Hesco barrier
n.— «Iraq and Afghanistan are dangerous. Real dangerous. Mortars, RPGs, snipers and car bombs, you name it. Imagine you’re a soldier in the occupying army. How can you even sleep at night with all those munitions aimed at you? The answer: Hesco barriers. Take a collapsible wire-mesh and canvas screen and fill it with dirt, stack and repeat. For $700 per 5’x4’x3’ box, plus some muscle power, you’ve got yourself an instant castle wall that can absorb all but the biggest blast.» —“Danger Room: Top War Tech #10: Hesco Barriers” by David Axe Wired Blog Network May 29, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Colette Hiller’s Colossal Words for Kids: 75 Tremendous Words: Neatly Defined to Stick in the Mind (Bookshop|Amazon) uses clever rhymes to help children learn big, fun-to-say words like magnanimous, discombobulated, and acquiesce. This...
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...