Misinterpretation of name of a Civil War bullet

[victor steinbok]

...or a Mickey ball...

VS-)

On 8/7/11, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Misinterpretation of name of a Civil War bullet
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>
> The moral's the same: don't get hit by a Minie ball.
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 12:23 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Misinterpretation of name of a Civil War bullet
>>
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>>
>> On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 8:21 PM, Dave Hause <dwhause at jobe.net> wrote:
>> > "dumdum" is slang for soft-point or hollow-point **jacketed** bullets
>> which are designed for controlled expansion
>>
>>
>> "The 'dum-dum [bullet]' was a British military bullet developed for
>> use in India - at the Dum-Dum Arsenal - on the North West Frontier in
>> the late 1890s.
>>
>> The [original] dum-dum [was] a jacketed .303[-calibre] bullet with the
>> jacket's _nose open_ to expose its lead core.  The aim was to improve
>> the bullet's effectiveness by increasing its expansion upon impact.
>>
>> The phrase 'dum-dum' was later taken to include any soft-nosed or
>> hollow pointed bullet.  The Hague Convention of 1899 outlawed the use
>> of dum-dum bullets during warfare."
>>
>> http://goo.gl/qXjfX
>>
>>
>> It's been written somewhere that this measure passed because it was
>> realized that the dum-dum was more likely to cause a wound with
>> immediately-fatal consequences than other types of bullets. Not good.
>> Dead soldiers are not a problem. But _wounded_ soldiers? For them, you
>> need a whole medical corps with doctors, nurses, medics, MASH's, etc.,
>> etc., etc.
>>
>> If you can make warfare a pain in the ass...
>>
>>
>> [to have one's] nose open "to be totally infatuated"
>>
>> --
>> -Wilson
>> -----
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> -Mark Twain
>>
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>>
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>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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