"nose art"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED lacks this latter-day term for cartoons and inscriptions applied to the noses, engine cowlings, etc., of usu. military aircraft.

  I first encountered it in the title of Gary M. Valant's _Vintage Aircraft Nose Art_ (Osceola, Wis.: Motorbooks International, 1987). There are now innumerable Googlits.

  This is not a self-evident compound. It does not generally refer to the decoration of the human nose.

  JL


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