This week’s theme
Loanwords and loan translations

This week’s words
machtpolitik
dogwatch
bridgehead
earworm
immiseration

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(DOG-wach)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A short watch, especially one of the two two-hour watch duties on a ship: 4-6 pm or 6-8 pm.
2. A night shift, especially the last one.

ETYMOLOGY:

Loan translation of either Dutch hondenwacht or German Hundewache. Perhaps from the assumption that only dogs are awake at night, or from the short sleep of a dog. Earliest documented use: 1657.

USAGE:

“One could have hardly dreamt up a more adequate or a more appropriate military partner than France. But [Scott] Morrison, who has spent but a dogwatch thinking about strategic issues and the arraignment of international power, did the French in, to ideologically console himself, preferring instead, the safety of the sweaty armpit of the United States. When should we stop clapping?”
Paul Keating; Relying on Japan, India Is a Mug’s Game; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Sep 29, 2021.

“At the end of the dog watch you ask yourself who’s more tired, you or the man you’re waking.”
Mirko Bonne (Translation: Alexander Starritt); Ice-Cold Heaven; Overlook Press; 2013.

See more usage examples of dogwatch in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: