Wordie [wûrd • ē]
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12 wordies list
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first listed by:
eggplantia5 (2920 words)
appears in these lists:
fitting words, by fbharjo
jamieb's Words, by jamieb
Wortherkunft, by rfb
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Originally from Italy:
'All`arme' = to the weapons!
This word is now used in airport TSA parlance to mean "setting off the alarm" (of the metal detection gate). Heard on NPR: "If they alarm, we will do a full inspection of their luggage".
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H.L. Mencken.