16 October 2014

dragoon

[druh-goon]

noun
1. (especially formerly) a European cavalryman of a heavily armed troop.
2. a member of a military unit formerly composed of such cavalrymen, as in the British army.
3. (formerly) a mounted infantryman armed with a short musket.
verb (used with object)
4. to set dragoons or soldiers upon; persecute by armed force; oppress.
5. to force by oppressive measures; coerce:
The authorities dragooned the peasants into leaving their farms.

Origin
French
1615-1625; < French dragon, special use of dragon dragon, applied first to a pistol hammer (so named because of its shape), then to the firearm, then to the troops so armed

Related forms
dragoonage, noun
undragooned, adjective
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Today’s aphorism

By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.

– Oscar Wilde

On this day

16 October – Dictionary Day (in the U.S.A), coinciding with the birthday of Noah Webster (born 1758), creator of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language and known as the ‘Father of American Scholarship and Education’.

16 October 1834 – London’s House of Lords and House of Commons damaged by fire caused by an over-heating chimney flue during the destruction of tally sticks.

16 October 1854 – birth of Oscar Wilde, Irish writer and poet. Wilde wrote a number of plays, poems and epigrams. His only novel was ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. His plays included ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’, and ‘Salome’. In addition to English, he was fluent in German and French. In 1895, Wilde was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ which related to some of his homosexual relationships. He received the maximum sentence of two years hard labour. On his release from prison in 1897, Wilde moved to Paris, living in exile and poverty. He died on 30 November 1900 from cerebral meningitis. He was buried at Cimetière de Bagneux, but in 1909 his remains were transferred to Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

16 October 1962 – start of the Cuban Missile Crisis, known in Cuba as the October Crisis and in Russia as Kарибский кризис (Caribbean Crisis), one of the major events of the Cold War as it brought the world to the brink of nuclear conflict. It started when a USAF U-2 plane photographed evidence of Soviet air bases being constructed in Cuba on 14 October 1962. The U.S. considered bombing the bases, but ended up blockading Cuba, preventing Soviet weapons being delivered. Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev wrote to U.S. President John F. Kennedy, stating the blockade constituted an act of war. For 13 days, the Americans and Soviets conducted talks to resolve the crisis. On 28 October 1962, Kennedy and UN Secretary General U. Thant reached a public and secret agreement with Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets agreed to dismantle their weapons in Cuba, while the U.S. gave an agreement to never invade Cuba. Secretly, the U.S. agreed to dismantle its ballistic missiles in Turkey.