angel
n.— «Nomenclature has changed. In the beginning of the current Marine deployment that began in late March, members of the unit referred to HR (human remains) and KIAs (Killed in Action) as they examined bodies in five work areas and made detailed drawings of the wounds. “Somebody, I don’t know who, said let’s call them “angels,” and it just fit,” Patterson said. “That’s what we’re comfortable with: They’re our angels, going home.”» —“Unit Prepares Fallen Troops for the Journey Home; Marine mortuary unit performs the difficult duty of returning comrades’ remains” by Tony Perry in Taqaddum, Iraq Los Angeles Times May 23, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...
Floordrobe is the new word for an old habit: piling your clothes on the floor instead of putting them away. The Oxford English Dictionary recently added an entry for it, defining floordrobe as “an untidy heap of discarded clothing left on the floor...