coin
n.— «Although Bill Kristol hails the surge as a triumph of “counterinsurgency strategy” in his Time piece, genuine experts say it’s anything but “strategy.” Counterinsurgency, or “coin” in military speak, is holistic. What’s happening in Iraq is anything but.» —“Counterinsurgency for Dummies – and Chickenhawks” by Briam Palmer Huffington Post Aug. 18, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Loretta in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to know what lexical and dialectal clues linguists look for when guessing where someone is from. She also wonders: Do people with long careers in the military or who grew up in a military family have a...
A hundred years ago, suffragists lobbied to win women the right to vote. Linguistically speaking, though, suffrage isn’t about “suffering.” It’s from a Latin word that involves voting. Plus: military cadences often include...
I wonder whether there might not be a missing hyphen there–“co-in”–or whether maybe it’s closed up through use to rhyme with “join”…