This week’s theme
Shirts and pants as metaphors

This week’s words
redshirt
smarty-pants
sansculotte
descamisado
bloody shirt

This week’s comments
AWADmail 941

Next week’s theme
Misc. words

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(BLUHD-ee shuhrt)

MEANING:

noun: A symbol used to incite people to partisan outrage or animosity.

ETYMOLOGY:

The term is typically used as “to wave the bloody shirt” and alludes to the literal or metaphorical symbol of a supposed injury that needs to be avenged. Earliest documented use: 1586.

NOTES:

In modern times, masks are apparently the new bloody shirt.

USAGE:

“His impeachment would be a bloody shirt that Republicans would wave to justify their intransigence for decades to come.”
Geoffrey Kabaservice; Removing Trump Wouldn’t ‘Overturn’ 2016; The Washington Post; Feb 2, 2020.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: