Siberian dilemma
n.— «One of the things that has happened is similar to what the military calls the Siberian dilemma. If you break through the ice, you have four minutes to live. If you pull out of the ice, in the frozen air you have two minutes—no good choice. Why you could say that the cuts were proportional, the impacts have been asymmetrical—rural sites have suffered disproportionally. The choice becomes core accreditation over community mission.» —in University of Alaska Retreat Notes, President’s Retreat For Staff Alliance Leaders (Anchorage, Alaska) Nov. 5, 1998. (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...