Weird Words » military

Toxic

dave — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:38:18 +0000

The word is derived from a Greek word “toxikón”, which is a the arrow of type of bow.
It is thought that this word became our western world meaning of “poisonous” because of the story of Hercules.
Hercules’ second labor was to kill the nine-headed Hydra.

Once Hercules slayed the Hydra, he dipped his arrows in the Hydra’s blood. This made his arrows poisonous.

Renegade

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:47:16 +0000

The English borrowed and modified this word from the Spanish ‘renegado,‘ who formed it from a Latin term meaning “to deny.”

When a Christian deserted and joined the Muslim army, Spanish churchmen labeled a man who denounced his faith a “renegado.” English took this and modified it to ‘renegade’ and was used to designate “the occasional turncoat who denied his religion for profit.”

Sniper

dave — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:39:42 +0000

The word originated from British hunters who were good enough to shoot at these rare small Aftrican birds called ‘snipe’. They were awarded the term ‘sniper’. Later, the military adopted the term.