reset button
n.— «Colin Powell put it well when he said that the 9-11 attacks “set the reset button” on U.S. foreign and military policies. This restructuring of the global disorder predated 9-11.» —“Bush’s War: Where is it going & What Should We Do About It?” by Joseph Gerson ZNet Mar. 18, 2002. (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...