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Tuesday 14 February 2012

Entry: epaulets (n.)


In context: "...Schtitt still does favor those high and shiny black boots, and yes the epaulets, still, and now a weatherman's telescoping pointer that's a clear stand-in for the now-forbidden old riding crop..."

Definition:  A shoulder-piece; an ornament worn on the shoulder as part of a military, naval, or sometimes of a civil uniform. to win one's epaulets : (of a private soldier) to earn promotion to the rank of officer.

Other: Schtitt sounds like a border-line (at best) Fascist, and so I feel a certain guilt that I'd love to meet him, if he were a real person.  His total lack of irony strikes me.


A humorous etymology - épaule is French for shoulder, so presumably epaulet is little/small shoulder.


SNOOT score: 1

Page: 79
 
Source: Oxford English Dictionary



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