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A.Word.A.Day--spatchcock

[Of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of spitchcock, a similar way of cooking an eel. Popular interpretation as a shortening of "dispatch cock" is etymologically not confirmed.]

"A spatchcocked version of flexibility was adopted when the EU's 15 governments held a constitutional conference in 1996-97, and produced the Amsterdam treaty that came into force last year. They agreed that groups of countries should be free to do their own thing -- so long as no other EU country objected, which rather negated the point."
European Union: Order a la Carte?; The Economist (London, UK); Apr 22, 2000.

"The author manages to spatchcock together Democratic despair at approaching elections, Truman's low political clout, his posing for a portrait, his listening to a baseball game in the 1946 World Series, and his being the only man in formal attire at a reception for Supreme Court justices."
Kathleen Burk; Truman; History Today (London, UK); Feb 1, 1994.

This week's theme: Miscellaneous words

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