[Ads-l] mustang
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Thu Mar 26 23:45:03 UTC 2020
"A commissioned officer who has been promoted from the ranks."
OED: 1931
1900 _Washington [D.C.] Bee_ (March 10) 5: A Second Lieutenant, who had got
his shoulder straps via the “mustang route” – that is, by promotion from
the ranks. … Gannon, unable to hold himself in any longer, had opened up on
the mustang and would have struck [him].
JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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