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Jul 11, 2003

This week's theme
Abbreviations and acronyms

This week's words
Rx
snafu
gulag
kayo
gestapo

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AWADmail 94

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Words from architecture

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gestapo

noun: Nazi secret state police notorious for brutality.

adjective: Employing method similar to Gestapo; marked by brutal suppression.

[From German Gestapo, an acronym from GEheime STAats-POlizei (Secret State Police).]

"'We felt as a lobby group that we could not be party to these Gestapo proceedings ...' he (Ka Plaatjie) said."
Business Day (Johannesburg, South Africa); Nov 8, 2002.

"His (Stefan Widomski's) father was a member of the resistance, and the family fled German-occupied Warsaw when a Polish-German friend warned that the Gestapo was after his father."
Unto Hämäläinen; Nokia's Man in Moscow; Helsingin Sanomat (Helsinki, Finland); Jun 3, 2003.

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