice of a leader


framer

the Framers of the Constitution

In a real sense, US democracy has died this month. It doesn’t mean it’s dead for the long term but at this moment the idea of an accountable representative system, as the framers of the constitution wrote it, is no longer present.

2025 February 7, David Smith, quoting Lawrence R. Jacobs, “‘In a real sense, US democracy has died’: how Trump is emulating Hungary’s Orbán”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(historical, US politics, sometimes capitalized, usually in the plural) Any of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention that drafted the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.