ERF
v.— «Today he tells The Observer of repeated assaults by Camp Delta’s punishment squad, known as the Extreme Reaction Force or ERF…Rasul said they led to a new verb being coined by detainees: “to be ERFed.” That, he said, meant being slammed against a floor by a soldier wielding a riot shield, pinned to the ground and beaten up by five armed men.» —“US guards ‘filmed beatings’ at terror camp” by David Rose, Gaby Hinsliff Observer (U.K.) May 16, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...