A Russian cloud?
Posted by ESC on March 04, 2000 In Reply to: Russian word?? posted by ESC
on March 04, 2000
: : : I can't find the derivation of this title for this type
of missile. Any ideas? There's nothing that I can find in Britannica
oe Encarta.
: : Just an idea:
: : Norwegian skudda to push
: : Danish skyde to shoot, shove, push
: : Sorta missilish??
: I give up. "Speaking Freely: A Guided Tour of American English..."
by Stuart Berg Flexner & Anne H. Soukhanov has a "Scud" entry but
it doesn't give the origin of the term. I thought it was an abbreviation
(SCUD) but it is shown as "Scud." Maybe it's a Russian word. Here's
what was in the book: "Scud, a ballistic missile used by the Iraqis
against targets in both Saudi Arabia and Israel. Developed by the
Russians in the 1950s, it was a direct descendant of the German
V-2 used against allied cities in 1944-45. The Iraqis fired a total
of 81 Scuds. The U.S. countered with the Patriot Missile, soon sorted
to the Patriot."
Well, this isn't Russian, but "scud" is "(meteorological slang)
A low, fast-moving cloud." From "Slang: The Authoritative Topic-by-
Topic Dictionary..." by Paul Dickson (Pocket Books, New York, 1990,
1998).
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