[Ads-l] discombobulator

[Jonathan Lighter]

Some pre-history:

1959 _Mayfield [Ky.] Messenger_ (Jan. 19) 3 [Newspapers.com]: Maj. Gen.
William M. Creasy, then chief of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps...used the
story to illustrate how secret new types of nerve gas - or "nerve
discombobulators," as he called them - might be used to subdue the enemy in
a conflict involving germ or chemical warfare.

1959 _Oakland [Calif.] Tribune_ (Jan. 21) 11: '*DISCOMBOBULATOR*' New Nerve
Gas Ends Will to Fight.

1987 _Buffalo [N.Y.] News_ (May 6) 8: The judge said the Army used a
"hallucinogen" on Blauer in search for a "potential 'discombobulator' of
enemy populations."

The word has also been used humorously to designate an imaginary machine
part, as of an automobile engine.  (Also "wobulator.")

JL

On Sun, Jan 25, 2026 at 9:35 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-claims-secret-discombobulator-weapon-130047410.html
> :
>
> President Donald Trump said the US used a weapon he referred to as a
> “discombobulator” to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro this
> month, but a senior US official said he’s likely conflating tools used by
> the US military.
>
> “The discombobulator, I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Trump told the
> New York Post in an interview that [was] published Saturday but added that
> it “made [enemy] equipment not work” during the capture.
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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